Today a friend of mine here wrote me an SMS, telling me that I can now have the dual citizenship in Germany ( referring to the ongoing negotiations of CDU and SPD not to forget the CSU regarding the upcoming coalition and the negotiations about the dual citizenship). I wrote her back that this isn’t going to be applicable for me as I am neither born in Germany nor had the option to choose between the two citizenships in the first place, at any time or ever have been asked. She: Bastards! Me: Exactly!
I am not anticipating any new insights about the doppelte Staatsbürerschaft since Roland Koch, former prime minister of Hessen, rallied 1.000.000 signatures in order to prevent the government of Schröder back then to allow the dual citizenship in general. But the ongoing negotiations made me think about my deliberate decision not to apply for a german passport ever since which only a few people can understand.
For the record: I am not about citizenships in any sense. I don’t give a flying fuck about where I belong to passport wise as my homebase is Berlin where my long term friends and two beloved brothers live, Istanbul where I chose to live deliberately and Izmir where I was born and where now my parents live. I was born here and grew up in Germany without my consent as I was only three years old when we moved. When you grow up somewhere from a small age you get accustomed to it no matter if you’re parents and yourself are coming from somewhere else. I liked to grow up in Duisburg, didn’t like moving to Berlin at the age of 15 again without my consent but later was eternally thankful ( after realizing how great Westberlin was back then). So growing up in Germany I liked but never got attached to the german state/ the nation/ the blood/ the soul etc. in a deeper sense ( Being socialized in a leftist surrounding by choice helped a lot!!!) Also never to the turkish state/ the nation/ the blood/ the soul to add.
Applying is a hustle; it takes time it costs money and it costs a lot of nerves. ( It can even get ridiculous when you have to read out loud a BILD article in order to get your german passport handed out to you, like happened in Hamburg to a turkish friend who is born&raised and is studying philosophy in Germany). I wanted to apply when Schröder formed the rot-grüne Koalition back then and proposed the dual citizenship for EVERYBODY who fulfilled the requirements. Everybody meant everybody including migrants not just citizens of the European Union, the United States etc. But then it got skipped by Roland Koch, see above.
So now it is still possible to keep your dual citizenship when you’re everything BUT a migrant who wants to apply for the german Staatsbürgerschaft. I don’t like injustice procedures like that, plain and simple. No matter where I tried to find answers or where I looked it up I couldn’t find an answer why it isn’t possible for migrants from Turkey or former Jugoslavian states like Serbia and Bosnia who spent their lives working here to keep their original citizenship but it is OK for Swiss, English French or other EU citizens. WHY? I asked myself and of course you have a notion but to speak of obvious racism is tricky when you are talking about laws and regulations in Germany.
Today I found this quote by Interior Minister Friedrich in the Frankfurter Rundschau in which he answers my question quite brilliantly:
„ If we are granting millions of people the dual citizenship which will be passed on ( to following generations), then we will have a steady turkish minority in Germany.“
Well, good morning Mr. Friedrich, you already have a turkish and migrant minority in Germany for the past 50 years and they are not going to leave no matter with or without the dual passport. To still think of the migrant society as a transitional state is cynical and beyond words dumb to speak frankly. To just refer to turks while talking about the millions of people is also condescendin and excluding but reveals the true nature of the CDU mindset regarding the attitude towards immigration for as long as I can think.
The answer is out there and I made my choice to stay put with my passport no matter what Mr. Friedrich or any other bozo in german politics decides. To talk with the words of Groucho Marx: “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.”