Enlarge image
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD)
Photo: Leon Kuegeler / photothek / IMAGO
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) draws attention to resentments in the discussion about citizenship law in Germany.
Many people were "deeply hurt" by the fact that the debates in the past were often characterized by "sentiment propaganda", wrote Faeser in a guest article for the "Tagesspiegel".
That doesn't do justice to a modern immigration country.
"The reform of our citizenship law is long overdue and a great opportunity to strengthen our social cohesion," it said.
The SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed in their coalition agreement that foreigners in Germany could more easily obtain German citizenship.
Faeser is now driving the issue forward.
A draft law by the Ministry of the Interior provides that people in particular who have already lived in this country for several years can become German citizens more easily.
Instead of eight years, as is currently the case, it should be possible to obtain citizenship after five years of residence in Germany.
In the case of "special integration achievements", this should even be possible after three years, for example if immigrants have shown special academic or professional achievements or voluntary work or have particularly good language skills.
»Achievement should be worthwhile«, wrote Faeser in the »Tagesspiegel«.
The interior minister defended the planned move away from the principle of avoiding multiple nationalities.
The previous practice prevents the naturalization of many people who have lived in Germany for decades and are at home here.
"With the reform of nationality law, we are therefore introducing a paradigm shift and will accept multiple nationalities in the future," wrote Faeser.
Union politicians had criticized Faeser's plans in the past few days, calling them "social explosives" or saying that citizenship was being sold off, which did not promote integration.
The Greens accused the Union of having a "dusty world view".
"In the future, we will enable naturalizations earlier - as an expression of a modern immigration country," said Filiz Polat, parliamentary director of the Greens parliamentary group, the German Press Agency (dpa).
Stephan Thomae, parliamentary director of the FDP parliamentary group, criticized: "The Union still fails to recognize that Germany is a country of immigration." It is wrong that the new citizenship law does not provide any incentives for integration, the opposite is the case.
Union Parliament Secretary Thorsten Frei (CDU) described the project as superfluous.
He told the "Rheinische Post": "Basically, the following should apply: the passport is at the end of a successful integration process and not at the beginning."
It is highly problematic to declare dual citizenship to be the “standard case”.
"That would not be a contribution to better coexistence, but to the division of society."
The legal policy spokesman for the Union faction, Günter Krings (CDU), told the newspaper that if illegal immigrants were to be given a right of residence “without further ado” and naturalization was made even easier at the same time, that would be “poison for the acceptance of immigration”.
The Turkish community welcomed the planned reform.
The initiative is a "paradigm shift," said the chairman Gökay Sofuoglu the editorial network Germany (RND).
»German citizenship law no longer reflects the reality of our day;
it has to be tackled from the ground up,” he said.
It is also about achieving a certain level of equality and thus enabling more people to participate in politics.
The Federal Immigration and Integration Council (BZI) supports the plans of the traffic light coalition for easier naturalization.
"We support the plans of the traffic light government regarding the modernization of the nationality law," said the chairman of the council, Memet Kilic, on Sunday in Berlin.
Scholz promotes projects
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said that Germany needed "better regulations" for naturalization.
The women and men, and sometimes also children, who have come to Germany in the past few decades have contributed greatly to the German economy being so strong, Scholz said in a video message distributed on Saturday.
»Some have lived here for a very, very long time and have children and grandchildren.
And that's why it's very good when those who have lived with us for so long also decide to acquire German citizenship.«
On Monday, the Federal Minister of the Interior and the Federal Chancellor want to hold the event “Germany.
Immigration Country« in Berlin-Kreuzberg and talk about the reform there.
This is considered a central project of the traffic light.
skr/AFP/dpa