A total of 16,700 Turks living in Germany acquired German citizenship in 2018, the largest group of citizens from a non-EU country to obtain a German passport, according to data from Germany’s Federal Institute for Population Research (BİB).
Turks were followed by Iraqis with 4,000 and then by Kosovo with 3,800 people who acquired German citizenship the same year.
Data from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany showed that 14,984 Turkish nationals acquired German citizenship in 2017, compared to 16,290 in 2016.
Although there had been a drop in the number of Turks acquiring German citizenship since 2003, the figure began to rise in 2016, when the Turkish government launched a massive crackdown on non-loyalist citizens in the aftermath of a failed coup in summer.
Turks are the largest ethnic minority group in Germany, estimated to number some 3 million.