Summary: The Liberalization Of German Citizenship

it has taken some important steps towards liberalization of citizenship.

Through the history the German citizenship preference has always been the jus sanguinis principle regardless of the birth place or residence status. After the Nazi era there was both an international and domestic pressure on Germany to liberalize their citizenship policies, as they were perceived as outdated and impractical. Despite the pressure and the fact that Germany had the largest immigrant population since the late 1950´s, the naturalization rules in Germany stayed more or less on the same exclusive and ethnically closed level in their citizenship policies, until 1999. Apart from the slight liberalization of naturalization requirements which occurred during the

Since the law took effect in 2000 until 2007, the naturalization in Germany has been gradually decreasing with over 20% fewer naturalizations than the year 1999 before the law took effect, even though there are approx. five million non-EU citizens residing in Germany. He presents a few potential reasons for this fact. Firstly, the process of obtaining and renouncing the citizenship is costly, since in Germany one is obligated to pay for both. The only way that the applicants can keep their dual citizenship is if the other country´s fees to renounce the citizenship are more than one-month salary of ca €1300. In Howards opinion, this is where the German citizenship policies show the effect of exclusion and discouragement for foreigners on their way to naturalization. Secondly, there is the question of renouncing the second citizenship in the connection to the rights one might lose in their original country, such as inheritance right, owning the property etc. Therefore, one is stuck ‘between a rock and a hard place’, as it is hard for some people to cut all the ties with their original country. In addition, there might be cultural and patriotic reasons behind the hesitation of renouncing one´s current citizenship. People in some countries view their citizenship the same way they view the blood lines, and the loss of one´s current citizenship is seen as the loss of one’s identity. Thirdly, it is about the privileges and the benefits of the German welfare, which is very open-handed, independent of nationality, and apart from the right to vote and employment in a public sector, all the other social rights are already achieved through the permanent residence. Therefore, there is no need for many foreigners to apply for the German citizenship (Howard, 2009). However, the German welfare is a double edge sword when it