Germany: Citizenship for Polygamous Migrants?
By Soeren Kern, Gatestone Institute:
The German government has withdrawn proposed legislation that would have banned immigrants in polygamous marriages from obtaining German citizenship. The proposed ban had been included in draft changes to Germany’s naturalization law, but was quietly removed from the final text, apparently in the interests of political correctness and multiculturalism.
Although German law clearly prohibits polygamy for German nationals, some have argued that the law is unclear as to whether the law applies to foreign nationals living in Germany. The interior ministers of Germany’s 16 states had unanimously called on the German government to clarify the issue by enshrining into law a blanket ban on German citizenship for polygamous migrants.
Critics say that the bill, as it currently stands, would not only create a legal backdoor for polygamous migrants to become German citizens, but would effectively legalize the practice for Muslim immigrants. The changes would, consequently, enshrine into German law two parallel legal systems, one based on German Civil Law and another based on Islamic Sharia law.
The German government has long been debating proposed changes to the country’s Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, StAG) that would strip German dual-citizens of their German citizenship if they join jihadi groups abroad. The proposed changes would not be retroactive and would not, for instance, apply to German jihadis who joined the Islamic State.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
