The transition from passive to active migration of primordial germ cells in Xenopus embryos correlates with a reduction in overall adhesion to surrounding endodermal cells as well as with reduced E-cadherin expression. Single cell force spectroscopy, in which cells are brought into brief contact with a gold surface functionalized with E-cadherin constructs, allows for a quantitative estimate of functional E-cadherin molecules on the cell surface. The adhesion force between migratory PGCs and the cadherin-coated surface was almost identical to cells where E-cadherin was knocked down by morpholino oligonucleotides (180 pN). In contrast, non-migratory PGCs display significantly higher adhesion forces (270 pN) on E-cadherin functionalised surfaces. On the basis of these observations, we propose that migration of PGCs in Xenopus embryos is regulated via modulation of E-cadherin expression levels, allowing these cells to move more freely if the level of E-cadherin is reduced.