Millions of Britons naturalized in Germany due to “Brexit”
Since the “separation” with the European Union, the United Kingdom has begun to have a large number of people “outflow” to the European Union, and this has been increasing for three consecutive years. And Germany is one of the largest recipient countries of British “new immigrants”.
According to a report by Euronews on the 16th, the latest statistics released by Eurostat recently showed that 29,800 former British citizens applied for citizenship in EU countries in 2019, almost twice the number in 2018. Since 2016, the number of British nationals applying for citizenship of EU countries has been increasing year by year. Among them, there were about 6,700 in 2016, and it reached 15,000 and more than 16,000 in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Statistics also show that Germany is one of the countries most favored by British immigrants: since the “Brexit referendum”, a total of 29,478 Britons have become German nationals, and about half of them were completed in 2019. Between 2000 and 2015, only about 4,800 British citizens applied for German citizenship. In addition, France and Sweden received approximately 9,600 and 8,000 British “new immigrants” respectively, ranking second and third; the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium and other European Union countries have also received record highs of British “new immigrants” in recent years.
The Brexit incident has had an impact on British social life. Many British people living in other EU countries worry that this “breakup” will have a significant impact on their daily activities such as work, travel and family visits, and this is also a lot of British people. “Newcomers” are determined to apply for citizenship of EU member states
One. According to a statistics in 2018, there are about 100,000 Britons settled in Germany. In recent years, more than half of Britons who have applied for German citizenship have lived in Germany for more than 25 years.
In addition to the population base factor, the “access barriers” of EU countries are also another important factor affecting the number of new immigrants. According to The Economist, the application for Irish citizenship can be achieved through “recognition of relatives”. Applicants can apply for citizenship if their parents or grandparents were born in Ireland or Northern Ireland; Italy also has a similar naturalization mechanism; and Spain’s The naturalization requirements are relatively harsh-the applicant needs to live in the country continuously for 10 years, and must pass the language
Speaking of cultural examinations.
Germany attaches great importance to facilitating the naturalization of British “new immigrants”: According to the British “Guardian”, the German immigration department has arranged more staff during the Brexit period to handle the naturalization applications of British nationals. On the other hand, the country’s public opinion environment is also relatively friendly: during the period of Brexit, EU countries have made all kinds of ridicules about the UK, but the German government has adopted a unified slogan to “show unity.” However, in the same period, few Germans who had been stationed in the UK for a long time applied for British citizenship: In 2019, the UK received more than 125,000 naturalization applications, of which only more than 3,000 were from German nationals.
