diff --git a/tests/qtest/migration-test.c b/tests/qtest/migration-test.c
index f410ec5996..f2142fbd3c 100644
--- a/tests/qtest/migration-test.c
+++ b/tests/qtest/migration-test.c
@@ -464,6 +464,10 @@ static void migrate_postcopy_start(QTestState *from, QTestState *to)
 }
 
 typedef struct {
+    /*
+     * QTEST_LOG=1 may override this.  When QTEST_LOG=1, we always dump errors
+     * unconditionally, because it means the user would like to be verbose.
+     */
     bool hide_stderr;
     bool use_shmem;
     /* only launch the target process */
@@ -557,7 +561,7 @@ static int test_migrate_start(QTestState **from, QTestState **to,
 
     g_free(bootpath);
 
-    if (args->hide_stderr) {
+    if (!getenv("QTEST_LOG") && args->hide_stderr) {
         ignore_stderr = "2>/dev/null";
     } else {
         ignore_stderr = "";