Following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria at the end of 2024, migration flows between Germany and Syria have shifted significantly. Data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) show that from January to September 2025, around 40,000 Syrians migrated to Germany, a steep 46.5% decrease compared with 74,600 in the same period of 2024. At the same time, departures rose by more than one-third, with 21,800 Syrians leaving Germany, up 35.3% from the previous year.
As a result, net migration dropped sharply to 18,100 people, less than a third of 2024’s total of 58,500. These figures reflect only citizenship and do not indicate asylum status or personal reasons for migration. The decline in arrivals and increase in departures suggest that the changing situation in Syria has affected migration behavior, a pattern also reflected in asylum trends both in Germany and across the European Union.
From January to September 2025, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) registered approximately 19,200 first-time asylum applications from Syrian nationals, a sharp 67% decrease compared with 58,400 in the same period of 2024. Despite this decline, Syrians remained the largest nationality group among asylum seekers, accounting for 21.9% of the 87,800 first-time asylum requests filed in Germany in 2025.
Across the European Union, similar trends emerged. Between January and July 2025, 26,200 Syrians applied for asylum, down 68.8% from the previous year’s 84,100. Syria thus ranked third among countries of origin, behind Venezuela and Afghanistan. Of these EU-wide applications, Germany received 61%, around 16,000, underscoring its continued central role in Syrian asylum protection. Overall, the EU recorded 396,700 asylum applications from non-EU nationals during this period, marking a 27% annual decrease.
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), between December 2024 and September 2025, around one million refugees worldwide and 1.8 million internally displaced people returned to their homes in Syria following the regime’s collapse. However, challenges remain immense: over 4.5 million Syrians continue to live abroad as refugees, while more than seven million remain displaced within the country.
At the end of 2024, Germany’s Central Register of Foreigners (AZR) listed about 713,000 Syrians as protection seekers, making them the second-largest group after Ukrainians. Nearly half of them arrived before or during 2016, and 12% were born in Germany, indicating growing generational roots.
Most Syrians, around 90% or 642,200 people, held recognized humanitarian residence permits, including 247,700 with refugee status under the Geneva Convention and 295,700 with subsidiary protection. Another 9% were awaiting decisions on their asylum claims, while 1% had been rejected. The majority of these protections were temporary, covering 92% of approved cases.
Beyond current protection seekers, Germany is home to an estimated 1.22 million people with Syrian roots, according to the 2024 Microcensus. About 81% immigrated themselves, while 19% were born in Germany to Syrian parents. Roughly one in four (24%) now holds German citizenship, often through naturalization. In 2024 alone, 83,200 Syrians were naturalized, making up 28% of all German citizenship grants that year.
The largest Syrian communities are found in North Rhine-Westphalia (363,000 residents), followed by Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, and Bavaria, each hosting around 10%.
The Syrian population in Germany is notably young, with an average age of 26.6 years, compared to 38.2 years among all people with migration backgrounds. Men make up 57% of this group, women 43%, and 59% are unmarried.
Among 845,000 working-age Syrians (15–64 years), 46% are employed, 8% unemployed, and 47% not in the labor force, often because they are still in education or training. About 17% are enrolled in school or vocational programs, compared to 10–11% in other population groups. Educational attainment varies: 23% hold professional qualifications, including 105,000 university graduates, while 59% lack formal vocational training and 17% remain in education or training.
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