Germany is going to be overwhelmed by Turkish migrants rushing for naturalisation should the country’s government reform its citizenship law, according to critics including Christian Democrat MP Alexander Dobrindt. “German citizenship that can be obtained quickly will create additional false incentives to migrate,” he warned.
Plans to axe the country’s partial ban on dual citizenships may see a rise in Turkish applicants, with the leader of one expat community organisation predicting a coming surge.
“So far, applicants have had to give up their old citizenship. That scares a lot of people,” Gökay Sofuoğlu, chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, explained.
“I assume that there will be significantly more applications.”
Sofuoğlu went on to urge the country’s government to hire more people, saying that the system for naturalisation was already heavily backlogged.
“The authorities are already overwhelmed. There is chaos there right now,” he said, warning that the problem would only get worse if authorities did not act.
Marc Herter, who also serves as the Mayor of Hamm, has been forced to deny being involved with the Grey Wolves, a right-wing Turkish nationalist organisation. https://t.co/imfWHBe6sX
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 4, 2023
Sofuoğlu also praised the ruling “traffic-light” government for ignoring concerns to do with mass migration, describing ministers as not giving into the “bad mood from the right-wing corner”.
That was in reference to fears voiced by the country’s right-wing that the liberalisation of German citizenship law will only encourage even more migrants to come to the country.
“German citizenship that can be obtained quickly will create additional false incentives to migrate,” Dobrindt said. “Express naturalisation with low requirements does not promote integration, but makes it more difficult.”
The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has also expressed concern regarding the rise in the number of migrants coming to Germany, with the recent wave of asylum seekers in particularly worrying AfD politicians.
“The federal government is sleepwalking in the worsening migration crisis,” Gottfried Curio, the party’s domestic policy spokesman, remarked.
“While other countries such as Austria and Sweden succeed in reducing illegal migration in a targeted manner, the federal government not only fails to take necessary countermeasures, but also pushes migration,” he added.
Curio went on to call for an immediate crackdown on illegal-migrant crossings on the country’s eastern border, as well as for voluntary migration programmes into the country to be curtailed.
The European Commission has rejected calls for German supermarket chains to bear some responsibility for alleged abuses of migrant workers in the country. https://t.co/sQY2KuuPOW
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 11, 2023
