A shorter and easier path to German citizenship, and the possibility to hold multiple citizenship are amongst the changes proposed by the Federal government in a newly published draft law for the modernisation of German Nationality Law.
On Friday, May 19, the German government has published the long-awaited draft of a law that introduces new rules to the nationality law, and the same will now be open for comments for the German states and associations, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Amongst others, the proposal for new citizenship rules include making it possible for foreigners residing in Germany to obtain citizenship after five years, instead of after eight as it currently is. It also intends to shorten the five-year period to only three years in cases of special integration efforts.
Commenting on the draft law, the Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser called it one of the most important progress topics in the country, emphasising the importance of making these changes in order to attract the skilled workers the German states urgently need.
According to her, enabling these workers to obtain German citizenship after a period of living in the country, without forcing them to give up on their previous citizenship is a step of utmost importance in this direction.
“Many immigrants feel like Germans, but don’t want to completely sever the connection to their country of origin. In the future they will no longer be forced to give up part of their identity. We are completing the long overdue paradigm shift and allowing multiple nationalities,” she said.
Minister Faeser also explained who would be eligible to gain German citizenship by naturalisation after a period of only three years, noting that those well integrated, who speak German very well, and do well at work or voluntary work, will in particular benefit from this shortened period.
“We want to recognise the enormous lifetime achievements of the guest worker generation for our country. That is why we are planning to make naturalisation easier for them,” the Minister further said.
Data revealed by the Ministry Faeser leads show that by the end of 2021, around 10.7 million residents in Germany were foreign nationals, of whom, 5.7 million had been living in the country for at least ten years.
Through the proposed changes the government wants to address the needs of these migrant people, who, even after living in Germany for a large part of their life, and contributing to the society, are still unable to participate and contribute in democratic processes in the country.
Other specific groups will also be able to benefit from the new law, once approved, including here guest workers in the western German states and contract workers in the former GDR, who will be able to gain citizenship without a written language certificate and the naturalisation test.
Whereas for some other groups, the government intends to make it harder or even impossible to get citizenship, in particular for those who are Anti-Semitic, racist, xenophobic and those whose acts are motivated by inhumanity.