Why are there no exit interviews for countries?

A few weeks ago, Germany published its annual migration statistics, with just over 1 million people coming in and just over 700 000 leaving the country.

As in previous years, all the attention was on the new arrivals. The fact that 400 000 more moved to Germany than left was generally seen as positive given that the population of the country is set to decline and the economy is doing well.

Much was made of highly qualified immigrants from other European countries. Emphasizing that newcomers often have better education than the natives is meant to alleviate fears of low-income Germans about job competition and stress the positive effect for "global competitiveness".

As in previous years, we at the K-Landnews looked at the other number: who leaves why?

Unsurprisingly, there is no comprehensive answer. It would appear that everybody accepts the old standard "in search for a better life" if they are interested at all.

We did quite a bit of googling to get a better picture of emigrants found a fairly large group of migrants or their children going back to their home countries. On any given Sunday morning on Italian town squares, you see old folks going after the traditional Sunday business, exchanging stories and having a good time when suddenly the language flips to German for a minute or two and then going back to Italian, leaving you with an eerie feeling of "did I really hear what I just heard".

Other groups move on to other countries, like the Bosnians who took refuge in Germany from a civil war and then found they were no longer wanted.  Many of them headed for the United States.

But what about those supposedly prized immigrants like the Chinese woman with a German passport who is now somewhere in Silicon Valley?

It seems to be a national case of out of sight out of mind.

This approach is expressed in the amount of paperwork related to the two moves. When you arrive as a prospective resident, the government wants to know as much as possible about you.

When you leave, they don't ask any questions.

Should countries do an exit interview when you split? We think they should and also think they won't. Wikipedia says about an exit interview: An organization can use the information gained from an exit interview to assess what should be improved, changed, or remain intact.

Of course, no country is really interested in this. Or can you imagine an exit interview report in Russia summarizing that the recent anti-gay laws impair the creative arts sector by driving artists abroad? Or a Chinese report telling the rulers that press censorship has measurable negative economic effects? Or a German report giving hard numbers on how many excellent workers have had enough of an overbearing bureaucracy? Or a report in the U.S. telling the government that there is just too much violence?

In the unlikely case you know of exit interviews for one of the main Western countries, drop us an email. We'll share our opinion.