[ad_1]
A total of 20,606 persons obtained Austrian citizenship during 2022, a quarter more (27.4 per cent) than the number of people that were naturalised in the previous year when 16,171 people became Austrian citizens.
According to Statistics Austria, a high number of people from Israel obtained Austrian citizenship last year, representing the country of origin for 24.2 per cent of all naturalisations, totalling up to 4,985 people, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Data show that a total of 9,696 people were granted Austrian citizenship under the legal title of §58c StbG, which enables persecuted persons of the Nazi regime and their descendants to obtain Austrian citizenship without having to give up their previous citizenship. The majority of beneficiaries from this legal title are Israelis, representing 24.2 per cent of all naturalisations in 2022 (4,985), followed by people from the United States (1,895 or 9.2 per cent) and the United Kingdom, with a total of 1,555 people naturalised, representing 7.5 per cent of the total.
“The significant increase in the naturalisation of 27.4 per cent compared to 2021 is mainly due to the naturalization of politically persecuted persons of the Nazi regime and their descendants, who account for almost half of the newly naturalised persons in 2022,” Tobias Thomas, Director General of Statistics Austria said.
People naturalised for other reasons represent the rest of naturalisations – a total of 10,910 persons and the majority were nationals of Syria (1,165 or 5.7 per cent), Turkey (1,087 or 5.3 per cent), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (800 or 3.9 per cent). Half of the people that obtained Austrian citizenship in 2022 were women (10,273 or 49.9 per cent), and another 3,610, representing 17.5 per cent of the total were minors under 18 years or born in Austria (3,618 or 17.6 per cent).
Compared to pre-pandemic levels, there were twice as many naturalisations, up by 94.3 per cent or 10,606 naturalisations. The provisional naturalisation rates have reached 0.7 per cent for 2022, slightly higher than the 2021 and 2020 rates of 0.6 per cent each, the preliminary data reveals.
All Austrian provinces witnessed a surge in the number of people naturalised compared to the preceding year, with the highest increases recorded in Carinthia (up by 41.9 per cent or 552 naturalisations), followed by Vorarlberg (39.1 per cent to 647). In general, Carinthia and Vorarlberg have experienced the highest increases during the COVID-19 pandemic years, up by 62.4 and 41.6 per cent increases, respectively, while the provinces with decreasing number of newly naturalised people were Salzburg (down by 16.5 per cent), Styria (10.5 per cent), Upper Austria (4.2 per cent) and Vienna (1.9 per cent).
In addition, 79.7 per cent or 16,423 persons who were naturalised did so on the basis of a legal entitlement, and a total of 5,229 of them were naturalised after residing in the country for six years, as well as for reasons such as proven knowledge of German and sustained integration, birth in Austria, EEA citizenship or eligible for asylum.
[ad_2]
Source link