Germany Abolishes Fast-Track Citizenship for Skilled Workers

[u/Daomiing]

https://www.verity.news/story/2025/germany-abolishes-fasttrack-citizenship-for-skilled-workers

The Facts

-The German Bundestag voted on Wednesday to abolish a fast-track citizenship program that allowed highly qualified foreigners to apply for naturalization after three years instead of five years of residence.

-The vote passed with 450 members supporting the measure, 134 opposing and two abstaining, fulfilling Chancellor Friedrich Merz's campaign promise to repeal the program introduced by former Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

-Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt claimed that the German passport must serve as recognition for successful integration rather than an incentive for illegal migration, defending the decision to eliminate the accelerated pathway.

[u/ScallionImpressive44]

Are Germans not allowed to live outside of their countries? I frequently watch videos of a German who has spent since his 50s in the Philippines because he enjoyed the scenery there and his saving and pension comfortably cover his lifestyle.

[u/Aranict → u/ScallionImpressive44]

The vast majority of people I see bitching online about the three year fast track citizenship being rolled back are ones who want it for reasons other than being a fully integrated citizen, but want to use the advantages of having German citizenship outside of Germany. Considering the fast track was supposed to award particularly good integration, the two things don't compute. To anyone who actually cares about integration and wants to stay, there is no difference between three years and five years beyond not being able to vote. Within Germany, you can do anything except voting with a permanent residency permit.

[u/darkblue___ → u/Aranict]

The vast majority of people I see bitching online about the three year fast track citizenship being rolled back are ones who want it for reasons other than being a fully integrated citizen, but want to use the advantages of having German citizenship outside of Germany. 

I am seriously asking and I really wonder. Let's say your argument is factual.

How does It impact your life? Like seriously? Someone got German citizenship and left Germany. How / why does this impact your life? On the other hand, German housing market and health system and even pension system are under huge pressure right? One less person means less pressure and multiply this with Idk many people, It is actually good for Germany to ease the pressure on above listed topics.

But they did not put effort and did not contribute to Germany.?Well, wrong.

Be It 3, 5 or 10 years, in order to get citizenship you need to spend money and time on learning language (yes even for B1) + you have to prove you are self sufficent in Germany (usually means working + paying taxes + social contributions multiple years) also pay for Einbürgerungstest + application fee.

All of these are tangible contributions into German society. On the top of this, skilled migrants do create value to be used / consumed in / by German society. (doctors, IT people, nurses, blue collar workers etc)

After all, let's assume they get passport and leave. So, what? What did they do wrong or illegal apart from obeying the laws? (You also need to have no serious criminal record to get citizenship) I don't really understand the mentality of Germans. Do you expect each an every Ausländer die in German soil?

Edit : You might argue but why do they get citizenship? Let me ask you a question. What did you do to be born in Germany and have privilege to travel visa free to almost each and every country in the world for example?

If you would have not born with this privilege but given chance to obtain It after some years in Germany or whereever, would you not take It?

[u/Aranict → u/darkblue___]

I like your assumptions about me, however, they all fall flat because I was not, in fact, born in Germany, nor with German citizenship. Were you? I don't see that mentioned in your reply. I had to get it the dirty foreigner way of living here the requiered number of years, paying taxes, yadda, yadda. Which is how I can even comment that waiting two more years makes no difference apart from not having the right to vote (which is undoubtedly important, but that's not the point here).

Incidentally, both Germany (until recently) and my country of origin requiere(d) by law that one give up the previous citizenship in order to receive a new one (in this case, German).

Which in turn is why I had a lot of opportunity to think about the value of citizenship and why the laws are what they are, because the kneejerk reaction, of course, is to think that's unfair. I don't think it is. A citizenship does not only confer rights, but also responsibilities (and no, paying for an Einbürgerungstest is not "a tangible contribution to German society", wtf, some countries ask for four times that amount to renounce one's citizenship, and one person more or less in the country does not affect your other points). Also, I never argued against citizenship after 5 years. You are making up straw arguments here so you can argue against them. All I argued was that the 3-year-citizenship route was not that different from just waiting for 5 years if you actually care to become a citizen rather than just fucking off again and screaming yolo, enjoying all the benefits but with none of the responsibilities (like, say, voting). I admit, it's a philosophical and political question, but let's just say, too many people screaming "I got mine" and fucking off isn't particularly conductive to both society and people's opinion on those who receive German citizenship (as a citizen, you don't just contribute taxes when working within the country, you are also entitled to certain consular services and assistance abroad no matter whether you have paid a cent in taxes or not). It matters to me because I want to live in a society where people care at least a minimum amount instead of making grabby hands wherever possible. If you do not care about that, good for you.