“Expect significant increase in naturalization numbers in 2024”

The new citizenship law with shorter waiting times and dual passports for everyone comes into force this Thursday. The naturalization authorities have been receiving many inquiries about this central component of the traffic light coalition’s new migration policy for weeks. This is shown by a survey of state and city governments by the German Press Agency. In order to cope with the expected increase in the number of naturalization applications, they are relying primarily on digitizing the process. The Union wants to reverse the reform if the majority situation in the Bundestag makes this possible after the next election.

“With the entry into force of the new federal citizenship law this spring, we expect the number of naturalization applications and naturalizations to rise 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.

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, says 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.

The law formulated by the traffic light coalition stipulates that the right to naturalization now exists after five years instead of the previous eight – provided the applicant meets all the conditions. If they have made special efforts to integrate, foreigners should be able to become German after just three years. Prerequisites for faster naturalization include good performance in school or at work, good language skills or voluntary work. And, what is perhaps even more important for some potential applicants, multiple nationality is generally permitted.

The law is an important signal to people with a migration background “that we see them, recognize them and allow them to participate democratically,” says Bundestag member Filiz Polat of the Greens. But it is also a sign against the “shift to the right.”

FDP interior politician Ann-Veruschka Jurisch stresses that the reform will shorten deadlines but not lower the requirements. She says: “There will no longer be naturalization for people who do not earn their own living.” In addition, the naturalization authority will have to ask whether there was a possible racist or anti-Semitic motive for the crime, even in cases of minor offenses.

Since the hurdles for naturalization are already very high after three years, she assumes that well over 90 percent of people will only be naturalized after at least five years. Even before the reform, spouses of Germans were entitled to naturalization after three years in Germany and two years of marriage.

The Union considers the reform to be wrong overall and would change the law in the event of an election victory in the next legislative period. “The CDU and CSU will reverse this failed reform,” says the Union faction’s domestic policy spokesman, Alexander Throm (CDU). “Dual citizenship must remain the exception and limited to states that share our values,” he says, justifying his faction’s rejection.

The new deadlines are also far too short. After five or even three years, it is not yet possible to say with certainty whether integration has been sustainably successful. Throm says: “The recent caliphate demonstrations and the rampant Islamist extremism, often by people with German passports, must be a wake-up call for all of us.”

The Union is spreading a false narrative with the message: “We are squandering German citizenship,” says FDP politician Jurisch. In doing so, the CDU and CSU are stirring up resentment against immigrants.

In order to be naturalized, a person’s livelihood must be secured without social benefits. Up until now, this requirement could be waived if someone could credibly prove that he or she was not responsible for claiming such benefits. In future, this will only be possible in very few, clearly defined cases. The FDP insisted on this in its negotiations with the SPD and the Greens.

The B1 language level requirement remains unchanged and applies to everyone. However, there is an exception for people who once came to the Federal Republic as so-called guest workers or to the GDR as contract workers. For them and their spouses, it should be sufficient that they can communicate in German. This is intended to recognize the life achievements of this generation, for whom there were initially hardly any integration opportunities.