German Cabinet approved dual citizenship for children of immigrants

German Cabinet headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on 3 July 2014 approved a new law that allows dual citizenship for the children of immigrants on 3 July 2014.

According to the new law, those born since 1990 will now be allowed to keep both passports, that is, German citizenship and the citizenship of their parent’s country of origin. The rule applies for those who are at age 21 and have lived in Germany for at least eight years, attended school for at least six years, gained school-leaving qualifications in Germany or completed vocational training in Germany.

Now the law will have to be approved by the lower house of the German Parliament Bundestag before it becomes an Act.
Until now, Germany-born children of immigrants from most non-EU countries were granted both German and their parents' citizenship at birth but then had to opt for one of them by age 23.

Germany had already allowed dual citizenship to European Union and several dozen other nations and many countries in the world allows dual or multiple Citizenship.

Background
The approved law allowing dual citizenship will relieve the three million Turkish peoples living in Germany who have been demanding this since very long. Besides, the law also gives the green light to a pet project of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) who shares power with Angela Merkel's conservatives.

However, Turkish community leaders have criticised the new law because it applies only to youngsters and does not cover older people who have often spent decades in Germany.