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Naturalization: Dispute over planned new citizenship law

Naturalization: Dispute over planned new citizenship law

SPD, Greens and FDP want to facilitate the naturalization of foreigners – also because Germany urgently needs skilled workers from abroad. The Union is up against the planned new law.

The traffic light coalition and the CDU/CSU opposition are engaged in a heated argument about the planned new citizenship law with simplified naturalizations. What Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) presented cannot be approved, said CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt in Berlin. “It sends the completely wrong signals into the world. It doesn’t promote integration, but it will further intensify the migration pressure on Germany.”

Leading FDP representatives rejected the allegations. The first parliamentary director of the FDP parliamentary group, Johannes Vogel, accused the Union of spreading fake news (false news).

This referred to a statement by his CDU/CSU colleague Thorsten Frei, who told the “Rheinische Post”: “Which country gives citizenship quickly to people who cannot even make a living from their own resources?”. Vogel pointed out that exactly the opposite was intended.

FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai also told the dpa: “The CDU has pursued a migration policy against Germany’s interests for many years and is now throwing false allegations around.” It is true that receiving social benefits will rule out naturalization in the future. “We are significantly tightening the legal situation compared to what was in force under the Union. In doing so, we are putting an end to the catastrophic mistakes of the Merkel years in migration policy.”

From the FDP-led Federal Ministry of Justice it was said that one only shook one’s head in view of the statements from the Union. The draft negotiated between the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice contains enormous tightening of the maintenance ability. One wonders whether the Union is simply reading this wrong or whether they are intentionally trying to unsettle the public with false information.

Those are the key points

Last week, the federal government agreed on the basics of a new citizenship law. The core are shorter minimum stays for naturalization – instead of eight years, five years should be enough, with special integration services only three. The German passport should be excluded for people who have committed crimes with anti-Semitic or racist motives. A prerequisite should also be that you can generally earn your living without social benefits.

Frei stated that no relief was needed. “For people who are well qualified and would like to live and work in Germany, the doors have long been open.” With the existing laws, “we don’t need to shy away from comparisons with other industrialized nations that are also trying to attract bright minds from all over the world.” Dobrindt called the planned new law a “very serious case of destroying the social consensus of the past 20 years”.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, around 10.7 million foreigners lived in Germany at the end of 2021 – more than half for at least ten years.

Source: Stern

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