Not all immigrants stay in Germany, but migrate again. The main motives are occupational and residence reasons.
Many voices from politics and parts of the economy plead for even more immigration. The shortage of skilled workers is usually cited as an argument. However, many migrants leave Germany again, and some never planned to stay. This is shown by a recent study that examined both the reasons for immigration and return or onward migration in order to deduce how immigrants can be retained or won back.
For the study commissioned by the German Federal Employment Agency (BA), the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW) surveyed around 1,900 workers who had emigrated back from Germany via the social network Facebook at the end of 2021 and the end of 2022 until the beginning of this year. It is unclear how many skilled foreign workers are currently migrating again. However, according to the migration report from the Federal Office for Migration Protection, the so-called net outflow in 2020 was 200,000.
To understand why a person leaves, you need to know with what expectations they came. Of those surveyed by the Federal Employment Agency, most migrants came to Germany for work or for financial reasons. Educational goals follow at some distance, and family interests and the desire for security also play a role.
Complex reasons for emigration from Germany
Did you not find all this in Germany and therefore left the Federal Republic? According to the study, the reasons for immigration and emigration must be seen in context. A quarter of the surveyed workers from third countries left Germany for reasons of residence. Another quarter of those surveyed gave professional reasons, such as the end of a temporary job, the onset of unemployment or because the professional qualification acquired in their home country was not recognized.
The third most frequent statement, however, is that the emigration or onward migration was planned from the outset. Foreign skilled workers also leave Germany again because they do not feel safe here or have completed their training or studies. As far as the length of stay in Germany is concerned, employees with helper jobs stay the shortest. This is usually because they have few opportunities for advancement there. Other immigrants do not find a job at all and therefore leave the country.
In addition, various economic and individual factors influence the length of stay, including housing that is too expensive, the cost of living that is too high, unrealizable family reunification, lack of integration and also completed asset accumulation. Often, several motives are decisive at the same time for immigrants to leave Germany again.
Various hurdles for immigrants
Employment prospects and integration are also often hampered by a lack of language skills. More than half of those surveyed had not taken a language course before or immediately after immigrating. One in two immigrants found it rather difficult to find their way around after arriving in Germany, and one in five found it very difficult. This applies above all to dealing with the authorities, but also to the mentality, which differs from that of the country of origin. Two-thirds of the highly qualified professionals from non-European countries also said they had been discriminated against in Germany.
Despite the problems, respondents say they were more satisfied in all relevant areas of life in this country than in their country of origin, especially with regard to salary and employee rights. In fact, almost two-thirds of foreign professionals answered in the affirmative to the question of whether they would like to come back here. However, the higher the level of work performed in Germany, the lower the willingness to return. Those who have worked in manual jobs in Germany are the most likely to want to return.
What the experts recommend
Vanessa Ahuja, the BA board member responsible for international business, believes that Germany needs more foreign labor and skilled workers to keep the labor market functioning well. She advocates establishing faster, less bureaucratic procedures in the planned reform of skilled labor immigration and stresses the need for a social consensus to welcome and integrate workers from third countries.
According to the study’s authors, measures to keep immigrants in Germany include improved access to language courses, better provision of information related to everyday life, and information and training opportunities to create more transparency about working conditions, labor rights and opportunities for advancement. This would apply in particular to those working here in the helper segment in order to retain them as qualified professionals in the medium term. In addition, the BA’s counseling and placement services should also cover immigrants who need or want to reorient themselves professionally, since breaks in working life are often the reason for emigration.
Source: Personalwirtschaft.de – 30.01.2023 – https://www.personalwirtschaft.de/news/recruiting/warum-eingewanderte-wieder-gehen-147477/