Since 2003, fewer people have been naturalized in Germany than in the previous year. Brexit also plays a major role in this: the number of Britons with a German passport is increasing rapidly.
Wiesbaden (dpa) - The number of people who have become naturalized in the past year has increased by 15 percent compared to the previous year.
As the Federal Statistical Office announced on Wednesday, 128,900 foreigners opted for a German passport. This is the highest level of naturalization since 2003. Part of this was an effect of Brexit: shortly before Great Britain left the EU, more than 14,600 British citizens were naturalized in Germany.
According to the authority, the number of naturalizations from Great Britain has increased since 2016, the year of the Brexit referendum. In 2019, however, the number of naturalizations was the highest: 14,600 British people received a German passport in 2019 - more than in the two previous years 2018 (6600) and 2017 (7500) combined. In 2015, before the referendum, there were only around 600 naturalizations.
In almost all cases, those affected chose to retain British citizenship. Britons who were naturalized in 2019 have been in Germany for a relatively long time - half of them for more than 26 years. In comparison to other naturalized people, the British were also a bit older - half of them more than 54 years. The oldest of them obtained German citizenship at the age of more than 90 years, according to the Federal Statistical Office. For comparison: the average age of all naturalized persons in 2019 was 34 years. They had lived in Germany for an average of 14 years.
The most naturalized population in 2019 was a citizen of Turkey (16,200), followed by the United Kingdom, Poland (6000), Romania (5800) and Iraq (4600). There have been increases in applications for naturalization, particularly among Ukrainians, Romanians and Syrians. Every third naturalized person came from an EU country.
Theoretically, the proportion of people from Turkey with a German passport could be significantly higher: Only 1.2 percent of the Turks who were eligible for naturalization had actually obtained German citizenship. This so-called naturalization potential describes the proportion of people who have been living in Germany for at least ten years and who therefore generally meet all the requirements for naturalization. On average, this share was 2.5 percent for all countries of origin.
The number of people with a migration background in Germany is not yet available for 2019. In 2018, around 20.8 million people, roughly one in four in Germany, had a migration background. This means that someone was either not born in Germany himself or at least one parent was not born with German citizenship. 48 percent of these people were foreigners, 52 percent Germans.
Federal Statistical Office on Naturalizations 2019
