Fewer Syrians move to Germany as departures nearly match arrivals

Arrivals fall sharply

The Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden said on Monday, 9 November 2026, that registration offices recorded about 23,800 arrivals of Syrian nationals from January to September 2026. That is 40.6% fewer than the roughly 40,100 counted in the same period of 2025. Before the government of Bashar al-Assad fell in December 2024, the January to September 2024 figure stood at roughly 74,600. The figures are preliminary and record nationality rather than reasons for flight. The statistics office put the shift plainly.

“Even in the second year after the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, significantly fewer Syrians moved to Germany than in the same period last year.”

Jan-Sep 202474,600

Jan-Sep 202540,100

Jan-Sep 202623,800

Jan-Sep 2024

74600 people

Jan-Sep 2025

40100 people

Jan-Sep 2026

23800 people

Data from the article text

Departures nearly match arrivals

Departures in the same nine months reached about 23,700, a rise of 7.6% on the year before. Berliner Zeitung puts the resulting net gain at under 100 people. Over all of 2025, the statistics office counted about 20,300 more arrivals than departures, so the balance has moved sharply in a single year. Return movements are also large. Citing the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Berliner Zeitung reports an estimated 1.8 million Syrians had returned from neighbouring countries by the end of August 2026, and more than two million internally displaced people had gone back to their home areas, often in difficult conditions. A separate Turkish-language report gives 1.3 million refugees returned to Syria, citing the UN refugee agency, and the sources do not reconcile the two estimates.

Arrivals Jan-Sep 202623,800

Departures Jan-Sep 202623,700

Arrivals Jan-Sep 2026

23800 people

Departures Jan-Sep 2026

23700 people

Data from the article text

Asylum claims and citizenship

First asylum applications by Syrians fell about 65% in January to September 2026, to 6,700. Syrians still form the second-largest group of first applicants at 12.9% of the total, behind Afghans at 24.6%. Naturalisations moved the other way. The statistics office said 65,800 Syrians received German citizenship in 2025, 19.7% of all naturalisations and the largest group. The microcensus counts about 1.28 million people with a Syrian migration background in Germany, 30% of whom hold German citizenship and 19% of whom were born in the country.

“In 2025 alone, 65,800 Syrian nationals were naturalised.”

Protection status and security

The central register of foreigners (AZR) recorded 668,700 Syrian protection seekers in Germany at the end of 2025. They made up 21% of all protection seekers and were the second-largest group behind Ukrainians. Of them, 88.8% held a humanitarian residence permit and with it a recognised protection status, while 10% still had an undetermined status and 1.2% had a rejected asylum application but remained in Germany. The Federal Foreign Office continues to advise against travel to Syria, pointing to attacks with dead and injured, including in central Damascus in summer 2026. Berliner Zeitung's commentary argues that protection decisions should be made case by case, since the need for protection of threatened minorities or politically persecuted people may persist even without Assad in power. It also faults the federal government for avoiding the issue.