Every third international wants to leave Germany, DeZIM study finds

While the German government has acknowledged the country’s increasing dependence on migrant labour, its migration policy is becoming more draconian. Now, according to a report by DeZIM, a significant proportion of international people already living in Germany are considering leaving.

DeZIM: One in three migrants want to leave Germany

According to a new study published by DeZIM, 34 percent of people who have migrated to and still live in Germany are considering leaving. Among second or third-generation migrants, 37 percent are considering leaving. Among Germans without a recent migration background, just 17 percent are considering leaving.

The study surveyed 2.933 people between summer 2024 and summer 2025, asking each person five times over the course of the year about living in Germany and potential plans to leave. People who emigrated from Turkey, western Asia and North Africa, or whose families emigrated from these countries and regions to Germany, were the most likely to be considering leaving Germany. 

Among all respondents, 51 percent said their motivations for leaving would be finding a higher quality of life. Among respondents who had personally immigrated to Germany, 18 percent said discrimination they faced in the federal republic was a motivation to leave. Among people with a recent migration background, 24 percent said discrimination was a motivation to leave.

Of people without a recent migration background who were considering leaving Germany, just 5 percent said the discrimination they face in Germany was their main motivation. Overall, just 2 percent of respondents said that they had concrete plans to leave.

More people considered leaving in election run-up

Surveying the same 2.933 people five times during the one-year period, researchers said that the number of people considering leaving Germany stayed relatively steady, apart from during the run-up to the federal election in February 2025.

The DeZIM researchers explained that in these weeks, the percentage of residents who personally immigrated to Germany, or have a recent migration background and were considering leaving Germany, increased by 10 percent. What happened in those weeks?

After Germany’s SPD-FDP-Greens coalition collapsed in November 2024 and a federal election was called for February 2025, polls consistently predicted a win for the conservative CDU and significant gains for the far-right AfD. In January 2025, CDU leader Friedrich Merz made election promises which, until then, would have been more commonly heard coming out of the mouths of AfD politicians.

Merz said he would solve Germany’s migration “problem”, “stop illegal immigration”, turn people away at the border, introduce unlimited detention for criminals and “dangerous people” awaiting deportation, introduce permanent border controls, end family reunification schemes, give the federal police more power and scrap the fast-track German citizenship law. 

Many pointed out that parts of Merz’s plan were unlikely to be compatible with EU and international asylum law. Nonetheless, on January 29, the would-be chancellor brought two non-legally binding motions to the Bundestag floor, proposing stricter immigration and domestic security laws.

Merz’s decision wasn’t only significant because the motions passed, but because he accepted support from AfD politicians to pass them, and as such, did not uphold the “firewall” (Brandmauer) agreement. The Brandmauer is a long-standing agreement between Germany’s democratic parties that they will not cooperate with extremist parties.

The AfD has strong ties to neo-Nazi groups, has voiced plans to “remigrate” German citizens and residents with a recent migrant background (over 25 percent of the national population) and is currently being considered by the German high court to determine whether its policies are compatible with the German constitution and democratic law.

All this is to say that in January and February 2025, international people living in Germany were contending with the fact that the incoming chancellor seemed dedicated to making Germany a more hostile place for migrants and proved he was willing to work with a party with neo-Nazi ties. Evidently, sticking around seemed much less appealing in such circumstances.