Aydan Ozoguz, the state minister for immigration, refugees and integration in the new coalition government of Germany, has said that she accepted this position to prove that someone with a background like hers could work in the German cabinet.
Ozoguz, who is the first-ever minister of Turkish origin in the federal government of Germany, took over the post from Maria Bohmer of Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU) during a ceremony at the Office of the Prime Ministry. Following the ceremony, Ozoguz met with the ministry staff in a meeting that was closed to the media.
After the meeting, Ozoguz told Turkish reporters that they would like to start work as soon as possible on the issues they agreed on prior to the coalition. Ozoguz said that they had a lot of issues on the agenda, and they would start working in the New Year.
Regarding dual citizenship, Ozoguz said that they need to negotiate with the Interior Ministry to remove the "optional model", and pointed out that the two set up an appointment today to discuss this issue. Ozoguz said that she would like to negotiate with other ministers regarding the removal of the optional model but needed the support of the whole cabinet on this matter.
"Somebody with a background like mine is surely more sensitive about such issues," Ozoguz said. "That's why I am more careful and sensitive, and might react in a more sensitive way," she said.
Noting that people have very high expectations of her, Ozoguz said: "I took the first step by putting dual citizenship on the first agenda of 2014. This is a very important topic for us. We have suffered a lot. ... We need to tell everybody why dual citizenship is so important to us," she stressed.
The controversial optional model obliges foreign children to choose either their foreign nationallity or German nationality when they are 18 years of age. If the young adult declares that s/he intends to keep her/his foreign nationality on turning 18, s/he will lose her/his German nationality. This is also true if they do not declare anything. If, on the other hand, they declare an intention to keep their German citizenship, they are obliged to renounce their foreign nationality unless German authorities have formally approved that they may keep their foreign nationality.
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