Many people with a German passport break immigration law through adopting foreign children. Such cases are called by officials (false paternity), where in turn foreign children acquire German citizenship. The federal government believes that most of these cases constitute immigration law fraud, aiming to take measures to stop them.
Nancy Weser, Minister of Interior, wants not recognizing the foreign children without any direct relationship to parents with German passports, and Federal Minister of Justice Marco Bushmann agrees with her.
The government presented a draft law describing false paternity as a means of circumventing immigration law, where the child obtains the German citizenship without having the right to asylum.
This is often done in exchange for money, and a paper issued by both Ministries of Interior and Justice revealed the existence of a person who obtained recognition through paternity of 24 children.
It has become a well-known example of violating immigration law, and according to Bushman, the constitutional state cannot tolerate such cases.
Moreover, many false paternity cases have a mafia-like structure, and according to Ministry of Justice, the new draft law is a mosaic piece to more effective combat of illegal immigration.
The Minister of Justice said:
“Recognizing abusive paternity is a gateway to illegal immigration and from there to social security systems, and we are closing this gateway.”
According to the draft law, the recognition of paternity must be restructured, and notaries or youth welfare offices must implement it in the future.
Immigration authorities must participate in combating violations of immigration law, and registration offices must investigate cases of abusing the law.
One of the suspected cases of abusing the law is when there is a difference in residence between the mother and father, such as, the mother has a German passport while the father does not, or vice versa.
In the future, the authorities should suspect cases where the father does not have contact with the mother or knows many children of foreign mothers.
On the other hand, the cases where the mother and father live in the same residence for at least six months are not considered as abuse to the law.
The father must also have contact with the child for at least six months and continue to have contact. The federal government assumes that a vote on the draft law will occur by summer vacation.
