DOI: 10.5164/IAB.IMPa2425.de.en.v1
Summary
The International Mobility Panel of Migrants in Germany (IMPa) is a new multi-cohort longitudinal online survey, which has been established to gain robust insights into the drivers, patterns and effects of migration to Germany. The aim of the project is to build a valuable data infrastructure for studying retention, return, onward and circular migration that allows for representative statements based on statistical weighting procedures. First-time surveys will be implemented among new cohorts every two years, with annual follow-up waves over four years. In the first wave of cohort I (December 2024 to April 2025), around 42,000 migrants of working age (18 to 65 years) who had moved to Germany by 2 April 2024, and were registered with a foreign nationality in the data of the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB), were surveyed.
Based on the IMPa data key questions regarding integration, retention, return, onward and circular migration can be answered (including considerations, plans and actual behaviour), all of which are highly relevant for policy, labour markets, society and academia.
Dataset Descriptions, Questionnaires and Frequencies
German
English
Data Access
On-site Use including Remote Data Access
Test Data
Test data help to prepare programs ahead of on-site and remote data access. The test data include all variables of the original data with the same variable name variable label and value label. In the future, it will be possible to generate a panel over all waves with coherence of characteristics over time. Test data are freely accessible over the web and therefore have to be anonymised. That means that test data are random and therefore not eligible for analysis!
Test data for Stata: IMPa_2425_v1_testdata_stata.zip
Other Working Tools
IAB-Forschungsbericht 15|2025: Germany as a stopover? Insights into return and
International Mobility Panel of Migrants in Germany (IMPa) (pdf)
You find further information as well as further working tools at key working tools of the FDZ.
Citation
Researchers working with IMPa are obligated to acknowledge the data base and its documentation within their publications, including the DOI, by using the following references:
Data:
Kosyakova, Yuliya; Olbrich, Lukas; Gallegos Torres, Katia; Hammer, Luisa; Koch, Theresa; Wagner, Simon; Goßner, Laura; Hallyburton, Jasmin; Reinold, Julia (2026): „International Mobility Panel of Migrants in Germany (IMPa) – Version 2425 v1“. Forschungsdatenzentrum der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) im Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB). DOI: 10.5164/IAB.IMPa2425.de.en.v1
The data access was provided via on-site use at the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and subsequently remote data access.
Data Documentation:
- Kosyakova, Yuliya; Olbrich, Lukas; Gallegos Torres, Katia; Hammer, Luisa; Koch, Theresa; Wagner, Simon; Goßner, Laura; Hallyburton, Jasmin; Reinold, Julia (2026): „International Mobility Panel of Migrants in Germany (IMPa) Cohort 1 Wave 1 “. FDZ-Datenreport 03/2026 (en), Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5164/IAB.FDZD.2603.en.v1
- Kosyakova, Yuliya; Olbrich, Lukas; Gallegos Torres, Katia; Hammer, Luisa; Koch, Theresa; Wagner, Simon; Goßner, Laura; Hallyburton, Jasmin; Reinold, Julia (2026): „International Mobility Panel of Migrants in Germany (IMPa) Kohorte 1 Welle 1 – Version 2425 v1“. FDZ-Datenreport 03/2026 (de), Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5164/IAB.FDZD.2603.de.v1
According to the FDZ Data Usage Agreement, any type of publication resulting from work with FDZ data must be reported to the FDZ by email at the latest one month after publication. The notification must include an electronic version of the printed version or, after publication, a reprint or a copy of the publication free of charge.
Data Versions
>> Further information on other versions of the IMPa dataset