Pull the emergency brake on soaring naturalization numbers, Merz!
Germany naturalized a record 332,500 foreign nationals last year, the highest since 2000, with Syrians representing one-fifth of new citizens despite the government claiming a migration turnaround.
The explosive growth in citizenship grants comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt claim to have implemented a successful migration turnaround, as Junge Freiheit reports. Merz recently stated that his government had solved large parts of the migration problem, citing declining numbers of new arrivals compared to 2024.
Yet the naturalization data exposes a critical gap in the government’s approach. While officials may have reduced the flow of new migrants entering the country, they have failed to address the millions already present who are rapidly being granted German citizenship.
Syrians Dominate Naturalization Numbers
Syrian nationals accounted for the largest share of new German citizens, with 65,600 individuals naturalized despite a 20 percent decrease from the previous year. They represent one-fifth of all naturalizations. Turkish, Russian, Iraqi, and Afghan nationals follow in the ranking.
The average residency period before naturalization stood at 12.4 years overall. However, Syrians achieved citizenship after an average of just 7.9 years, while Turkish nationals waited 24.1 years on average.
Decades of Weakening Standards
Germany’s citizenship requirements have been systematically dismantled over three decades, according to Junge Freiheit. Under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the government first established a legal right for foreigners to be naturalized, transforming what had been a discretionary decision by authorities.
The Red-Green coalition reduced the minimum residency requirement from 15 to eight years around the turn of the millennium. Two decades later, the traffic light coalition government radicalized this trajectory further, dropping the threshold to five years and permitting naturalization after just three years for those demonstrating special integration achievements.
Dual Citizenship Fuels Applications
The previous government’s decision to permit dual citizenship for all foreign nationals, rather than only specific groups, sent a clear welcoming signal that contributed to surging applications. The Federal Statistical Office confirms this policy change particularly boosted naturalizations among Turkish and Russian citizens, who no longer face the choice of surrendering their original passports to obtain German citizenship.
Conservative Coalition Opts for Cosmetic Changes
The Merz government, which took office in May 2025 and can only be held responsible for half of the reporting period, has implemented minimal corrections. While the coalition reversed the three-year fast-track naturalization option introduced by the traffic light government, all other liberalized provisions remain in place.
Union voices including interior policy spokesman Alexander Throm have called for raising the general naturalization threshold back to eight years. However, such reforms appear unlikely given coalition partner SPD opposition.
Earlier reporting by Junge Freiheit in January demonstrated that deportation numbers actually declined at the start of Merz’s chancellorship compared to the final months under Olaf Scholz, with subsequent data confirming the deficit. The combination of minimal deportations and record naturalizations suggests Germany’s migration challenge is not being solved but rather cemented as a permanent fixture.
With information from Junge Freiheit
