German Push to Ease Citizenship Rules Passes Scholz’s Cabinet
- Passport will be conditional on commitment to democratic order
- Naturalization rate in Germany is well below the EU average
This article is for subscribers only.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet approved a draft law overhauling the nation’s citizenship rules that would allow people to hold multiple passports and is designed to facilitate the integration of foreigners into Europe’s biggest economy.
Some 14% of the population — or 12 million people — don’t hold German citizenship, and almost half have lived in the country for at least ten years, according to interior ministry figures. Naturalization in Germany lags well behind the European Union average, with a rate of 1.1% compared with 2% for the wider bloc, in part because people have generally been required to give up their previous citizenship to get a German passport.