Why has naturalisation doubled in 2022 – and who are Austria's new citizens?
The first three months of 2022 saw 4,865 people being awarded Austrian citizenship through naturalisation processes.
That’s more than twice as many naturalisations as in the same quarter of the previous year (2,402 naturalisations), according to data released this Thursday, 19th, by Statistik Austria.
While Covid may have made an impact, when compared to the last year before the coronavirus pandemic, the number of naturalisations surged by 76 per cent.
The Austrian organisation says that the increase is primarily due to the entry into effect of the 2020 amendment to the Austrian Citizenship Act, allowing descendants of victims of the National Socialist (Nazi) regime to apply for dual citizenship.
“Under this legal title, descendants of victims of the Nazi regime have had the possibility of naturalisation since September 2020 without giving up their previous citizenship in return.”, Statistik Austria explained.
In the first quarter of the year, 1,927 people received Austrian citizenship according to the new amendment, corresponding to 39.6 per cent of all naturalisations in the quarter.
Almost all people naturalising through the new rules live outside of Austria (1,911).
Most are citizens of Israel (16.1 per cent), followed by the United Kingdom (8.5 per cent) and the United States (8.4 per cent).
Who are the new Austrian nationals?
According to Statistik Austria, the most recent Austrian citizens were previously from Turkey (7 per cent), Syria (6.2 per cent), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.9 per cent).
About half the naturalisations were women (49.7 per cent), and the proportion of people under 18 years old was 31.7 per cent.
About one-fifth of the newly naturalised had been born in Austria (21.2 per cent).
Eight states saw an increase in the number of naturalisations compared to the year before, with the most noticeable increase in Vorarlberg (up by 96.1 per cent), followed by Vienna (64.5 per cent) and Tyrol (54.3 per cent). Only in Salzburg, where there were 120 naturalisations, there was a decrease (by 4 per cent) in numbers.
Austrian naturalisation rules
Austria is considered a relatively difficult country to get naturalised. Not only do people need to prove language and integration, but it can get expensive, with applicants who are awarded the citizenship having to pay sometimes more than € 2,000. Read More...
