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Background Papers Citizenship Reform and Germany's Foreign Residents Major changes in Germany's citizenship and naturalization laws took effect on January 1, 2000. Germany is now home to 7.3 million foreigners. Half of Germany's foreign residents have lived in the country for upwards of ten years, and each year roughly 100,000 children are born in Germany to non-citizens. The revisions in the citizenship and naturalization laws make it easier for long-term residents to qualify for German citizenship and give many children born to foreigners an automatic claim to German citizenship. The New Laws on Citizenship There are three ways to become a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany: by birth, by naturalization and, for ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the Soviet successor states, by claim under the "Right of Return." The most important change in Germany's citizenship law is that the principle of jus sanguinis - of defining citizenship by inheritance - has been supplemented with the principle of the jus soli ("right of soil") - of defining citizenship by place of birth. As the law now stands, a child becomes a German citizen automatically upon birth if at least one parent is a German citizen. A child born in wedlock after January 1, 1975, is German if either parent was a citizen at the time of the child's birth. Children born before January 1, 1975, received German citizenship only if the father was a German citizen at the time of the child's birth. A child born to a German mother and foreign father before 1975 became German only if the mother requested German citizenship for the child before December 31, 1977. A child born out of wedlock to a German mother is German. If only the father is German, the child may receive German citizenship if the father acknowledges paternity before the child turns 23 or if the father acknowledges paternity and marries the mother. A child adopted by a German citizen becomes a German if the child is under 18. No changes have been made to these provisions under the new citizenship law. As of January 1, 2000, children born in Germany to foreign parents acquire German citizenship at birth if at least one parent has lived legally in Germany for a minimum of eight years. Children who acquire German citizenship under this provision will be allowed to hold dual citizenship until they reach adulthood; they will be required to choose between their German and foreign citizenship by the age of 23 at the latest. Children born to foreign parents before the enactment of the new law who are under the age of ten will also be able to claim German citizenship by virtue of birth in Germany, if the above named conditions (time of legal residence) apply. That claim must be exercised within a year of the new law's promulgation, and those who obtain German citizenship in this way will also be required to choose between their German and foreign citizenship by the age of 23. The main change in the new regulations governing naturalization is a substantial reduction in the length of residency requirement. Adult foreigners who have resided legally in Germany for eight years have a claim to citizenship if they: - give up their previous citizenship; - have not been convicted of a major felony; - are able to support themselves and their family; if the individual becomes dependent upon public assistance for reasons beyond their control, this condition is waived. In addition, applicants for German citizenship will be required to demonstrate proficiency in the German language and declare their allegiance to the Basic Law (Grundgesetz), the Federal Republic's constitution. The new naturalization regulations, like the old, generally prohibit naturalized German citizens from continuing to hold foreign (dual) citizenship. Exceptions may be made - for elderly individuals if the renunciation of their foreign citizenship would cause unreasonable hardship; - for individuals who have suffered political persecution and individuals who have received asylum in Germany; - if the process of renouncing foreign citizenship carries unreasonable burdens (e.g., excessive fees or demeaning procedures); - if renunciation of foreign citizenship would impose severe disadvantages, in particular economic losses or curtailment of property rights. Loss of German Citizenship If German citizens apply for and acquire the citizenship of a foreign country, they lose their German citizenship unless they have requested and received a certificate granting approval to retain it ("Beibehaltungsgenehmigung") from the German Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt) in Cologne, Germany. Applications for such a certificate are filed with a German embassy or consulate general. Already under the previous citizenship and naturalization laws, it was possible to retain German citizenship, provided strict requirements were met. However, in the interest of avoiding dual citizenship, the provision was interpreted very narrowly. The new provision largely does away with the former strict criteria, thus making it considerably easier for Germans to retain their German citizenship. The main requirement is that applicants must be able to credibly show that they still have continuing ties to Germany. This could consist of ongoing relationships to close relatives living in Germany, existing ownership of real estate in Germany, or pension or insurance claims. Furthermore, a pledge of allegiance (as is required in the U.S. for naturalization) shall in future no longer stand in the way of issuing a certificate approving retention of German citizenship if the foreign country has a governmental and social order comparable to that of the Federal Republic of Germany. This applies in particular to Germans living in the United States who wish to acquire U.S. citizenship. The Aim and Impact of the New Citizenship and Naturalization Laws The revisions in the Federal Republic's citizenship and naturalization laws come after many years of discussion of how long-term resident aliens could best be integrated within German society. In his first policy statement before the Bundestag (November 1998), Chancellor Gerhard Schröder noted, For far too long those who have come to work here, who pay their taxes and abide by our laws have been told that they are just 'guests.' But in truth they have for years been part of German society. For this reason, this government will modernize the law on nationality. The revisions in the citizenship and naturalization laws are intended to send Germany's foreign residents "a signal that we welcome all those who profess loyalty to our democratic constitutional state as citizens with equal rights," as Federal Minister of the Interior Otto Schily told the Bundestag in presenting the new legislation. The Federal Ministry of the Interior expects the number of foreigners seeking naturalization will increase, as intended, under the new regulations, but, citing the numerous variables that might shape an individual's decision, it cannot predict how many of those theoretically eligible to apply for German citizenship will do so. It is likewise impossible to predict how many of the children born to foreign parents who acquire German citizenship by virtue of being born in Germany will opt for German citizenship when the time comes for them to choose. Only limited numbers of foreigners have sought German citizenship in recent years. In 1997, for example, at least 2.2 million foreigners had fulfilled the 15-year residency requirement for naturalization, but only 82,913 foreigners - excluding ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the Soviet successor states - were naturalized that year. In January 2000 when the new regulations took effect, approximately 3.6 million foreigners had lived in the Federal Republic for ten years or more and thus fulfilled the new eight-year residency requirement. German Citizenship by Claim of the "Right of Return" The majority of those who are granted German citizenship each year are ethnic German "resettlers" (Aussiedler), the descendants of German farmers and craftspeople who settled in Russia and Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe in the 18th century. The ethnic Germans' "right of return" rests on Article 116 of the Basic Law, the Federal Republic's constitution. Article 116 also extends the right to German citizenship to those deprived of it on political, racial or religious grounds between 1933 and 1945. Foreigners in Germany: A Profile Germany's foreign residents come from across the globe, and the reasons behind their being in Germany are as diverse as their national origins. Of the 7.3 million foreigners living in Germany at the opening of 1999, a quarter (25.3 percent) held passports of another European Union member states. Roughly two million held fixed-term residence permits, and another 2.3 million held either German or EU residence permits that entitle them to remain in Germany as long as they wish. Approximately half of all foreign residents had, at the close of 1998, been living in Germany for at least ten years and almost a third for twenty years or more. More than 1.6 million foreign nationals were born in Germany; roughly two-thirds of the foreigners under the age of 18 now living in Germany were born there. A substantial minority of Germany's foreign residents are refugees from military conflict or political persecution; in 1997, the most recent year for which comprehensive figures are available, 1.4 million refugees and asylum-seekers were living in Germany. Foreign "Guest Workers" Many of Germany's long-term foreign residents came to the country as "guest workers" (Gastarbeiter) or are family members of guest workers. Faced with a labor shortage, the Federal Republic of Germany actively recruited foreign workers in the boom years between 1955 and 1968 from Italy, Spain, Greece, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia, Yugoslavia, and, above all, Turkey. By 1970, West Germany was host to 2.7 million "guest workers" (63% male, 37% female). The government of the former German Democratic Republic also recruited foreign workers, but in much smaller numbers. Contrary to expectation, many guest workers remained in West Germany after it stopped taking in new guest workers in 1973. Many established families in Germany or brought family members from abroad to join them. One result has been that the imbalance in the numbers of men and women within Germany's foreign communities has decreased over time. At the end of 1998, for example, 45.7 percent of the resident aliens holding Turkish passports were women and girls. The children of the first "guest worker generation" and the children born to them speak German fluently and are often much more firmly anchored in German culture than that of their country of origin. Asylum-Seekers and Refugees Article 16a of the Basic Law, the Federal Republic's constitution, grants the right of asylum to individuals suffering political persecution and makes provision for procedures to review applications for asylum. In response to an enormous increase in the number of individuals seeking asylum and a growing backlog of cases awaiting review, the German parliament revised the laws governing asylum in 1993. The new legislation established a two-tier system of "safe states of origin" and "safe third states"; a person entering Germany from a nation falling in either of these categories may be turned back at the border or promptly sent back to his/her place of departure. "Safe states of origin" are countries where systematic political persecution or inhumane practices do not occur. "Safe third states" are the member states of the European Union and the states upholding the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and the European Human Rights Convention. Applicants who are not citizens of a safe country or who did not pass through one on their way to Germany may be denied asylum if their applications are considered "manifestly unfounded," i.e., if they have made unsubstantiated or contradictory claims or have presented forged or false papers. Other grounds for rejection are false information about one's identity or nationality, refusal to provide such information or failure to comply with asylum procedure requirements. There are several categories of refugees residing in Germany in addition to those either granted or seeking asylum. In 1997, for example, Germany sheltered 254,000 refugees from the war in the former Yugoslavia, 95,000 "quota refugees" (Kontingentflüchtlinge) from other crisis regions, and 360,000 de facto refugees who either had not applied for asylum or were allowed to remain in Germany on humanitarian grounds after their asylum applications had been turned down. In all - including recipients of asylum and their families as well as asylum-seekers - approximately 1.4 million foreigners were residing in Germany as refugees in 1997. Ethnic German 'Resettlers' From Eastern Europe The majority of those who are granted German citizenship each year are ethnic German "resettlers" (Aussiedler), the descendants of German farmers and craftspeople who settled in Russia and Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe in the 18th century. Some of the ethnic German communities in the East were forcibly resettled within their countries by Stalin after Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in World War II. After the war, some fled to the West, and some, like the Sudeten Germans of what was then Czechoslovakia, were expelled from their countries. A large number, however, remained in Eastern Europe. These ethnic Germans enjoy the "right of return" under Germany's constitution and may take up residence in Germany. Modest numbers of the eastern Germans exercised that right during the later years of the Cold War. With the transformation of the European political landscape in 1989, the number of resettlers grew rapidly. In 1990, 397,000 ethnic Germans arrived in the Federal Republic, more than ten times as many as in 1985. Since peaking at the beginning of the decade, the number of resettlers has gradually declined again. In 1997, 134,419 ethnic Germans, the great majority of them Russian citizens, opted to resettle in Germany. The German government does not specifically encourage the migration of ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union, Poland or Romania. In fact, Germany is funding programs designed to improve living conditions for ethnic Germans and encourage them to remain where they reside. They are entitled not only to German citizenship but also a broad array of services designed to aid in their integration into Germany. This is necessary, because despite their German ancestry, many do not speak the language or have any familiarity with the country. The ethnic Germans' "Right of Return" rests on Article 116 of the Basic Law, the Federal Republic's constitution. Article 116 also extends the right to German citizenship to those deprived of it on political, racial or religious grounds between 1933 and 1945. Foreigners in Germany: The Ten Largest Nationality Groups in 1998
Refugees in Germany
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