Germany has topped the list of the most desired destinations in Europe for tech workers to move to for the second year in a row, according to data from Relocate.me.

Relocate.me, a site for tech workers looking for vacancies abroad, said its users expressed most interest in moving to the country, followed in Europe by the Netherlands and the UK.

Out of the top ten relocation destinations overall, seven of them are in Europe, with Canada, Australia and the US also featuring in the top 10. 

In Southern Europe, Spain was the most popular, followed by Italy and then Portugal. In Central and Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic was the most popular, followed by Poland and Estonia. 

Germany 

A lot of European tech companies put their international hiring on hold when the pandemic struck and problems arose over getting work permits for non-EU residents.

Germany, however, released a fast-track procedure in March 2020 to speed up the process for obtaining a work permit for highly-skilled workers — accounting in part for its attractiveness to foreign workers this year. 

Germany has long been seen as an attractive place for tech workers, with Berlin in particularly drawing in a large international crowd coming to work in the city’s large number of successful startups such as GetYourGuide, N26 and Raisin.

Relocation bounces back

Across all countries, the numbers of tech workers wanting to move abroad dropped significantly earlier this year as lockdowns came into force, but the levels have bounced back and, overall, 2020’s seen more people interested in relocating than last year. 

The number of people going to Relocate.me’s site and searching for jobs abroad hit at a low in April, before picking up from June onwards and increasing across the year.

October saw the highest number of people visiting the site ever and, overall, 2020 was up 39% on last year. 

In terms of the countries where people are looking to relocate from, none of the top 10 are European — India is the most common, followed by Russia and Nigeria. 

“The pandemic has dramatically affected the way tech companies hire international talent,” says Andrew Stetsenko, CEO and founder of Relocate.me. 

In previous years, he says, about 50% of companies would invite prospective foreign candidates to on site interviews.

“Now, the interviewing process is entirely remote. Moreover, some companies start working with and onboarding their newly hired foreign employees before getting a work permit.”

And although a lot of jobs have turned remote, Stetsenko believes the destination still matters — “many people still prefer to work from home in some cool place, like Berlin, London, or another bustling startup hub.”

Freya Pratty covers news at Sifted. She tweets from @FPratty