It may soon be easier to obtain German citizenship

The Scholz government would like to reform the law on citizenship, relaxing immigration rules in order to meet the labor shortage. Going from eight years to five, or even three years in some cases, it could soon be easier to obtain German citizenship.

Today, it takes eight years for a foreigner in a legal situation on the territory to obtain German nationality. Soon, thanks to the reform of the Citizenship Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht) proposed by Nancy Faeser, the Federal Minister of the Interior, five years should be enough. A period reduced to three years if the people show good will for their integration: a good level of German, academic success, voluntary commitment in associative work, etc.

According to Faeser, naturalization strengthens integration: “They should be allowed to vote and stand for public office, for which citizenship is a prerequisite.“, she said at the microphone of Tagesspiegel. “Because whoever wants to become German says yes to life in a free society, to respect for the Basic Law, to the rule of law and to equal rights for men and women“.

In addition to this reduced naturalization period, the relaxation of the citizenship law also offers the possibility of multiple citizenship: a Frenchman, a Belgian or a Swiss living in Germany would then no longer be obliged to renounce his nationality to obtain the passport. German. Likewise, the Scholz government plans in particular to remove the language barrier for the generation of “Gastarbeiter” (immigrant workers, literally “guest”) of the 60s and 70s, a generation that did not have access to German lessons. Finally, children with at least one parent who has been living legally in Germany for more than five years and has an unlimited right of residence will automatically benefit from German nationality.

Labor shortage

In addition, faster naturalization should alleviate the significant shortage of skilled workers in Germany. “We need new rules for all those great women and men who have helped make our economy so strong“said Olaf Scholz.

The government insists on the importance of social cohesion: “The reform of our citizenship law is long overdue and represents an excellent opportunity to strengthen our social cohesion. That’s why we’re tackling it now.”, said Minister Faeser.

The opposition, for its part, is not in favor of this reform which was part of the government agreement: “Negotiating German citizenship does not promote integration, but has exactly the opposite purpose and will trigger additional pull effects in illegal migration,” said the head of the CSU regional group, Alexander Dobrindt, in the newspaper “Bild”.

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