Migration Narratives and Demographic Potentials

•  Demographic change poses significant labor market and social policy challenges in Germany, which is why migration is increasingly communicated as a central solution. At the same time, public debates are dominated by narratives that emphasize the risks associated in particular with new migration. The project engages with a utilitarian, migration-affirming narrative that frames migration as a response to demographic aging and labor shortages, while so far insufficiently taking migrant perspectives into account.
• The project examines how the societal discourse on demographic change and migration can be further developed in a more differentiated way and more strongly oriented toward the existing potential of the post-migrant society. Central to the project is the question of how people with an immigration background are perceived by society at large in the context of demographic change and which narratives shape these perceptions. The project examines different perspectives and interpretive patterns among selected groups, identifies similarities and differences, and derives approaches for fact-based, potential-oriented communication. In this way, it seeks to provide impulses for broader societal mobilization and a more comprehensive engagement with demographic change. 

The project closes the research gap that migrant perspectives have so far been largely neglected in common narratives about migration and demographic change. It shows how migrants themselves perceive such narratives and what adjustments are needed to adequately represent their viewpoints. 

• Analyze how different social groups—especially people with a differentiated migration histories—perceive and evaluate migration and demographic narratives. 
• Develop recommendations for more inclusive, evidence-based and future-oriented communication that makes migrant perspectives visible and integrates them. 

The project uses an exploratory, multi-method design based on background interviews  and focus groups with participants from different social groups with and without migration biographies. In addition, a results workshop was held. 

The findings show an ambivalent reception: the utilitarian narrative reduces migrants to their economic utility, excludes groups considered less “productive,” and thereby reproduces widespread logics of “deservingness” and instrumentalization. At the same time, it is neither fully endorsed nor entirely rejected by different migrant groups and is in part perceived as an opportunity. Overall, participants express a desire for more realistic representations of immigration processes, greater visibility of structural barriers, and a stronger emphasis on social cohesion, recognition, and appreciation. 

• Narratives must be diversified to reflect the heterogeneity of migrant experiences and include migrant perspectives rather than reducing people to economic utility. 
• Structural barriers must be made visible, as real participation is hindered by racism, bureaucracy, and limited access to key resources. 
• Future-oriented narratives should offer a positive, inclusive vision, emphasizing shared values like cohesion and recognition, supported by spaces for dialogue and reflection. 

„Migration narratives“ are accounts that present the causes and effects of migration in a simplified manner, place them in a causal relationship, imbue them with normative evaluations, and, where applicable, link them to recommendations for action.

• Christinck, Lea, Maya Diekmann, Marcus Engler, Pau Palop García, Ramona Rischke, and Zeynep Yanasmayan. 2025. “Jenseits Der Verwertungslogik? Narrative Zu Fachkräftemigration Und Demografischem Wandel.” DPP, no. 3.