This paper investigates whether shocks to safety conditions in the home country affect immigrants’ return intentions and labor market behavior. For identification, we exploit the quasi-random occurrence of violent events in the home-country relative to the timing of interviews and job separations in Germany. We show that immigrants interviewed after a violent event in their home-country are more likely to wish to remain in Germany permanently. If immigrants enter unemployment following a violent event in their home-country, they increase their job search effort and find employment faster, at the cost of accepting lower wages and working in less productive firms.