Record number for naturalizations: New flood of voters for the Bundestag election!

Record number for naturalizations: New flood of voters for the Bundestag election!

The countdown for the Bundestag election 2025 has started and there is a new block that could mix the political cards again. At least 500,000 newly naturalized Germans will be able to vote for the first time. This dramatic increase goes hand in hand with a wave of naturalizations that has been going on since the last election in 2021. Between 2021 and 2023, over half a million people received German citizenship, and the numbers are growing steadily - in 2023 there were over 200,000 new German citizens.

The fact that many of these new voters come from Syria, Turkey and Iraq are particularly noteworthy, whereby North Rhine-Westphalia stands out as a leading region in the naturalization process. Berlin shows itself as the leader in relation to the population, with a rapidly increasing number of naturalizations: from 7,820 in 2021 to an impressive 9,041 last year. With an already foreseeable new naturalization wave, the Berlin State Office expects at least 13,000 other naturalizations until March 2025. No question, the capital is preparing for a political earthquake that could have a say in the upcoming election.

Baden-Württemberg and the new naturalization law

also Baden-Württemberg remains on course as one of the top regions for naturalizations, with over 61,000 new citizens since 2021. These changes are directly connected to the reform of naturalization law, which has shortened the waiting time to five years-a massive incentive that motivated many to take the step towards naturalization. Similar dynamics are shown in the smaller federal states such as Hamburg and Saarland: the number of naturalizations in Saarland has almost tripled since Hamburg has an increase of almost 2,300 naturalizations.

The effects of this naturalization wave are quite important: not only that the political weights could be redistributed, the new citizens are also considerably younger on average than the average, which could change the dynamics of the electoral landscape. Politicians and parties must therefore adapt to a new generation of voters who may want to focus on their interests and concerns.