inner emigration

noun

The retreat to one's private life in the face of an oppressive state, instead of overt opposition or emigration to another country.

OriginGerman innere Emigration →
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Meanings

nouninner emigration (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe retreat to one's private life in the face of an oppressive state, instead of overt opposition or emigration to another country.

    Many Easterners went into so-called “inner emigration”, withdrawing from a system whose ideological impulse had long faded.

    2023 April 28, Frederick Studemann, “Katja Hoyer: we need to hear ‘the whole story’ about East Germany”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC

Origin

  1. Germaninnere Emigration
  2. Englishinner emigration

Calque of German innere Emigration, popularized by German writer Frank Thiess in his response to Thomas Mann's BBC broadcast, defending the choice of some German intellectuals to remain in Nazi Germany despite being opposed to Nazism.

More words from German

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French émigration intérieure
  • émigration intérieureTranslations
German innere Emigration
  • innere EmigrationTranslations
Norwegian indre emigrasjon
  • indre emigrasjonTranslations
Polish emigracja wewnętrzna
  • emigracja wewnętrznaTranslations
Russian внутренняя эмиграция
  • внутренняя эмиграция (vnutrennjaja emigracija)Translations
Swedish inre emigration
  • inre emigrationTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

inner emigration. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inner%20emigration

MLA

“inner emigration.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inner%20emigration. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “inner emigration,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inner%20emigration.

Source: inner emigration on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.