Germany eased the conditions for acquiring citizenship

German lawmakers have approved new legislation that eases the rules for acquiring citizenship and removes restrictions on holding dual citizenship. The government claims the plan will boost the integration of immigrants and help attract skilled workers, Euronews reported.
Parliament voted 382-234 in favor of the plan proposed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left social-liberal coalition, with 23 MPs abstaining. The main centre-right opposition bloc has sharply criticized the project, arguing that it would denigrate German citizenship.
The legislation will entitle people to citizenship after 5 years in Germany, or 3 in the case of "special integration achievements", rather than 8 or 6 years as is currently the case.
Children born in Germany will automatically become citizens if one parent has legally resided in Germany for 5 years, now 8 years.
Restrictions on holding dual citizenship will also be removed. In general, most people from countries other than EU members and Switzerland now have to give up their previous citizenship when they obtain German citizenship, although there are some exceptions.
The government claims that 14 percent of the population, more than 12 million of the country's 84.4 million inhabitants, do not have German citizenship, and about 5.3 million of them have lived in Germany for at least 10 years. The naturalization rate in Germany is significantly below the EU average.
Interior Minister Nancy Pfizer said the reform brought Germany on par with its European neighbors such as France, and stressed the need to attract more skilled workers.
"We also have to make qualified people from all over the world an offer like the US, like Canada, part of which is to acquire German citizenship," Pfizer said.
The legislation stipulates that people who naturalize must be able to support themselves and their relatives, although there are exceptions for people who came to West Germany as "guest workers" before 1974 and for those who in communist East Germany to work.
The existing law requires future citizens to be adherents of the "free democratic basic order", and the new version specifies that anti-Semitic and racist acts are incompatible with it.
Scholz said in a video message that at a time of growing concern about the far-right's intentions towards immigrants, "we say to all those who often live and work for decades in Germany, who obey our laws: You belong to Germany."
The reform means that no one will have to "deny their roots", he added./BGNES
The conservative opposition claims that Germany is loosening citizenship requirements just as other countries are tightening theirs./BGNES