The political debate in Germany has been heated since the so-called „cityscape“ statement by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). While outrage and the question of how to discuss migration continue, another central topic of integration policy is now moving to the forefront: dual citizenship.

Reform of citizenship law: What the traffic light coalition changed

The 2024 citizenship law reform, one of the traffic light coalition’s key migration policy projects, allows naturalization after five years instead of eight. The law also fundamentally permits dual citizenship. In addition, the coalition introduced an accelerated procedure enabling particularly well-integrated individuals to naturalize after just three years — the so-called “turbo naturalization.”

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With the new regulations, the federal government aimed to strengthen Germany as a modern immigration country and acknowledge a longstanding reality: Many immigrants do not want to completely give up their identity of origin. The numbers show how great the demand for the German passport has been since then. In 2024, 291,955 people were naturalized in Germany – the highest figure since recording began in 2000, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports. The largest groups of new citizens came from Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Russia, and Afghanistan. According to Destatis, around 80 percent of those naturalized in 2023 were allowed to keep their previous citizenship.

However, the current black-red coalition has since eliminated the particularly fast naturalization paths. Now the political focus is turning to the centerpiece of the reform: dual citizenship.

Union toughens tone: Dual citizenship to be „exception instead of rule“ again

As the Bild newspaper reports, pressure is growing within the Union to roll back the simplified procedures for dual citizens. Politicians from the federal and state levels want to ensure that the German passport can be revoked more quickly from dual citizens who commit crimes. At the same time, under the Union‘s vision, dual citizenship should no longer be standard in future naturalizations, but should become the exception.

CSU politician Stephan Mayer said in Bild that „violent offenders, serious criminals, enemies of the constitution, anti-Semites, and German-haters“ must have their German citizenship „immediately revoked if they have two passports.“ Citizenship is „a privilege“ that should not apply to those „who trample on our values.“ According to Bild, supporters of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas who spread anti-Semitic incitement in Germany are particularly in focus.

Mayer continued: „We as a country must ask ourselves whether we still want general dual citizenship like this and whether we can still afford it,“ he said.

Naturalization in Germany: Union doubts identification of new citizens

Cornell Babendererde, who is responsible for naturalization law in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, also expressed criticism. „Bild“ quotes her as saying that dual citizenship must „be the exception, not the rule.“ She explained that the high number of those who want to keep their old passport raises the question of whether identification with Germany is really strong enough or whether it‘s more about taking advantage of the benefits of the German passport.

According to her understanding, however, one exception should remain: reparation naturalization for descendants of victims of National Socialism. Babendererde described this as „an expression of our responsibility to history“ and as „an important sign against anti-Semitism“ in Germany.

Whether the Union can prevail with its demands within the coalition is currently unclear. Since citizenship law can be changed as a federal law with a simple majority in the Bundestag, a reform would in principle be quickly possible. However, a prerequisite would be that the Union convinces its coalition partner SPD of a tightening. Should another change actually occur, this would already be the third course change in German naturalization policy within just a few years.

This article was originally written and published on the 29th of October in German. It was translated in English with the use of Artificial Intelligence.