According to figures published by Welt am Sonntag, Berlin approved more than 20,000 naturalisation applications in the first half of 2025, rejecting only 674 cases — 3%. Hamburg rejected just 14 of the 5,730 applications processed, while Munich granted 3,815 German passports with only ten refusals. Only Dortmund showed a different percentage, with 365 rejections out of 2,072 applications.
The German Interior Ministry warned in a letter sent to state authorities that more and more applicants show ‘little or no knowledge’ of the constitutional commitments they must sign before receiving citizenship. In light of repeated cases of falsified language certificates and doubts about real integration, the government has called for tougher personal interviews, according to The European Conservative.
Philipp Peyman Engel, editor-in-chief of the Jewish weekly Jüdische Allgemeine, warned in statements to the Welt network that Germany ‘is sitting on a powder keg’ if it fails to curb uncontrolled migration. Engel pointed out that demographic studies predict that the country could become Muslim-majority between 2040 and 2050, and denounced the risks that a significant portion of that population poses in terms of crime, anti-Semitism and women’s rights.
The analyst also accused Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the CDU/CSU of failing to deliver on key promises: energy tax cuts, firm solidarity with Israel and tougher deportations.
Meanwhile, the government’s migration strategy is faltering in the courts. The practice of returning asylum seekers at the border, presented as a ‘migration turnaround’, has already been declared illegal by a Berlin court and is now in the hands of the EU Court of Justice.
Despite official statements of a ‘60% drop’ in asylum applications during the summer, more than 100,000 new applicants arrived in 2025, the thirteenth consecutive year in which that barrier has been exceeded.
The partial suspension of family reunification visas has done little to mitigate the flow. In 2023, Germany broke records with more than 130,000 legal entries through this mechanism; in 2024, there were 124,000, and by mid-August 2025, 73,000 had already been issued.
Critics warn that the combination of mass regularisation and limited deportations is transforming what should be temporary asylum into permanent citizenship. ‘Almost everyone who applies ends up with a British passport, and that creates enormous problems for our society,’ Engel said.
