In the first three quarters of 2022, Austrian citizenship was granted to 11,155 people. According to Statistics Austria, there were 45.3% more naturalizations than from January to September 2021 (7,676 naturalizations) or 46.6% more than in the same period before the start of the CoV pandemic in 2019 (7,610 naturalizations) . Almost 30% of new citizens are descendants of Nazi victims.
Nearly 30 percent of all naturalizations
“The strong increase in naturalizations of 45.3% compared to the first three quarters of the previous year is mainly due to the naturalizations of Nazi victims and their descendants, who represent almost 30% of the newly naturalized between January and September 2022”, he says. Tobias Thomas, Director General of Statistics for Austria.
Those who were politically persecuted by the Nazi regime and their descendants have the option of naturalization without having to give up their previous citizenship in return. From January to September 2022, 3,022 people (2,992 of whom live abroad) were granted Austrian citizenship under this legal title, which corresponds to 27.1% of all naturalizations in these three quarters.
People who have been naturalized under this title are most often nationals of the following three countries: Israel (1,182 or 10.6% of all naturalized in the first nine months of 2022), USA (718 or 6.4%) and Great Britain. Brittany (640 or 5.7%) percent). People who were naturalized for other reasons (a total of 8,133 people from January to September 2022) were previously most often citizens of Syria (834 or 7.5%), Turkey (810 or 7.3%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (614 or 5.5%). Percent).