More than 17,000 asylum seekers in Germany have filed lawsuits against the government aimed at getting their families to join them leaving courts struggling to cope.

And now it is feared the legal action will open the floodgates to a new wave of mass immigration into the country.

It comes as many in Germany say the social fabric is already at breaking point in many places and the fear of violence with natives is a real danger.

More than 17,000 asylum seekers in Germany have filed lawsuits against the government aimed at getting their families to join them in the country. Pictured are migrants lining up at a temporary shelter in Giessen last year

The migrants are seeking a change to their subsidiary protection status in Germany which can delay family reunification by two years.

This wave of litigation is rolling through the country's administrative courts.

In the first eight months of this year over 17,000 cases were filed, 6,000 of them in August alone, with 15,000 of the claims by Syrians.

It is believed that judges are more likely to uphold their complaints in 90 per cent of cases, affording them 'superior protection' in accordance with the Geneva Convention on refugees.

The protection status has significant implications for refugees.

The majority of them who live with only subsidiary protection in Germany have to wait at least two years before applying for a spouse or children to join them.

The affected asylum seekers have only to claim persecution due to religion, belonging to an ethnic group or belonging to a particular political group to change their status.

And as a result, there are hundreds of lawyers willing to represent them in court.

In the first eight months of this year over 17,000 cases were filed, 6,000 of them in August alone, with 15,000 of the claims by Syrians. Pictured are migrants at a refugee centre in Frankfurt

Combined with the thousands of rejected migrants fighting deportation orders, observers say the German justice system could be mired in costly refugee-related litigation for a decade to come.

Those opposed to increases in the numbers of refugees coming to Germany point to flashpoints where integration simply isn't working.

In Chemnitz last month neo-Nazis hunted a group of immigrants through the streets of the city while this week in picturesque Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria the mayor appealed for help in handling 250 refugees whose behaviour is said to be out of control.

After an influx of almost 900,000 migrants last year, some Germans fear their country is being overrun by foreigners.