Turkish women and men make up the majority in mixed-nationality couples in Germany, according to Germany's Federal Statistics Office, Destatis.

In a report published yesterday, Destatis said that the proportion of couples with a German national and a foreign national more than doubled since 1996. The data shows there were some 1.5 million mixed-nationality heterosexual couples registered in Germany in 2017 - around 7 percent of all heterosexual couples.Female partners of German men were mainly Turkish at 14 percent and it was followed by Polish and Russian partners. Similarly, male partners of German women were mostly Turkish at 19 percent, Italians at 12 percent and Austrian at 7 percent.

Germany has a 3 million-strong Turkish community, many of whom are second- and third-generation German-born citizens of Turkish descent whose grandparents moved to the country during the 1960s.

Turks have been victims of racist attacks including serial murders by neo-Nazi National Socialist Underground (NSU) gang as well as attacks by the terrorist group PKK and arson attacks on Turkish mosques. Yet, they are hailed as a "well-integrated" group by Germany.

As in Germany, German husbands make the majority of partners for Turkish women married to foreigners though most of those husbands are of Turkish origin.