Germany’s Syrians are in no rush to leave their sought-after workforce Reuters

Riham Alcousa and Maria Martinez

BERLIN (Reuters) – It took just hours after the fall of Bashar al-Assad for some German politicians to start suggesting it was time for Germany’s million Syrians – many of them refugees from the 2015 war – to consider returning home.

But many of these same Syrians have built lives in Germany and have no intention of returning. Employers, unions and business associations are now speaking out to emphasize how much they are needed in a German economy facing severe labor shortages.

“It is absolutely incomprehensible to me to tell people who are employed that they should go back to Syria,” said Ulrich Temps, managing director of the paint and varnish company.

“We have taken on the task of training them and turning them into skilled workers,” Temps told Reuters of the 12 Syrians he has hired as part of his nationwide workforce of 530.

One of them is Mohamed Redatotonji, who came to Germany in November 2015 as a Syrian refugee. He now lives in the northern city of Hanover with his wife, who later joined him through the family reunification program, and their three children.

“I was integrated here in Germany and I completed my training here,” said Redatotoni, who had just finished high school when he left Syria. “I see my future here.

Former chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to take in more than one million asylum seekers, mostly from Syria, was immediately controversial in Germany and some blamed it for contributing to the rise of the far-right AfD party.

Since then, Germany has also taken in more than 1.2 million refugees from Ukraine, while its economy is expected to contract for the second consecutive year in 2024, the worst among the G7 countries.

Migration is now the second most pressing concern of Germans ahead of federal elections in February 2025, behind the economy.

In a bid to reduce the appeal of the far right, some mainstream German politicians have even proposed paying for Syrians’ flights home. Meanwhile, Syrians’ asylum applications are pending.

Germany’s likely next chancellor, conservative Friedrich Mertz, said the fall of Assad could be an opportunity for Syrians to return, but that it was too early to make any decisions.

While around 500,000 remain unemployed – including mothers with children – Syrians have helped ease labor pressures, with half of companies struggling to fill vacancies, according to the DIHK Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Some 43,000 Syrians are employed in the manufacturing sector, which, until the recent slowdown, had long been a key driver of growth. One is Salah Sadek, a firmware developer at automotive and industrial company Continental.

Sadek, whose wife earned a doctorate in Germany, said his children would have to change their language and education system if they returned.

He did not rule out the possibility of ever returning to his hometown of Damascus, but added: “We need at least five years to wait to get more clarity on the situation in Syria.”

Data from the Institute for Employment Research think tank shows that the longer someone has been in Germany, the more likely they are to have a job, with an employment rate of over 60% for those present for more than six years.

They are also less likely to want to leave, and the role they play in the local economy and community is more visible.

“We must not squander these integration successes,” said Suzi Mobeck, the integration commissioner in the northeastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. “Businesses, clinics and care facilities depend on Syrian workers.”

About 10,000 Syrians work in German hospitals, making them the largest group of foreign doctors in Germany, according to the Syrian Society of Physicians and Pharmacists in Germany.

“If large numbers left the country, the provision of care would not collapse, but there would be noticeable gaps,” said Gerald Gass, president of the German Hospital Federation (DKG).

On a Facebook group (NASDAK:) for Syrian doctors in Germany, a quick poll on the day of Assad’s fall found that 74 percent of the 1,200 respondents said they were considering a permanent return. A poll three days later found that 65 percent of 1,159 said returning would depend on conditions in the country.

When Sandy Issa, a 36-year-old gynecologist at a clinic in Berlin, heard of Assad’s fall, she wished she could celebrate in Homs, her hometown.

“We want to be in our country, but to think about a permanent return … I believe it is too early,” she said.