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Foster families in Berlin to receive more money
People who take in foster children will receive more money from September onwards: The care allowances will increase. A pilot project is also being launched. more
The planned central naturalisation centre in Berlin is to take up its work gradually over the course of the next year.
Until then, a building for up to 200 officials must be found and equipped accordingly, announced Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) and SPD parliamentary party leader Raed Saleh on Monday after a visit to the State Office for Immigration, to which the naturalisation centre is to belong.
By centralising the naturalisation of foreigners under the responsibility of the state, the process is to be accelerated and improved, and waiting times for future German citizens are to be significantly reduced. Until now, the twelve Berlin districts have been responsible.
For more than 20 years, between 6,000 and 7,000 foreigners have been naturalised in Berlin every year. The Senate wants to increase the number to up to 20,000 per year, but admits that this is an ambitious goal. Of Berlin's 3.7 million inhabitants, about 800,000 are foreigners without a German passport, according to the Office of Statistics. According to estimates, about 450,000 of them would have the opportunity to naturalise and become Germans, Spranger said.