By Deba Ahmadi
For many Afghans who migrated to Germany after 2021, crossing a border has not meant leaving their relationships, culture, memories, and responsibilities behind. Instead, their lives continue to connect Afghanistan and Germany in complex ways. But what does it mean to build a new life in Germany while remaining deeply connected to Afghanistan? Can Afghan migrants develop a sense of belonging in Germany without losing their cultural identity and relationships with the people they left behind? Does migration require people to choose between their past and their future, or is it possible to belong to more than one place at the same time?
Germany has become one of the most important destinations for Afghan refugees and migrants in Europe. The country’s significance as a destination for Afghans has developed through decades of conflict, political instability, and displacement from Afghanistan. The period following 2015 saw a significant increase in the number of Afghans seeking asylum in Germany, while the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 created another major wave of displacement. Many Afghans sought protection and attempted to reach Germany through different legal and irregular pathways. The German government also introduced special admission and relocation measures for Afghans considered particularly at risk, including people involved in human rights and women’s rights, as well as individuals facing persecution because of their identity or previous activities.
The Afghan population arriving in Germany after 2021 is diverse. Many recent arrivals are young, and a considerable number have secondary or university-level education and professional backgrounds, including experience in education, engineering, healthcare, and public administration. These characteristics are important because the experiences of Afghans arriving after 2021 cannot be understood simply through statistics or the number of refugees. Behind these numbers are people with different educational backgrounds, professional experiences, family circumstances, and migration histories who are seeking safety and security for themselves and their families.
For many Afghan migrants, arrival in Germany does not mean leaving Afghanistan completely behind. Family members, friends, cultural practices, memories, and responsibilities continue to connect them to their country of origin. These connections are part of what migration scholars describe as transnational relationships. Afghan migrants may maintain regular communication with family members in Afghanistan, provide financial or emotional support, participate in Afghan community networks, and remain connected to relatives and friends living in other countries. These relationships can remain an important part of everyday life even after migration. A person may build a new life in Germany while continuing to speak with family members in Afghanistan. They may study or work in Germany while supporting relatives abroad. They may participate in German society while maintaining Afghan cultural practices and relationships. In this sense, migration does not necessarily replace one social environment with another. Instead, migrants may continue to live socially and emotionally across borders.
At the same time, building relationships within German society requires time and effort. Becoming an immigrant and settling into another country is not an easy process. Language, cultural differences, social inequalities, employment, education, neighbourhoods, friendships, and everyday interactions can all influence how migrants experience their new environment. However, it’s important to mention that the vulnerability of immigrants is far beyond that. For instance, Research conducted between November 2023 and April 2024 found that Afghan immigrants in Germany reported discrimination in areas such as housing, public offices, and healthcare. More than half of those surveyed also believed that German policies did not sufficiently consider the interests and needs of the Afghan community.
Nevertheless, many respondents reported feeling welcome in Germany and developing a stronger connection to the country over time. Research on Afghan immigrants in Germany suggests that these processes develop gradually. Recent arrivals often have more limited social contacts in Germany, while those who have lived in the country for longer periods tend to develop more frequent social interactions. This suggests that relationships with the host society are not created immediately after arrival but can develop gradually through language learning, education, employment, neighbourhoods, friendships, and participation in community life. These experiences raise an important question: how can Afghan migrants maintain strong connections with Afghanistan while also developing a sense of belonging in Germany?
Transnational Connections in Co-existence with Integration
Adapting to German society does not necessarily require Afghan migrants to abandon their cultural identity. Instead, migrants may preserve important aspects of Afghan culture while becoming familiar with and adapting to the social and cultural environment of Germany. Afghan migrants may encounter language barriers, cultural differences, and social inequalities when interacting with German society. These differences can sometimes create misunderstandings and make social participation more difficult. However, interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds can also create opportunities for learning, understanding, and connection. Maintaining Afghan culture and engaging in German society may coexist rather than being mutually exclusive.
That said, Afghan migrants should not be viewed as a single, homogeneous group with one fixed identity. Their experiences may differ according to age, gender, ethnicity, education, migration history, legal status, family circumstances, and the social environments in which they live. These differences may shape how migrants maintain relationships, cultural practices, and emotional connections with Afghanistan while simultaneously establishing new social relationships and a sense of belonging in Germany. For some Afghan migrants, being Afghan may remain an important part of their identity, while they simultaneously develop new identities through education, employment, friendships, and participation in German society. A person can remain connected to Afghan culture while learning German, working in Germany, building friendships with people from different backgrounds, and becoming increasingly familiar with German society.
Integration is a multidimensional process through which migrants develop social, cultural, and economic connections within the host society. For Afghan migrants, this process can occur alongside the maintenance of meaningful relationships with Afghanistan. From this perspective, integration and transnational connections are not mutually exclusive; rather, they can coexist. Migrants can develop new forms of belonging in Germany while simultaneously maintaining relationships, cultural practices, and identities shaped by their experiences before migration.
This means that transnational connections and integration do not necessarily have to be viewed as opposing processes. An Afghan migrant can maintain close relationships with family members in Afghanistan while developing relationships in Germany. They can preserve cultural traditions while adapting to a new social environment. They can remain emotionally connected to Afghanistan while gradually developing a sense of belonging in Germany, while simultaneously developing meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging in Germany.
The experiences of Afghan migrants suggest that people can develop connections to Germany without completely losing their connections to Afghanistan. Their identities can encompass diverse cultural, social, and personal experiences simultaneously. Rather than asking whether migrants have left their country of origin behind, it may be more useful to ask how they negotiate relationships, identity, and belonging across different places.
This perspective also matters for how migration and integration are understood. Policies and programmes should recognize that migrants do not arrive without histories, relationships, and identities. Afghan migrants bring family responsibilities, cultural knowledge, professional experiences, memories, and social connections with them, all of which can shape how they interact with German society and understand their place within it. The relatively large share of Afghan migrants who arrived after 2021, many of whom are young and have educational and professional backgrounds, also highlights the importance of recognizing their potential contribution to German society. Reports indicate that 45% have completed secondary education and 32% hold university degrees, with many possessing expertise in fields such as engineering, public health, and public administration. These figures suggest that Afghan migrants should not be viewed merely as recipients of aid and support, but also as individuals with skills, knowledge, and social capital that can contribute to Germany’s future.
This has direct implications for integration policy. Access to language learning, education, employment, recognition of qualifications and professional skills, and social participation should not be understood only as forms of assistance, but also as ways of enabling migrants to use and develop their existing capacities. At the same time, policies should recognize that participation in German society does not necessarily require migrants to abandon their cultural and transnational connections. For Afghan migrants who arrived after 2021, Afghanistan may remain connected to family, memories, culture, language, and personal history, while Germany may increasingly become connected to safety, education, employment, friendships, and future opportunities. These connections do not necessarily have to cancel each other out.
The broader implication is that integration policy should move beyond the assumption that integration requires migrants to choose between their past and their future, or between their country of origin and their receiving society. Instead, policies can create conditions in which migrants are able to participate fully in German society while maintaining meaningful relationships across borders. This means understanding integration not simply as migrants’ adaptation to German society, but as a process also shaped by the opportunities that institutions and communities create for participation, intercultural interaction, and belonging.
The question, therefore, is not simply whether Afghan migrants can integrate into German society. It is also about how they create belonging while maintaining relationships across borders, how intercultural interactions shape their identities, and how their connections with Afghanistan influence their lives in Germany. For many Afghan migrants, belonging may not mean choosing between Afghanistan and Germany. Recognizing this form of multiple and transnational belonging can contribute to a more realistic and inclusive understanding of integration, with implications not only for Afghan migrants but for migration policy more broadly.
Deba Ahmadi is a human rights and international law researcher with an academic background in law and a particular interest in migration, forced displacement, human rights, and the experiences of Afghan migrants. Her research interests include migration and integration, transnational relationships, intercultural communication, identity, and belonging. Through her academic and professional experiences, she has developed a strong interest in understanding how displaced people rebuild their lives while maintaining social, cultural, and family connections across borders. Her work particularly focuses on Afghan communities and how migration shape’s identity, relationships, and belonging.
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