Germany is experiencing a new migration conundrum. While judges are overwhelmed by tens of thousands of new appeals against asylum decisions, only a handful of Syrians—fewer than 2,000 out of nearly one million living in the country—have requested official assistance to return to their homeland, despite the fall of Bashar al-Assad having been celebrated as the condition that would make their return possible.
The first half of 2025 brought a record number, 76,646 lawsuits by migrants initiated before administrative courts, more than in all of 2023 (71,885) and three-quarters of the 2024 level. Densely populated states such as North Rhine-Westphalia (13,304), Bavaria (11,412), and Lower Saxony (over 11,000) account for much of this surge.
