(Adnkronos) – Germany tightens up on family reunification and times to obtain citizenship. Friedrich Merz’s new government has approved measures that include restrictions on family reunification for certain groups of migrants and a tightening of the rules for applying for citizenship. The two bills, presented by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, now go to the Bundestag for approval.
The first measures concern holders of subsidiary protection, foreign citizens who, according to the authorities, do not possess the requirements to be recognized as refugees. According to the text viewed by the German agency Dpa, there are about 400,000 foreign citizens holding subsidiary protection in Germany. Three quarters would be Syrian. They will no longer be allowed to bring relatives to Germany for an initial period of two years, effectively returning to what was already envisaged between 2016 and 2018. Since then, about 12,000 relatives of subsidiary protection holders have arrived in Germany every year.
In 2024, 229,751 people applied for asylum for the first time in the country. According to Dpa, unlike other proposals conceived as a further crackdown on the numbers of migrants who want to settle in Germany, the measure that reaches the Bundestag is unlikely to encounter obstacles from a legal point of view. Although there is no shortage of criticism from those who see it as an obstacle to the possibility for migrants to arrive legally and safely in Germany.
“It’s a catastrophe” for Tareq Alaows of the Pro Asyl group. And Herbert Brücker, a migration expert, points out how studies show that “separation from one’s family is psychologically very hard for refugees and consequently hinders integration”.
The other bill that has been given the green light by the government aims to reverse a reform introduced by the previous executive on the time it takes to obtain German citizenship. Its heart will not be distorted, Dpa points out, underlining how most migrants will still be able to apply for German citizenship after five years (compared to eight in the past) and how there are no changes on dual citizenship.
But the path – defined as ‘turbo naturalization’ by its detractors – designed for those who were “particularly well integrated” and could have the possibility of obtaining citizenship in three years is expected to stop. And for Brücker “the revocation of accelerated naturalization has negative repercussions precisely on the group of people we want in Germany”.
