The naturalization rate in 2008 was the lowest on record in the history of unified Germany
Led by the SPD, Berlin and Brandenburg, along with Bremen that joined them, submitted to the upper house of parliament an initiative to introduce dual citizenship. Their argumentation was quite understandable. First, adult residents of the country with migrant roots are 'fully assimilated into German society' but at the same time 'connected to their country of origin'. Second, migrants who have long lived in Germany still cannot, from a constitutional law perspective, participate even in municipal elections – and since changing this article of legislation at the Karlsruhe level is not possible, why not try giving 'new' citizens voting rights by turning them into Germans?
Last week the Bundesrat rejected this plan, which was not so much humanitarian as integrative. 'It is impossible to be equally loyal to two states,' said the head of the Lower Saxony Interior Ministry Uwe Schünemann at the meeting of the body uniting the heads of the federal states. 'One can be exclusively loyal to only one country,' echoed the aforementioned Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière at the CDU congress.
It is possible that the minister is right. The problem is that the notorious 'girls in headscarves' à la Thilo Sarrazin are not particularly eager for German citizenship, contemplating (after receiving all due benefits in full) eventually leaving for their native Anatolian village. People who are truly integrated want to become Germans – and they do so after meeting minimal requirements: language proficiency, no criminal record, financial independence, and a sufficient period of legal residence in the country. However, it is not entirely clear why the law is harsher on children than on adults: the choice between two citizenships must be made at 18 – is that not too early to make such a serious decision?
The issue of dual citizenship had been open in Germany even before the turn of the century. The 1998 campaign to collect signatures in favor of the (never held) federal referendum on this matter regarding migrants from the former USSR became quite loud. But for some reason, the decision of the European Commission from the same year, which allowed EU citizens long residing in neighboring countries to acquire a second citizenship while retaining the first, was reported very quietly and without pathos in the media.
And the conditions for that retention, according to the Federal Law on Nationality (Staatsangehrigkeitsgesetz), are: 'maintenance of family ties', 'ownership of real estate in the country of origin', 'possession of a current bank account', and even 'membership in clubs and trade union associations in the homeland'. All these criteria are quite relevant for German citizens living abroad, but for some reason they do not apply to migrants within the country.
Some critics believe that politicians from Berlin, Brandenburg, and Bremen are trying to solve the issue of their own declining popularity with the idea of dual citizenship. That is quite possible, but then it is unclear why the ruling mayor of Hamburg, CDU representative Ole von Beust, joined the social-democratic states in their petition to the Bundesrat at the last moment. Maybe because the conservative bloc CDU/CSU still did not consider its duty to migrants fulfilled when it included the first female foreign-born minister Aygül Özkan in the government of Lower Saxony, but at the same time rejected the same Bundesrat's petition to grant voting rights at the municipal level to non-citizens of Germany who have lived in the country for more than 10 years?
According to the Federal Statistical Office (SBA), the naturalization rate in 2008 was the lowest in the history of unified Germany. 94,500 people received a national passport – 16% fewer than in 2007, and 41% fewer compared to 2000.
The more or less sustained naturalization dynamic among Turks and people from Serbia and Montenegro is completely killed by negative rates for immigrants from Ukraine (minus 56%) and Russia (minus 40%). Only one out of 45 legally residing foreigners in Germany shows interest in naturalization, SBA experts conclude.
Elena OBODOVSKAYA.
Russkaya Germaniya