The ÖVP is sticking to its hardline on citizenship. The sharp increase in naturalizations in the first quarter of 2022 shows that simplifications in granting citizenship would be absurd, Secretary-General Laura Sachslehner said in a broadcast on Friday. However, much of this is attributed to descendants of Nazi victims.
Sachslehner was not impressed by this. “The increasing numbers clearly show us that the applicable rules for obtaining Austrian citizenship have been chosen wisely. Because citizenship is a valuable asset and integration is the most important condition to acquire it,” she said. She rejects plans to change the Chamber of Labor and the SPÖ: “There will be no careless granting of Austrian citizenship to the People’s Party.”
Against “devaluation”
Sachslehner had previously written on Twitter that the Chamber of Labor wanted to create “a pull for migration”. The ÖVP guarantees that there will be no “devaluation” of citizenship, she emphasized. This choice of words led to strong criticism and media attention. The secretary general of the ÖVP then avoided, in an ORF interview, the question of who and how citizenship was devalued multiple times.
In general, the human rights organization SOS Mitmensch exercised the attitude of the ÖVP. She spoke of an ever-growing non-naturalization gap among people born in Austria. According to Statistics Austria, in the first quarter of 2022, there were only 1,029 naturalizations for people born here, while more than 4,000 children were born without obtaining Austrian citizenship. This raises the total number of people born in Austria without Austrian citizenship to more than 260,000, the human rights organization said.
‘Only one in six children born naturalized’
“Statistics Austria figures show that ÖVP Secretary General Laura Sachslehner and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner are wrong if they see no need for action in the largely blocked access to citizenship for children born here and people who live here for a long time,” said SOS-Mitmensch spokesman Alexander Pollak. In his view, the numerous citizenship awards to descendants of Nazi victims would mask the fact that the naturalization rate for children born here remains at a dramatically low level. “Of the six children born in Austria without Austrian nationality, only one is subsequently naturalized by the state,” Pollak says.
SOS Mitmensch spoke of ‘pure exclusion’ in the past. Austria comes to the fore in a European comparison. Out of 52 countries compared in the “Migrant Integration Policy Index” (MIPEX) 2020, Bulgaria is in very last place. In a European comparison, Austria is extremely strict when it comes to naturalization. Ten years of legal and uninterrupted residence, proof of high financial means (sufficiently secure means of subsistence) and substantial fees are required. Since the 1990s, the rules have been tightened several times due to legislative changes.
Source: Krone
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