Germany Refines Citizenship Policy: Reinstates 5-Year Residence Requirement to Strengthen Integration Focus
Published Time：
2025-10-13 13:17
Source：
October 8, 2025 — The German Bundestag voted 450 in favor, 134 against, and 2 abstentions to repeal the previous government's "fast-track citizenship" law, restoring the minimum residence requirement for foreign nationals seeking German citizenship to five years. This adjustment aims to clarify naturalization criteria and emphasize "successful integration into German society" as the core objective, ensuring constructive interaction between immigrants and the host society through improved institutional design.
The policy revision follows comprehensive consideration of integration quality and social management. In summer 2024, the previous government had reduced the minimum naturalization period to three years, aiming to attract skilled workers to address labor shortages. The current government, prioritizing the integrity of the citizenship system, advocates for clear residence and integration requirements to ensure a German passport represents recognition for those who have genuinely integrated. Before the vote, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt emphasized that the new policy sends a "clear signal": German citizenship will be strictly tied to "successful integration," both affirming the efforts of legal immigrants and maintaining the system's standardization and social fairness.
This adjustment does not negate immigrants' contributions to German society but seeks to balance labor market needs with social cohesion through optimized procedures and standards. Retaining the five-year residence requirement provides immigrants with a clear integration pathway—requiring German language proficiency, proof of income, and other integration criteria—while ensuring immigrant groups can more substantially adapt to German society, thereby injecting sustainable momentum into local development. The policy clearly directs toward "orderly immigration and high-quality integration," reflecting the German government's governance wisdom in balancing inclusiveness and institutional rigor.
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