of the over 740,000 syrians living in germany, just under 1,000 of them voluntarily agreed to return to syria in 2018. due to this extremely low rate of return to syria, there is growing concern amongst syrian refugees that once the volunteers and criminals are deported from the country, the idea of deportations will be normalized. some syrians believe this normalization will lead to a larger wave of deportations that will remove people who can't speak german or don't contribute to the economy. a large part of the resistance to return to syria – despite the subsiding of the war – is bashar al-assad's continued rule of the nation. however, many syrians are committed to fighting the assad regime to restore peace to syria and returning there at a later date, which explains the low rate of voluntary returns to syria in 2018.