Germany Plans to Make Citizenship Easier for Foreigners
- Businessinsider.com
VIVA – The German government plans to make it easier for foreigners who want to live in Germany and get German citizenship. A draft law by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Germany has set new rules for obtaining German citizenship.
As quoted by AP News, Tuesday, November 29, 2022, until now, the rule was that anyone who had lived in the country for at least eight years could apply for a German passport.
The reshuffle of citizenship rules is one of a series of modernization reforms that the three-party coalition of Scholz's center-left Social Democrats, the environmental Greens, and the pro-business Free Democrats agreed to tackle when it took office last December.
They agreed to shorten waiting times and grant citizenship to people who have lived in Germany for five years. German-born children will automatically become citizens if one of their parents has been a legal resident for five years.
Kota Berlin di Jerman
- Pixabay
In the case of "special integration achievements", this is even possible after just three years - for example, if the immigrant has shown special academic or professional achievements or voluntary commitments or has excellent language skills.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said on Friday last week that the draft law is ready.
Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz said in a video message Saturday that Germany has long since become “the country of hope” for many, and it’s a good thing when people who have put down roots in the country decide to take citizenship.
“Germany needs better rules for the naturalization of all these great women and men,” Scholz said.
The government also wants to lift the ban on holding dual citizenship. In principle, most people from non-EU countries and Switzerland currently have to renounce their previous citizenship when they acquire German citizenship, although there are some exceptions.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser argues that reducing the waiting time to qualify for citizenship is "an incentive for integration."
The purpose is to reflect reality, he said on Friday. "We are a diverse and modern immigration country, and I think the laws should reflect that." Nancy Faeser remarked.
The official statistics show that around 131,600 people took German citizenship last year, a quarter of them citizens of other EU countries. The number was 20% higher than the previous year, partly due to a growing number of naturalized Syrians. Germany's total population is around 84 million.
However, the main center-right opposition United Bloc rejects plans to liberalize naturalization laws.
"Selling cheap German citizenship does not promote integration, it aims at the opposite and will trigger an additional 'pull effect' for illegal migration," Senior conservative lawmaker, Alexander Dobrindt told Saturday's edition of the Bild daily.
Among other liberalization plans, the government has removed from German criminal law the ban on doctors "advertising" abortion services. It has reduced the minimum age for voting in European Parliament elections from 18 to 16 and wants to do the same for national elections.
It also wants to abolish a 40-year-old law requiring transsexual people to obtain a psychological assessment and court decision before officially changing sex, and replace it with a new "self-determination law". Moreover, it aims to decriminalize the possession of limited amounts of cannabis and allow its sale to adults for recreational purposes in a controlled market.
As information, some plans may run into difficulties in the upper house of parliament which represents 16 German state governments and where Scholz's coalition does not command a majority.
