The Map of Syrians' Naturalization Since 2011 Around the World

More than a decade has passed since the beginning of the ordeal of the Syrians’ asylum after the Assad regime’s military machine forced them to flee their cities, to end up in countries that did not hesitate to grant them their nationalities to become citizens with equal rights and duties.

When hundreds of thousands of Syrians crossed the borders of Syria to non-Arab countries, they were only asking for protection from the bombing of the Syrian regime's planes and the brutality of its security services in suppressing the popular revolution that erupted in 2011.

Today, however, more than 300,000 Syrians have a second nationality of other countries, which were granted to them by the countries they arrived in, either for fulfilling the conditions for obtaining them or because many of them have the competence and skills allowing them to earn the nationality.

The map of the distribution of Syrians who obtained second citizenship after 2011 is diverse and comprises Syrians of various countries, most of which are concentrated in Turkiye, Canada, and the European Union countries.

Syria has a population of 23 million, of whom 13 million are now internally displaced or refugees.

 

Turkiye The Most Naturalizing

In early May 2022, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu revealed that the number of Syrians who obtained Turkish citizenship, as of March 31 of the aforementioned year, had reached 200 thousand and 950 people.

Including 87,296 children, out of 3,762,000 Syrians residing in Turkiye.

Soylu pointed out that 700,000 Syrian children have been born in Turkiye since 2011.

In this context, the Turkish Immigration Department revealed on May 8 that the number of Syrian refugees under "temporary protection" in Turkey had reached 3,762,686 as of April 28, 2022.

As for Germany, the most European country hosting Syrian refugees, the Federal Statistical Office confirmed in a statement on May 10, 2022, that 19,095 Syrians had obtained German citizenship in 2021.

The office pointed out that the Syrians ranked first in the number of naturalizations, followed by the Turks with 12,245, and the Romans third with 6,920.

The majority of Syrians who obtained German citizenship who fled in the major wave between 2014 and 2016 met the criteria required for naturalization.

In general, a person must have lived in Germany for at least 8 years to be eligible for citizenship, but the majority of Syrians met the criteria in a shorter period after an average of 6.5 years, because they showed a special willingness to integrate, for example through strong language skills and commitment.

According to the same office, 6,700 Syrians obtained German citizenship in 2020, and 2479 Syrians obtained German citizenship in 2017, bringing the number of Syrian refugees with German citizenship to 28,274, as of the date of preparing the report.

Refugees from Syria are the third largest group of foreign origin in Germany, with an official number of 876,585 Syrian refugees.

 

50.000 in Europe

In Sweden, the Swedish Migration Office reported in early January 2022 that 27,340 Syrians holding residence and work permits in Sweden obtained Swedish citizenship in 2021.

The office asserts that the Syrian community has become the largest in the country, representing 1.7 percent of Sweden's population, with more than 189,000 Syrians, including 150,000 who have residence and work permits.

In the Netherlands, where nearly 50,000 Syrians have sought refuge since 2013, the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security confirmed that 22,820 Syrians who hold residence and work permits have obtained Dutch citizenship until April 2021.

The Netherlands is a preferred destination for some Syrian refugees, due to the ease of procedures related to obtaining residency, citizenship, and family reunification.

In Austria, located in central Europe, which hosts more than 50,000 Syrian refugees and follows a complex naturalization system, the Austrian Statistical Office stated that Syrians ranked second in the number of people obtaining Austrian citizenship in 2022, with 304 people.

As of the end of June 2021, there were 35,327 Syrian refugees in France, according to a report published by the newspaper Le Monde on August 31, 2021, but there is no statistic about the number of Syrians who obtained French citizenship.

In the absence of accurate figures for the number of Syrians who obtained citizenship in some European countries where they sought refuge, such as Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Italy, and Spain, the European statistics provider, Eurostat, published on March 24, 2022, a report on the total numbers.

The report stressed that Syrian citizens, who represent 7 percent of all European nationals, ranked second in terms of the number of nationalities they obtained from the European Union for the year 2022, with a total of 50,200 people.

 

Canada and America

In Canada, a country of immigrants, the government and civil society have resettled nearly 73,000 Syrian refugees since 2011.

However, there are no government statistics on the number of holders of Canadian citizenship, but immigration laws in Canada allow them to submit citizenship applications three years after their arrival.

As for the country of dreams, according to the statistics of the US Citizenship and Immigration Administration, 1,694 Syrians obtained US citizenship as of March 2019.

 At a time when about 6,700 Syrian refugees are benefiting from temporary protection, according to the statements of the former acting US Secretary of Homeland Security, David Pekoske in September 2021.

In Britain, the number of Syrian citizens residing in the United Kingdom until 2021 reached approximately 28 thousand Syrian citizens.

The number of British citizenship grants to Syrian citizens doubled in June 2020, from 1,310 to 2,618, five years after the launch of the plan to resettle vulnerable people in Syria, according to the British Office for National Statistics.

Successive Western studies show that the majority of European countries and Canada are experiencing faster aging and a lower birth rate, and the number of deaths tends to exceed the number of births on an increasing basis.

Faced with this scenario, Western countries need tens of thousands of immigrants annually, and there is nothing better than the Syrian work power, which combines high levels of competence and ability to integrate.