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The Acquisition of Nationality and the Integration of Turkish Nationals in Germany

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The Acquisition of Nationality and the Integration of Turkish Nationals in Germany The Acquisition of nationality and the Integration of Turkish Nationals in Germany Wocmes Workshop, Barcelona, July 20-21 2010 Julia Schieber Chair for public international Law and European Law Prof. Dr. Hailbronner Universitätsstraße 10 D-78457 Konstanz Fon +49 7531 88-3021 Fax +49 7531 88-3146 [email protected] www.uni-konstanz.de Draft – work in progress – please do not cite without the author’s permission 0 Contents I. Introduction and Outline ..................................................................................................... 2 II. Statistical framework ....................................................................................................... 4 1. German nationality law and the debate about integration................................................... 9 a. Acquisition of nationality by naturalisation ...................................................................... 10 b. The introduction of the „Optionsmodell“ (Optional model) ............................................. 18 c. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 19 III. Other integration measures ............................................................................................ 21 1. General Trends .................................................................................................................. 21 2. Integration at the national level ......................................................................................... 22 a. The installation of integration courses .............................................................................. 22 b. The linkage between migration and integration policies .................................................. 23 c. The foundation of the German Islam Conference ............................................................. 25 IV. Final Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 25 1 I. Introduction and Outline The title of this paper “The acquisition of nationality and the integration of Turkish Nationals in Germany” is kind of misleading insofar as it refers expressly to Turkish nationals. Although, Turkish nationals are the major group of foreign nationals in Germany, there are no regulations regarding integration or acquisition of nationality which only refer to Turkish nationals. Nevertheless – as the major group of foreign nationals in Germany - Turkish nationals are always the group present in mind when making law or talking about integration. This paper will therefore deal with the general topic of the acquisition of nationality and integration, but will take Turkish nationals into special consideration when there are particularities for this group. The new millennium marked a major change in German nationality law as well as in German law on aliens. The nationality law of 1913 (Reichs- und Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz), valid from the German Empire through the Third Reich and the Federal Republic – which was subject to many changes and amendments – was replaced by a new nationality law, the Nationality Act,1 which entered into force on 1 January 2000. The new nationality law was the result of a highly controversial debate between the major political parties in 1998.2 Although in many respects still based upon the provisions of the law of 1913, the new nationality law has taken up the trend of some of the more recent European nationality laws3 by substantially facilitating naturalisation; by including a stronger toleration of dual nationality; by a replacement of discretionary regulations with individual rights; by including new modes of acquisition and, in particular, by introducing a ius soli element into the German nationality law.4 1 Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz (StAG) of 25 July, 1999, Federal Law Gazette, vol. I (1999), p. 1618 (as subsequently amended). As indicated by the Act‟s name, German nationality law refers to the term Staatsangehörigkeit – i.e. nationality – instead of Staatsbrürgerschaft which may be translated as „citizenship‟. Staatsbürgerschaft has a somewhat stronger political connotation and may refer particularly to the substantial democratic rights and obligations related to the legal status. Following the German legal terminology the term „nationality‟ will be used in this paper. 2 Hailbronner, Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, 5th ed., Part I marg. no. 5 et seqq. (to be published in July 2010). 3 For a general overview, cf. Bauböck et al., Acquisition and Loss of Nationality, 2005. On the toleration of multiple nationality, cf. Thränhardt, Einbürgerung, Rahmenbedingungen, Motive und Perspektiven des Erwerbs der deutschen Staatsangehörigkeit, Gutachten für die Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2009, p. 37 et seqq. 4 For an overview over the new Nationality Law, see Hailbronner, Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, 5th ed., Teil I (Part I) marg. no. 17-30 (to be published in June 2010); Idem, Die Reform des deutschen Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts, Neue Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsrecht 1999, p. 1273 et seqq.; Idem, Das neue deutsche Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht, Neue Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsrecht 2001, p. 1329 et seqq.; Renner, Was ist neu am neuen Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht?, Zeitschrift für Ausländerrecht und Ausländerpolitik 1999, p. 154 et seqq. 2 The Immigration Act of 2004 included amendments to the new nationality law of 2000 and brought a major reform to the German Law on Aliens. The new Residence Law5 as part of the Immigration Act entered into force on 1 January 2005 and replaced the Law on Aliens of 1965. The immigration Act introduced a paradigm shift into German alien and nationality law: For the first time, the fact that Germany had become an immigration country was explicitly recognized. One of the major features of the Immigration Act has therefore been the emphasis upon integration requirements. After giving a short overview over the statistical framework (II.), this paper will especially focus on the developments in German nationality law of recent years which are highly linked to the question whether the acquisition of nationality shall be the starting point or the end of a successful integration process (III.). The paper will then shortly address other measures of current German integration law and policy (IV.), before drawing some final conclusions (V.). 5 Aufenthaltsgesetz (AufenthG) of 30 July 2004, Federal Law Gazette, vol. I (2004), p. 41. 3 II. Statistical framework By the end of 2009, there were 7.3 million (exclusive) foreign nationals living in Germany, accounting for 8.7 per cent of the total population.6 Figure 1: Foreign national population from 1951 until 2009 More than half of these foreigners had lived in Germany for more than fifteen years.7 They are distributed – for historical reasons – very differently between regions: approximately 320,000 foreign nationals live in the former Eastern German States (about 2.4 per cent of the population there), as against close to 6.4 million in Western Germany and Berlin (about 9.4 per cent of the population there).8 Furthermore, the foreign nationals concentrate, as do other population groups with a migrant history (app. 8 million, predominantly ethnic German 6 Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF), Ausländerzahlen 2009, p. 5. Available at: http://www.bamf.de/cln_101/nn_442496/SharedDocs/Anlagen/DE/DasBAMF/Downloads/Statistik/statistik- anlage-teil-2-auslaendezahlen,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/statistik-anlage-teil-2- auslaendezahlen.pdfStatistisches Bundesamt 2010 (last access: 15.7.2010). 7 Ibid, p. 14. 8 Löffelholz, Migration and Economic Developments of Cities in Germany, p. 5, Paper presented at the TEAMS (Traynsatlantic Exchange for Academics in Migration Studies) Workshop No. 4 “Population, Economics, Integration and Law: Implications for Integration Policy” on 29-30 March 2010 in San Diego, CA, USA. Paper with author. 4 immigrants), in large cities (e.g. Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Essen Dortmund, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart). Figure 2 shows the percentage of foreign population in German cities. In five big cities, Offenburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart and Ludwigshafen, (exclusive) foreign nationals account for more than 25 per cent of the total population. These persons do not possess any political voting rights, not even – other than in other European countries, like Belgium, Finland, Sweden or the Netherlands9 – the right to participate in local elections. This raises questions regarding the democratic participation process and its legitimation. 9 Groenendijk, The legal integration of potential citizens, in: Bauböck et al., Acquisition and Loss of Nationality, vol. I: Comparative Analyses, 2005, p. 393. 5 Figure 2: Percentage of foreigner and dual nationality holders in the IRB cities (2005) 6 The five main groups of foreigners are Turkish nationals, Italian nationals, Polish nationals, nationals of the succession states of former Yugoslavia and Greeks; Turkish nationals are by far the major group, accounting for 24.8% of the total foreign population which means that about 1.7 million Turkish nationals live in Germany.10 Figure 3: Foreign nationals by nationality (31.12.2009) In total: 6,694,766 Source: Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF), Ausländerzahlen 2009. Although 33% of these Turkish nationals were already born in Germany (in comparison only 30.3% of Italian nationals, 3.8 % of Polish nationals, 27.7% of Greek nationals)
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