The German government is defending its plan to ease citizenship requirements as it struggles to combat a skills shortage in the country.

The government wants to relax rules by significantly reducing the income threshold for migration and introducing a points system, Reuters reported on Tuesday (November 29), citing a position paper it obtained.

Voices within the ruling coalition and the opposition say that such a move might encourage illegal immigration.

Germany, which is Europe's biggest economy, is seeking to boost immigration in the hopes of filling its employment gaps – particularly in areas such as accommodation and service providers. 

Germany is seeing an aging population and decades of low birth rates and uneven migration. A shrinking labor force is now threatening the country's public pension system, in which fewer employees are burdened with the task of financing the pensions of a growing mass of retirees who are enjoying longer life expectancy.

What else would be made easier?

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser also proposed plans to decrease the maximum number of years a person must wait before becoming a citizen from eight to five, and lift restrictions on dual nationality.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended allowing immigrants to hold dual citizenship, arguing that "belonging and identity are not a zero-sum game."

Language requirements for citizenship would also be eased for members of Germany's so-called "Gastarbeiter" generation – many of whom came to Germany from Turkey in the 1950s and 1960s as migrant workers.

Scholz added that Germany would also introduce a "transparent, unbureaucratic" immigration points system to allow foreigners who have the right qualifications to apply for jobs. It also wants to make it easier to study or obtain qualifications in Germany.

According to Faeser, all parties had signed up to the plan in their coalition agreement. The legal changes could take effect in the summer of 2023, she said.

With Reuters, dpa