For the first time in over 25 years, more people are moving from Germany to Poland than vice versa

According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, 90,807 people moved from Germany to Poland in 2024, while 82,082 moved from Poland to Germany. The so-called "migration path," which had continuously moved in one direction since the 1980s, appears to have come to an end for now and changed its vector.

"Not that many people are returning to Poland. The real change is that significantly fewer people are moving from Poland to Germany,"

— explains Bastian Sendhardt, a political scientist from the Berlin office of the German Institute for Poland. — "Although emigration from Germany to Poland has slightly increased, a much more significant factor contributing to the negative balance is that the inflow of people from Poland is simply decreasing."

In 2024, Polish citizens constituted 6.6% of Germany's foreign working-age population — the third-largest group of foreigners after Turks and Ukrainians. In 2024, net immigration for this group decreased for the first time since the introduction of free movement of labor in 2011 — net migration fell from a positive 15,000 to a negative 11,000 people.

According to data from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), about 30.7% of Poles residing in Germany are considering leaving the country. About 4.1% already have concrete plans to leave — of these, 68% want to return to Poland, especially among young people under 35.

So what is the reason for these changes? Sendhardt describes it as two parallel processes: "On the one hand, the pull factors that make Germany attractive have diminished. On the other hand, the push factors encouraging people to emigrate from Poland have decreased."

This aligns with IAB survey data: Poles cite the general economic situation in Germany (57.7%), the political situation (56.0%), high taxes (45.9%), and expensive bureaucracy (38.0%) as the main reasons for a potential departure from Germany.

In Poland, Germany's image has changed, Sendhardt notes: "For a long time, Germany was a country people looked upon with admiration. The weather or sense of humor might not be great there, but you could earn decent money, and infrastructure projects worked. Today, this image no longer withstands criticism. Promises of prosperity no longer hold true in Germany."

At the same time, Poland is developing rapidly. The country is currently the sixth-largest economy in the EU, and its economic growth last year was 3.2%, with forecasts for 2026 even higher. While Germany showed a record year this decade with 2.7% growth — eight years ago — Poland regularly grew by approximately five percent per year.

Looking at the labor market, the picture also looks different than a generation ago: Poland's unemployment rate in February 2026 was 3.2%, making it one of the lowest in the entire EU. In Germany, this figure is 4.0%, and the EU average is 5.9%.

Sendhardt speaks of a change in mentality: "There is now a completely different spirit in Poland when it comes to looking at the future. While residents of Poland believe that tomorrow will be better than today, residents of Germany tend to think that tomorrow will be worse. Anyone traveling by train from Germany to Warsaw arrives in a city where the digitalization of everyday life is much more developed than here."

Since 2022, Poland has offered tax breaks for repatriates. As part of the so-called "Ulga na Powrót" (return relief), people who have lived abroad for at least three years can claim an income tax relief of 85,528 zlotys (approximately 19,700 euros) per year for four consecutive years. Together with the general Polish tax-free allowance, repatriates can earn up to 115,000 zlotys (approximately 26,500 euros) per year without paying taxes.

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