Germany: Naturalisation law introduces compulsory culture
01 May 2006
Many have commented on the irony that recent language and culture tests introduced in various EU countries as a precondition for receiving citizenship were failed by many of the citizens of the country and culture they were supposedly representing. The German polling institute
Omniquest, for example, found that 64 percent of Germans questioned did not know the foundation year of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949), almost 50 percent could not name the number of regional states in Germany (16), 80 percent did not know the title of the German national anthem (
Deuschlandlied or Lied der Deutsch, the "Germany Song" or "Song of Germans"), 60 percent did not know the official name of the German constitution (
Grundgesetz, Basic Law) and 32.7 percent did not know the official name of the German head of state (
Bundespräsident, Federal President, who has mainly a representative function).
Similar gaps in general knowledge amongst native populations have been recorded in the UK, France and the Netherlands, yet all of these countries have decided to introduce these tests into their naturalisation laws. On closer inspection, of course, the tests appear not to aim at the improvement of general knowledge among the applicants. Particularly in Germany, tests implemented provisionally in Hesse and Baden-Württemberg attempted to screen Muslims on "Western values". Further, it should not be forgotten that Germany and Holland have combined the culture tests with a substantial future source of income for the state by hiring agencies to implement the tests and making the applicants pay for them.
German regional and federal interior ministers agreed on common criteria for naturalisation at their Permanent Regional Interior Ministers Conference on 5 May 2006 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Knowledge of the German language was already required, as was a legal long-term residency permit of eight years. The compulsory test, however, is new, as is an official ceremony on passing the test. Whereas it could be argued that integration or naturalisation courses in themselves are not a bad idea, given they provide some information that could be useful to the applicant, such as guides to the bureaucratic and administrative systems of a resident country, the controversial aspect of the naturalisation test is its content defining a constructed "national culture" and the fact that it is obligatory.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, created with the new Immigration Act that came into force January 2005 with the specific task, amongst others, of developing and implementing the integration courses for foreigners (see
Statewatch Vol 15 no 2), will develop the standards for the course. It will cover the areas of 'democracy', 'constitutional state', 'social welfare state', 'individual responsibility for the collective good', 'participation in political developments', 'gender equality', 'constitutional rights' and 'state symbols'. The interior minister's conference did not include the controversial questionnaires devised by the regional state of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg, which were widely criticised for racism and for their obvious attempt to identify, presumably, Islamic world views by posing questions about homosexuality, wife beating and polygamy. In September 2005, Baden-Württemberg's interior minister Heribert Rech had issued an internal order to 44 immigration offices instructing them to use a specific questionnaire for the purpose of assessing the "loyalty to the basic constitutional order" of applicants intending to naturalise. The minutes of the preparatory meetings of the questionnaire, however, revealed that the interior ministry thought that:
There are general doubts concerning Muslims [...] But because no one can recognise whether the Muslim applicant for naturalisation adheres to the traditional interpretation of the Koran or the "enlightened" so-called Euro-Islam, there are generally d