Tomorrow the new citizenship law, which allows dual citizenship, comes into force. The Turkish community expects a sharp increase in applications. Criticism of the new rules comes from the Kurdish community.
The chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, Gökay Sofuoglu, expects a sharp increase in naturalization applications after the new citizenship law comes into force. “People have now internalized that there will be dual citizenship,” he told the newspapers of the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. “And many are now submitting an application as quickly as possible.”
He expects “50,000 applications per year,” Sofuoglu continued. “That seems realistic to me.” However, the processing will take time. In many cities it is difficult to even get an appointment.
Many applicants have in mind that they will be able to take part in the federal election next year after they have been naturalized, said Sofuoglu. “I therefore appeal to the parties to realize that the applicants are potential voters,” he said. “If you want to win them over, you have to implement appropriate policies. This includes creating more opportunities for participation in the parties – and seriously combating racism.”
According to the new citizenship law, which comes into force on June 27, immigrants can obtain German citizenship more quickly. Naturalization is now possible after five years instead of the previous eight, and in cases of “special integration efforts” even after three years. Multiple citizenship is generally permitted.
Criticism from the Kurdish community
The chairman of the Kurdish community in Germany, Ali Ertan Toprak, criticized the new citizenship law. “I think the law is wrong in this form,” he told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. “Because I don’t want anti-Semites, Turkish nationalists and Islamists to get German passports. We already have enough Nazis in this country.”
Toprak explained that he had “made a cut from the third generation of guest workers onwards”. After all, children born in Germany should identify with this country. “The way the law is now, at some point there will only be dual citizens,” said Toprak.
Many inquiries to authorities
The naturalization authorities have been receiving many inquiries about the new regulations for weeks. This is shown by a survey conducted by the dpa news agency among state governments and city administrations.
“We expect the number of naturalization applications and naturalizations to increase significantly again in 2024,” says Annette Kindel, head of the Hamburg Office for Migration. Last year, 7,537 people became German citizens in the Hanseatic city. In the first five months of this year, there were 3,128 naturalizations in Hamburg.
According to a spokeswoman for the Interior Senator, the Bremen Migration Office is receiving a large number of inquiries about the new regulations, especially about the issue of dual citizenship. They are therefore also expecting a significant increase in applications in the second half of the year.
Increase staff, digitize processes
In Bavaria, more than 36,000 people were naturalized in 2023, after around 28,000 naturalizations in the previous year. In the first four months of this year, there were around 14,500 naturalizations in the Free State. One reason for the increased demand is the high number of refugees since 2015, said a spokeswoman for the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior. Since a further increase is to be expected due to the new legal situation, the employees of the naturalization authorities are encouraged to use all options to simplify the process.
“Due to the increasing number of naturalizations, the number of staff has increased considerably in recent years,” reports a spokeswoman for the city of Magdeburg. The state capital of Saxony-Anhalt is currently working on digitizing processes in order to relieve the burden on existing staff.