Chancellor Friedrich Merz sparked widespread controversy with his statement that around 80 percent of Syrians living in Germany should return to their home country within three years. Reactions range from approval to harsh criticism. The AfD sees its demand for “remigration” confirmed. The SPD as a coalition partner has so far kept a low profile in this discussion and has refused to take a clear position.
Merz justified his statement by pointing out that the return was the wish of the Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa. However, he immediately made it clear that it was not he, but the Chancellor himself who brought this number into the discussion.
Merz’s statement is remarkable: it stands in stark contrast to his economic policy rhetoric. Merz never tires of complaining about the Germans’ lack of work ethic and calling on people to work more. At the same time, he wants to remove 320,000 Syrian workers from the German labor market – plus tens of thousands who are currently undergoing training and qualifications.
Who exactly does Friedrich Merz mean when he speaks of 80 percent of Syrians in Germany? According to the microcensus, around 1.22 million people with a Syrian immigrant background were living in the Federal Republic at the end of 2024. Around a quarter of them now have German citizenship, and 83,200 Syrians were naturalized in 2024 alone. About 944,000 still had Syrian citizenship at the end of 2025. At the end of 2023, around 712,000 Syrians seeking protection were registered, a number that is expected to have risen to an estimated 800,000 by the end of 2024. By the 80 percent, Merz probably means those with protected status. If he applied the number to all Syrian nationals, Syrians would also have to leave the country. who have a residence permit, work permit or even German citizenship.
Hard to imagine logistically and humanely
And how does the Chancellor plan to organize the departure of more than 700,000 people within three years? Only a few are willing to voluntarily return to a destroyed country with no prospects, not even if they were paid a lot of money. Between January and November 2025, only just under 3,700 Syrians returned voluntarily with state support. Deportation is hardly conceivable, both logistically and from the perspective of human dignity – or does Merz have images in mind of the US immigration authorities ICE in American cities?
What would repatriation mean for those affected? For many it would mean losing their new home, children would be torn out of school, people from their neighborhoods, and hundreds of thousands would lose their jobs. People would have to return to a destroyed country with no prospect of a secure livelihood. They would have to subject themselves to violence, insecurity and poverty again. Also for Syria Even this would not be manageable in the foreseeable future – the Syrian interim president also indirectly admits this. The government in Damascus is already unable to guarantee basic food supplies, health and safety for the country’s population.
What is almost completely lost in the political debate is the perspective of those affected themselves. Since the Chancellor’s statement, almost a million people – parents, children, trainees, employees – have been living in acute uncertainty about whether Germany can remain their home in the long term. Many of them have built up lives here, acquired degrees, found a job, made a career, had and raised children, and many have even founded companies and become employers themselves. The 80 percent announcement devalues this life’s achievement with a single sentence – and sends the signal that integration in Germany is apparently not a reliable basis for belonging.
What would such an exodus mean for Germany’s responsibility in the world? Some argue that Germany has done more than its part by taking in the refugees and that the long-term prospects of the Syrians are not part of this responsibility. But can we really make it so easy for ourselves and only see our responsibility within our boundaries?
The answer is: no! Germany has always committed itself to global obligations. It has long been committed to 0.7 percent of economic output should be spent on official development aid. Although this goal was mathematically achieved between 2020 and 2023, a significant part of this was accounted for by offsetting domestic refugee costs. Without this allocation, the quota in 2024 was only 0.55 percent of gross national income. And the trend continues to worsen: The development ministry’s budget was cut from 11.2 billion euros (2024) to 10.3 billion euros (2025) and around 10 billion euros (2026) – a decline of more than ten percent within two years. In comparison, the company car privilege alone costs the state between 3.5 and 6 billion euros annually in reduced tax revenue, depending on estimates. So it’s hard to argue Germany is financially overwhelmed by its international obligations.