Germany granted the citizenship of a record number of foreigners last year. Russians, champions to percentage growth
Russians from Germany, at a rally organized in Berlin on May 9, when Russia celebrates the “Victory Day” in World War II, photo: F Boillot / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
Germany granted citizenship to a record number of 291,955 persons last year, an increase of 46% compared to 2023, the Syrians representing the largest group, according to data published by the Federal Statistics Office and quoted by Reuters.
The institution said that the reforms in the legislation on citizenship contributed to this increase. In June last year, Germany reduced the residence requirement to naturalize from eight years to five, or even three in special cases.
Many Syrians who arrived as refugees in 2015 and 2016, when the former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany's borders for hundreds of thousands of people running away from war and persecutions in the Middle East, became eligible for naturalization during 2024.
As a result, they were the largest group of new citizens, representing 28% of the total naturalizations, ie 83,150 people, an increase of 10.1%. They were followed by Turks, Iraqi, Russians and Afghans, who represented 8%, 5%, 4% and 3% of the total respectively.
Almost 13,000 Russians received German citizenship in 2024
The Russians recorded the highest percentage increase in naturalizations, their number reaching 12,980 in 2024, from 1,995 in the previous year. The number of Turks who obtained German citizenship also increased significantly, reaching 22,525, more than double compared to 2023.
The new law of citizenship also allows people to maintain their origin citizenship while acquiring German nationality, thus allowing tens of thousands of Turkish citizens to naturalize. Many of them, or their parents, arrived in Germany as workers invited in the 1960s and 1970s.
However, Germany's new coalition government, consisting of conservatives and social-democrats, intends to return to measures and restore a minimum period of five-year waiting for citizenship.
Conservatives have stated that citizenship should be granted at the end of an integration process, not to “initiate” it, and are afraid that shorter waiting periods to become a German citizen could stimulate migration and public resentment.
Germany has long experienced a workforce crisis, which he has tried to compensate for immigration. But the increasing number of immigrants and refugees received in the country also caused dissatisfaction, political stating that he is at least in part responsible for the ascension of the far -right Party (alternative to Germany).
