A bill easing access to German nationality was adopted on Wednesday August 23 by the government. This text, which will still have to be approved by Parliament, plans to speed up the naturalization process and to extend the possibilities of dual nationality: it will be possible to apply for German nationality after five years of residence in the country, instead of currently eight. The aim is to reduce the shortage of labor from which Europe’s largest economy suffers.
“We want people who have been part of our society for a long time to be able to participate in the democratic organization of our country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at a press conference. Foreigners who are particularly well integrated into the country, who speak the language very well or who distinguish themselves through a commitment to voluntary work, can take the process after three years.
“Faced with the shortage of skilled labour, we need intelligent and energetic people who want to stay here permanently and who recognize themselves in our country”, for his part commented the Minister of Economy, the ecologist Robert Habeck, in a press release. Candidates for German nationality will however have to prove that they are not dependent on public assistance, with some exceptions.
The law will also open up the possibility for more people to have dual citizenship, including the large Turkish community in Germany, which numbers some 1.5 million nationals. This privilege has so far been reserved for citizens of the European Union and Switzerland. “A modern citizenship right is an incentive to actively engage in society,” Habeck said.
The revision of the citizenship law is a key project of the coalition of the social democrat Olaf Scholz with the ecologists and the liberals of the FDP, in power since December 2021. However, the law is not unanimous in the political class. The conservative opposition was very skeptical from the start. Writing in Die Welt newspaper, Conservative MP Alexander Throm on Wednesday called the law “reckless” and the three-to-five-year period “simply too short” for granting German citizenship.
