Germany Ends Fast-Track Citizenship Amid Shifting Immigration Debate

                    A view shows the Reichstag building, the seat of the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin.

Germany’s parliament has voted to abolish its fast-track citizenship programme, a move that underscores the country’s changing political climate on migration. The scheme, introduced under former Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, allowed “exceptionally well-integrated” immigrants to apply for citizenship after just three years of residency instead of the standard five.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative-led government argued that citizenship should mark the culmination of integration, not serve as an incentive for migration. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt emphasized that a German passport must be “recognition of a successful integration process.”

Although the programme was designed to attract highly skilled workers to a country facing acute labour shortages, it was rarely used. Of the record 300,000 naturalisations in 2024, only a few hundred came through the fast-track route. Critics, including the Greens, warned that scrapping the measure could make Germany less appealing to global talent.

The rest of the liberalised citizenship law remains intact, including reduced residency requirements from eight to five years and expanded access to dual citizenship. Still, the decision reflects a broader hardening of attitudes toward immigration, a shift that has fueled the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in recent polls.