Until June 2024, every foreigner in Germany had to be patient if they wanted to obtain citizenship, because one of the conditions was to have spent at least eight years in the country. However, the government of Olaf Scholz changed this - citizenship became possible after five years, and in cases of good integration, a fast-track procedure was introduced that allowed it even after three.
Good German, good income and volunteering
"Integration" in this case was understood as good command of the German language, good income and commitment to society - for example, as a volunteer in the fire department. The current coalition between the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, however, has struck down this option.
And while citizenship in Germany is now only possible after five years in the Federal Republic, the possibility of dual citizenship remains.
End of the "special offer"
According to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, the accelerated procedure created the wrong impression among foreigners. "Internally, this was the wrong incentive, because it created the impression that the German passport was being offered as some kind of special offer," he commented.
Migration expert Jannes Jacobsen emphasizes that the changes will not have much impact, since the leading reform is the reduction of the term to five years, not the accelerated procedure. He says that the effect of its introduction cannot yet be measured, but it is clear that only 13% of foreigners living in Germany have fulfilled the language and economic requirements, and the number of those who have also been socially engaged is even smaller.
Bureaucracy remains the main obstacle
According to Jacobsen, the problems are completely different: "Just because someone has applied for naturalization, it does not mean that it will be approved in a short time. Because in Germany we have a fundamental problem with the overload of the administration. We have incredibly long deadlines for processing documents," he emphasizes. In some cases, people wait more than four years for all documents to be processed and for them to receive a German passport.
Opposition politicians from the Green Party criticized the government's decision to end the fast-track citizenship procedure, because they believe it further exacerbates the problem of the shortage of qualified labor in Germany.
Jane Jacobsen says that in order to solve this problem, the procedures for recognizing foreign professional and academic qualifications need to be simplified first. The problem of the shortage of housing and high rents is also serious. "When it comes to recruiting qualified personnel in large cities, we have to make sure that they find affordable housing," says the expert from the German Center for Integration and Migration Research.
Author: Marcel Fürstenau