The German Cabinet has approved a legislative proposal by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt aimed at restricting migrants’ rights to bring family members to Germany. The new draft law imposes a two-year suspension on family reunification for refugees with subsidiary protection status—those who have not been granted full asylum but remain in Germany due to risks of persecution or harm in their home countries. This category includes many Syrians, who constitute about 75% of the roughly 388,000 such refugees currently residing in Germany.
The legislation allows exceptions in urgent humanitarian cases but effectively ends the previous monthly quota of about 1,000 family reunifications for this group. The government will review the suspension after two years to decide whether to extend it.
In addition, the Cabinet approved a proposal to abolish the fast-track naturalization option that allowed particularly well-integrated immigrants to acquire German citizenship after just three years of residency. This provision, introduced by the former coalition government, will be removed, meaning naturalization will generally require the standard five years of residence. The change applies broadly but spouses of German citizens may still qualify for the three-year route.
These measures form part of the new coalition government’s migration policy under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which seeks to reduce pull factors for migrants, tighten asylum and citizenship rules, and enhance border controls and deportations, while maintaining Germany’s constitutional right to asylum.
The announcement coincided with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Berlin, where he met Chancellor Merz to discuss support for Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.