German push to ease migrants’ citizenship path faces red tape reality check

Germany’s cabinet on Wednesday passed a draft bill to ease the citizenship law, hoping a faster track to German nationality will attract skilled migrants to plug chronic labour shortages holding back Europe’s biggest economy.
Some experts caution that progress may be slow, noting parts of Germany’s administrative machinery are already creaking under a big backlog of existing citizenship applications.
The draft, first presented in May, shortens the required residency time for migrants to five years from eight years and to three if migrants make so-called special integration efforts, such as speaking German very well or doing voluntary work.
The new law also allows dual citizenship, and grants automatic naturalisation to children born in Germany to a parent who has lived in the country for more than five years.