Following long negotiations, the traffic light parties of the Social Democrats, the liberal Free Democrats, and the Greens say they’ve ironed out the final provisions of their upcoming draft law allowing dual citizenship for all applying to naturalise as German.
Parliamentarians now say the law could pass sometime after the Bundestag returns in January after Christmas break.
The draft law was originally expected to hit the Bundestag over a year ago but has been beset with delays due to disagreements between the three governing parties on everything from whether welfare recipients should be able to naturalise as German to what anti-Semitic offences should bar someone from taking German citizenship.
After being passed in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's ministerial cabinet, parliamentarians finally put it through its first reading in early December.
READ ALSO: German politicians clash over dual citizenship law at first debate
Green, SPD, and FDP faction leaders in the Bundestag Wednesday called the newly agreed law something that “does justice to a modern immigration society and the principles of humanity and order.”
The three governing parties continue to agree on the broad aims of the law: that all people naturalising as German will no longer have to give up their old passports, and that citizenship should be possible after five years in Germany rather than the current eight.
The renegotiated draft is expected to limit the ability of the unemployed or those on benefits to naturalise as German – however, a hardship clause is expected to be put in place to allow for certain exceptions.
The coalition also agreed on new deportation measures, shortening the period of mandatory detention before deportation in an effort to prevent those issued with deportation orders from simply disappearing and living in the country illegally.
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