German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) will present the first draft bills to the cabinet of Germany's new center-right government on Wednesday (May 28) aimed at limiting migration and reforming naturalization.

Under the minister's plans, relatives of people with subsidiary protection who live abroad are only allowed to join them in Germany after two years. The proposal is reportedly in line with the coalition deal of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives and the Social Democrats.

Cases deemed particularly urgent are to be exempt from the new family reunification rules, dpa reported.

"We want to send a strong signal that migration policy in Germany has changed," Dobrindt told the Welt media outlet on Monday (May 26). Dobrindt also said the goal is to reduce alleged "pull factors" to Germany.

Subsidiary protection holders in Germany

There are currently around 351,400 beneficiaries of subsidiary protection in Germany, according to figures by the Migration Media Service (Mediendienst Integration). Since August 2018, up to 1,000 relatives of migrants without refugee status have been allowed to enter Germany every month. Germany suspended family reunification for refugees without asylum status once before -- between March 2016 and July 2018 -- citing overburdened capacities.

Between 2018 and 2024, a total of approximately 58,400 visas were issued to family members of subsidiary protection holders -- that is, about eight percent of all family reunification visas issued during that period. More than 80 percent of these visas went to relatives of Syrian nationals, according to Migration Media Service.

In case the cabinet approves Dobrindt's proposal, which is considered all but certain, Germany's Parliament and its upper house still need to ratify it. Dobrindt's goal is to reportedly get the law passed before the summer recess begins on July 11.

Germany's new government coalition, which consists of the conservative Union party and the Social Democrats, took office on May 6. They have promised to tighten Germany's migration and citizenship policy. One of the first measures has been intensified border checks and allowing police to turn back asylum seekers at Germany's border, despite critics saying the move violates EU law.

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Abolishing 'turbo naturalization'

Another draft bill to be introduced this week provides for the abolition of accelerated naturalization after three years for particularly well-integrated immigrants.

That 3-year path to citizenship had become available to applicants last June, after the previous governing coalition passed a reform on German naturalization.

The 3-year option requires applicants to not only possess an advanced C1 level of German, but also to show other achievements of strong integration in German society, such as volunteer work or high achievements at work or in their studies.

The aim of the rollback under the new government is to "strengthen the importance of legally residing in the country as a central and essential prerequisite for naturalization," the draft bill reads, according to dpa.

Last year, more than 200,000 people were reportedly naturalized in Germany, marking the highest number of naturalizations in 25 years.

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Criticism from Catholic church, Green party, NGOs

Interior Minister Dobrindt's plan to restrict family reunification for people with subsidiary protection has been met with criticism. 

The President of the Central Committee of German Catholics, for instance, called the family a "valuable asset" for integration. "We are in favor of enshrining a legal right to sibling reunification in the Residence Act," Irme Stetter-Karp told news agency KNA.

Hamburg's Catholic Archbishop Stefan Heße, moreover, said Germany's Constitution places special protection on the family and applies to all families in the country, including those seeking protection.

The opposition Green Party, which was part of the previous governing coalition, also criticized the planned moves. "The new federal government is focusing on symbolic politics at the expense of the weakest members of society and is not even shying away from clearly breaking the law," the party's interior policy spokesperson Schahina Gambir told dpa.

Gambir added that the suspension of family reunification violates the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. "This policy is immoral; it drives a wedge into social cohesion," she said.

More than 30 non-governmental organizations also reportedly called on the German government not to restrict family reunification again.

with dpa, KNA, epd, AFP