It is an explosive plan: the officials at the Ministry of the Interior are working behind the scenes on significantly looser naturalization rules. It should be faster to get the German passport!
The federal states have already been informed, as a telephone protocol available to BILD proves.
The most important reform points from the paper
► Children of migrants who were born here get a German passport if the mother and/or father has had a “legal habitual residence” with us for five years. It’s been eight years so far! This means that all children of Syrians, among others, who came to the Federal Republic with the large wave of refugees in 2015/2016, automatically become Germans.
► Foreigners no longer have to have lived in Germany for eight years before they can be naturalised. In the future, five years should be enough, in exceptional cases even three. Naturalizations at turbo speed!
► The obligation to give up one’s previous citizenship will be abolished, making the double passport normal in many cases.
► Seniors over 67 from the guest worker generation no longer have to take a written language test. The “ability to communicate orally” is sufficient. The previously required knowledge test about Germany is also no longer applicable for this group. For illiterate people of all ages, a “hardship case” (also no tests) is planned.
► A “classification” of the migrants “into German living conditions” is no longer required either. So far, the authorities have checked whether the applicants for the German passport are possibly married to several wives at the same time.
Experts estimate that more than two million foreigners in Germany will benefit from the reform. A paper by the SPD parliamentary group (“Only for internal use!!!”) states that the new law will come into the cabinet by Christmas. The ministry told BILD that the law was not yet in the departmental vote.
Politicians are angry
Union Parliament Secretary Thorsten Frei (CDU) is alarmed and warns: “The German passport must not become junk.”
We already have a very attractive and liberal right to naturalization today, Frei continued. “The following applies to the CDU and CSU: German citizenship must come at the end and not at the beginning of the integration process. Anything else endangers the cohesion of our society and this country.”
Deputy parliamentary group leader Andrea Lindholz (CSU) said: “The traffic light apparently wants to sell off the German passport. Almost everyone will soon have it. Foreigners in Germany are thus deprived of a major incentive to integrate. That can become a real threat to cohesion in our society.”