Reading these numbers, it is hard to shake the feeling that something fundamental is being overlooked in Germany’s public debate. According to a study by the German Center for Integration and Migration Research, 21 percent of people living in Germany say they are thinking about emigrating. Even among those without any migration background, the share is still 17 percent. When roughly every fifth resident considers leaving, this is not a marginal mood swing or a temporary irritation, it is a persistent signal that confidence in the country’s future is eroding for a significant part of society.
The gap between groups is particularly striking. Among people who themselves migrated to Germany, 34 percent say they are considering leaving the country again. Among their children and grandchildren, the figure is even higher at 37 percent. At the same time, only 2 percent of all respondents say they have concrete plans to emigrate within the next year. This contrast suggests that the issue is not short-term mobility but long-term dissatisfaction that has not yet translated into immediate action.
Looking more closely at origins, the intention to leave is most common among people with family ties to Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa, where 39 percent consider emigrating. Among people from the former Soviet Union, the share is 31 percent, and among those who moved to Germany from other EU countries it stands at 28 percent. These are not marginal groups, and the consistency of these figures points to structural rather than individual problems.
As for motivations, around half of those who think about emigrating cite the hope for a better life as the main reason. Among people with a migration background, experiences of discrimination are mentioned particularly often, indicating that economic expectations and social recognition are closely intertwined. The study itself is based on interviews with 2,933 people conducted between the summer of 2024 and the summer of 2025, with the survey repeated five times to account for fluctuations. Over this entire period, the results remained largely stable, with one notable exception: in February 2025, shortly before the early federal elections, the share of people with a migration background who wanted to leave jumped by 10 percentage points.
Against this backdrop, another figure adds to the unease. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 1.2 million people left Germany in 2024. Yet while immigration has been the subject of heated and continuous debate for years, the fact that large numbers of people regularly emigrate from Germany receives far less public attention. Taken together, these statistics describe less a sudden wave of departure and more a slow, structural loss of confidence, one that cannot be addressed with slogans or tougher rhetoric, because it is rooted in everyday experiences, political signals, and long-term expectations rather than immediate plans.
