Union criticizes Faeser: "Citizenship comes at the end of an integration process and not at the beginning"

Created: 2022-12-20 05:33

By: Anne-Christine Merholz

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to ensure that German citizenship can be obtained more quickly © Kay Nietfeld/dpa

When should one be able to obtain German citizenship?

For the Union, the government's plans to shorten the time are wrong.

Berlin - According to a proposal by Nancy Faeser (SPD) from the Ministry of the Interior, German citizenship should in future be granted to foreigners after five years instead of the previous eight.

The Union thinks that is wrong.

Citizenship must come at the end of an integration process and not at the beginning.

The parliamentary managing director of the Union, Thorsten Frei, does not want to shake the citizenship law and explains this in the podcast "Politik mit Stil" by Ruben Giuliano in cooperation with IPPEN.MEDIA: "That is not the problem we have to work on.

The crucial thing is that citizenship comes at the end of an integration process and not at the beginning.” It is now more about Germany becoming more attractive as a country of immigration.

Faster naturalization does not help here either.

Frei says: "It is an exaggeration to believe that one is attractive as an immigration country just because one enables fast citizenship." 

It is important for Frei that qualified migration happens in the labor market and not in the social transfer systems.

But the proportion of non-Germans who receive Hartz IV has grown steadily, according to Frei.

While it was 25 percent in 2016, their share is now 45 percent.

In the 24-minute episode "Politics with style" you can hear how the Parliamentary Secretary wants to strengthen migration into the labor market.

The podcaster Ruben Giuliano (left) in conversation with the parliamentary manager of the Union faction Thorsten Frei © Politics with style

This is the podcast "Politics with style"

Ruben Guliano's "Politik mit Stil" podcast regularly features interviews with top politicians from all parties on the most relevant political and social issues of the moment.

The 18-year-old student founded the podcast Politics with Style in November 2020.

You can listen to all interviews on the usual podcast channels.