A method for data migration of a pointer element in the course of data migration of a program state of a control program of an automation system comprises identifying the first pointer element and the second pointer element as pointer elements associated with each other via a first relation in a pointer-identifying step, and mapping the first pointer element to the second pointer element in a pointer migration step. The pointer migration step comprises identifying the first pointer object referenced by the first pointer element, identifying an object associated with the first pointer object as the second pointer object, determining an absolute memory address of the second pointer object, and writing the determined memory address of the second pointer object as a value of the second pointer element into the second pointer element.