GERMANY - 310,000 New Citizens in 2025

Germany has seen a rise in the number of people seeking German citizenship since it made it possible in mid-2024 for people to have passports from multiple countries and reduced the required time of residence to five years from eight.

The statistics come from 14 of Germany’s 16 federal states, with data still lacking from the eastern states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony-Anhalt, according to Welt am Sonntag.

Several municipalities reported that naturalization numbers were currently going down, but some said they were preparing for a new rise next year when the many Ukrainians who fled to Germany amid the war in their country reach the required residency duration.

As the collective protection status for Ukrainian refugees expires in March 2027, said a spokesman for the northern Aurich region, “many will probably use the reduced five-year requirement to gain citizenship” so that their legal status is secured.

He said that Ukrainian refugees, in contrast with the many asylum seekers, mostly refugees from the Syrian civil war, who came to Germany in 2015/2016, had profited “from considerable structural advantages.”

-www.dw.com, 23 May 2026

Commentary: It is of interest that, for a long time, Germany did not respect the ancient Roman law: born in the country, citizen of the country. But change is evident. Even as early as 2024, dual citizenship has been allowed, and the time of waiting to apply for naturalization was reduced from eight years to five years.

While there is much opposition to immigrants in Germany, the other side of the story is the country urgently needs a million immigrants a year to replace the decline in births throughout the country.

United Nations figures published by Wikipedia show the percentage of foreign-born population:

Australia 25.8%

Germany 21.3%

France 18.8%

USA 15.3%

The Bible predicts that the world will become one; for that reason alone, we believe that these numbers will increase in the future.

Nevertheless, the good news is that in many parts of Europe, churches report that most converts to a living faith in Jesus are foreigners.

(See The Sure Foundation of the Church, Item #1066, $18.50.)