An Italian from the Kelheim district who studied automotive engineering in Bavaria and works as a test engineer; a Syrian who is doing his secondary school leaving certificate in Munich and is now doing commercial training; a Romanian who works as an architect in Erlangen – these are three examples from the most recent naturalization statistics reported by the Ministry of the Interior.
23,158 people were granted German citizenship in Bavaria last year. A third of them come from the European Union, with Romania, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Italy taking the top five places in the countries of origin overall. Two trends can be seen: On the one hand, among non-EU countries of origin, Syria (2033 naturalizations) has now overtaken Turkey (1901). On the other hand, you can see that the enormous proportion of people from Great Britain in previous years was probably only a temporary Brexit effect. Naturalizations are “a strong sign of successful integration,” said Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) recently at the reception for new residents in the Munich Residence. He encouraged those invited there: “Contribute to the further development of our country.”
But naturalizations are now a political issue. The background to this is the reform plans of the federal government. In addition to the amended immigration of skilled workers and the “opportunity right of residence”, which is intended to end the chain of toleration for asylum seekers, the traffic light wants to lower the hurdles for naturalization. Until now, this can usually be applied for after eight years of residence. Evidence must be provided of a naturalization test (a local school-leaving certificate also counts), knowledge of German, a secure livelihood, clarified identity and no conviction for a criminal offence. According to the plans of the federal government, this should be possible after five years in the future, in the case of “special integration achievements” in school and work or voluntary work after three years. In addition, certain hurdles are to be eased, for example in the language test for older people. Like the CSU in the Bundestag, Minister Herrmann promptly warned that nationality law was considered “junk”.
A recently published response from the state government to a query in the state parliament now provides data on previous practice; she had asked Uli Henkel (AfD). The answer shows, among other things, an increase in naturalizations since 2014, when 13,159 cases were registered, most recently, in 2021, it was around 23,000 – given the more than 13 million inhabitants in the Free State, this is not a mass phenomenon. In the countries of origin, however, the large migration movements of the past decade are noticeable: Syria, currently in third place, was not among the top ten at all in the years 2014 to 2019. The proportion of former asylum seekers is likely to increase further in the coming years.
A good two-thirds of all naturalized people thus had dual or multiple citizenship. This is another CSU criticism of the traffic light – that the federal government wants to refrain from having to give up the previous nationality by default in the future. In practice, this is already mostly the case, as the figures show. Taking the state capital of Munich as an example, the answer also shows that at present hardly any applications have been rejected – only in the low single-digit percentage range. Experience has shown that the most common reasons are a lack of participation, a lack of economic integration and insufficient language skills.
“These are people who even live here in the second or third generation”
The state parliament recently debated the federal naturalization plans in an emotionally charged session. It’s about “people who pay taxes. These are people who do their work. These are people who even live here in the second or third generation,” said Gülseren Demirel (Greens). For these people, the period should be reduced from eight to five years. According to Demirel, the critics mixed this up with general immigration debates because they “apparently think the citizens outside are stupid”. “Fairy tales” were also told about naturalization after three years, and special integration achievements were commendable.
Arif Taşdelen (SPD) said 5.7 million people have lived in Germany for more than ten years and could be naturalized. “Why don’t they do that? I see that in my private life too – because it takes far too long, because it’s far too complex, because there are many bureaucratic hurdles. That’s why the modernization of citizenship law is overdue.” At the same time, Martin Hagen (FDP) called for a repatriation offensive for people without a right of residence – because acceptance among the population for easier acquisition of citizenship depends on “that we bring order to the system and that we deport people with no prospects of staying”.
AfD man Henkel warned that even “hardcore criminals” could no longer be deported after naturalization. The planned relief is “highly dangerous for the host society” and offers it no advantage. His faction called for a return to the principle of descent; A German is someone who has at least one German parent. The coalition factions also clearly reject this. Interior Secretary Sandro Kirchner (CSU) campaigned for the eight-year rule, which shows that integration efforts are very successful during this time. “At the end of this process, naturalization can take place.” Alexander Hold (FW) added: The identification with the new home must be reliably determined in this process. “The German passport is not a gift for five years of legal residence.”