As someone who belongs to one of the "regulierte Berufe" (regulated professions) in Germany, I've been trying to figure out the requirements to have my qualifications recognised here. This being Germany, there is a whole host of rules and regulations relating to this (the German lawyers think all this makes it clearer - but that is a whole another post altogether).
Anway, one of the requirements to get my degrees recognised is that I be a EU citizen. So HK (my husband) and I went to the Ausländerbehörde (the Department for Foreigners) to talk about citizenship requirements. Long story short, there is a fast track process for spouses of German citizens to take German citizenship.
BUT..... for the German spouse to prove his German citizenship he has to prove a "chain of citizenship" in Bavaria all the way back to 1938 - this means that he has to provide a list of documents including birth certificates of parents and paternal grandparents and their marriage certificates.
When you thinks about it, someone who is the son of a naturalised citizen (a Turkish Gästarbeiter for example) would not be able to meet the citizenship requirement even if they were a citizen from birth! And the weirdest thing is that only Bavaria traces it back to 1938; it looks as if the son of the Turkish Gästarbeiter would only need to show his passport in Berlin.
This is so inexplicable. The clerk at the Ausländerbehörde (who had a Slavic surname and probably would not have met the test) even said it was like a Aryan test!
I think it is easy to cry racism (and who knows that may be the main reason), but at a minimum it is also provincialism. There is always a political hullabaloo when someone says something like "Germany is not an immigration country", but I think this shows that that is true.
What is odd about all this is that, in fact, the German process for spouses to get citizenship is quicker and less cumbersome than in many other countries (India and in the US for sure and maybe Britain as well).
Anway, one of the requirements to get my degrees recognised is that I be a EU citizen. So HK (my husband) and I went to the Ausländerbehörde (the Department for Foreigners) to talk about citizenship requirements. Long story short, there is a fast track process for spouses of German citizens to take German citizenship.
BUT..... for the German spouse to prove his German citizenship he has to prove a "chain of citizenship" in Bavaria all the way back to 1938 - this means that he has to provide a list of documents including birth certificates of parents and paternal grandparents and their marriage certificates.
When you thinks about it, someone who is the son of a naturalised citizen (a Turkish Gästarbeiter for example) would not be able to meet the citizenship requirement even if they were a citizen from birth! And the weirdest thing is that only Bavaria traces it back to 1938; it looks as if the son of the Turkish Gästarbeiter would only need to show his passport in Berlin.
This is so inexplicable. The clerk at the Ausländerbehörde (who had a Slavic surname and probably would not have met the test) even said it was like a Aryan test!
I think it is easy to cry racism (and who knows that may be the main reason), but at a minimum it is also provincialism. There is always a political hullabaloo when someone says something like "Germany is not an immigration country", but I think this shows that that is true.
What is odd about all this is that, in fact, the German process for spouses to get citizenship is quicker and less cumbersome than in many other countries (India and in the US for sure and maybe Britain as well).
