More and more Syrians are being naturalized. In 2023, 75,500 men and women from this country received a German passport. That was 56 percent more than in the previous year. This was reported by the Federal Statistical Office. The number of naturalized citizens in this group had already doubled in the previous year. The office explains this with the large number of refugees who came to Germany from Syria between 2014 and 2016 due to the civil war and now meet the requirements for naturalization. People from Syria therefore made up the largest group of naturalized citizens last year – more than one in three came from there.
The number of naturalizations nationwide rose to 200,100, an increase of 19 percent. In the district of Tübingen, 689 people were naturalized, 13 percent more than in the previous year. In Baden-Württemberg as a whole, the figure was 22,745.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, there has never been a year in Germany with more naturalizations than 2023. The five most common countries of origin – Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Romania and Afghanistan – together accounted for more than half of the new citizens. The naturalized citizens were 29.3 years old on average and therefore significantly younger than the overall population (44.6 years). The proportion of women was 45 percent, and only 37 percent of naturalized Syrians.
Last year, 3,900 Iraqis were granted German citizenship, 57 percent more than in the previous year. The number of immigrants from Afghanistan also rose by 55 percent to 6,500. In contrast, fewer people from Turkey received a German passport. At 3,500, the number was a quarter lower than in the previous year. All of these figures are based on the old naturalization law. Since the reform that came into effect this summer, for example, it is no longer necessary to give up your former citizenship.
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A German passport. Photo: tuenews INTERNATIONAL / Linda Kreuzer.
