Germany passes new citizenship law

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA) - The German parliament on Friday approved a new citizenship law to enhance social and political participation of immigrants.

Some 382 lawmakers – mostly from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s left-liberal coalition government – voted in favor of the draft law, while 234 conservative and far-right lawmakers voted against it. Twenty-three lawmakers abstained.

With the new law, immigrants will have a right to German citizenship after five years of residence in the country, instead of the current eight years.

For immigrants who have shown outstanding academic or professional achievements, and have good language skills, this period will be reduced to three years.

The new citizenship law will also allow immigrants to hold dual citizenship or multiple nationality, which was not possible till now, for many of those coming from outside the European Union.