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Obtaining German citizenship by birth lowers crime among adolescents with an immigration background. That’s according to a recent study by the University of Passau and the ifo Institute and on the reform of citizenship law in 2000.
Whenever youth crime becomes a topic of public debate, politicians often call for tougher action and stricter penalties. A study by economists from Passau, Munich and San Diego is now looking at a measure for the preventive reduction of youth crime that has received little attention to date: birthright citizenship.
To this end, the researchers analyse the impact of the reform of the German Citizenship and Nationality Law in 2000. Since then, children born in Germany have automatically acquired German citizenship under the principle of birthright citizenship, if at least one parent had legally resided in Germany for eight years. Before 2000, only children with at least one German parent acquired citizenship at birth.
Earlier integration, less crime
The key finding of the study, in which Professor Stefan Bauernschuster from the University of Passau was involved, is that immigrant youths who, as a result of the reform, held a German passport from birth were recorded as suspects around 70 per cent less frequently in their later teenage years than comparable youths without German citizenship. This effect is particularly evident in property and drug offences.
The authors therefore advocate for “integration at the earliest possible stage”. “Our analysis shows that early interventions, such as the granting of birthright citizenship, can effectively reduce youth crime by strengthening opportunities, a sense of belonging and trust,” says Passau-based economist Professor Bauernschuster.
Citizenship opens up opportunities
According to the researchers, one of the reasons for this significant effect lies in the better educational pathways and labour market prospects that birthright citizenship provides. Earlier studies show that the introduction of citizenship at birth has helped improve the school performance of children with an immigration background. Better access to educational and employment opportunities helps lower the likelihood of adolescents becoming criminals.
Methodology and data basis
The study is based on individual records relating to more than 120,000 criminal cases involving young suspects from the German federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Berlin who were born around the time the reform came into effect. These regions are particularly suitable because they have high proportions of migrants and therefore include many young people affected by the reform. The dataset includes, amongst other things, detailed information on the type of offence, the time and place of the offence, as well as the month of birth, gender and nationality of the suspects recorded.
The researchers have succeeded in establishing a causal link between citizenship law and the reduction in youth crime by comparing German and non-German suspects born shortly before and shortly after the reform date. They rule out the possibility that these effects are solely due to changes in police reporting practices.
The study “Birthright Citizenship and Crime” is forthcoming in the “Papers and Proceedings” series of the American Economic Association, the leading academic society for economics in the USA. Prior to this, it was published as a working paper by CESifo, among others. The Munich-based ifo Institute published the findings in the latest ifo Schnelldienst.
About the authors
Professor Stefan Bauernschuster holds the Chair of Public Economics at the University of Passau, is a project leader in the DFG Research Training Group 2720 “Digital Platform Ecosystems”, and is a research professor at the ifo Institute in Munich.
Professor Helmut Rainer heads the ifo Centre for Labour Market and Population Economics at the ifo Institute in Munich.
Leander Andres is a PhD candidate at the ifo Centre for Labour Market and Population Economics.
Professor Gordon B. Dahl is a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, USA.
Dr Simone Schüller is a research officer at the German Youth Institute in Munich.
This text was machine-translated from German.
Professor Stefan Bauernschuster
University of Passau
Chair of Public Economics
Innstraße 27, 94032 Passau
Email: stefan.bauernschuster@uni-passsau.de
Andres, L., Bauernschuster, S., Dahl, G. B., Rainer, H., & Schüller, S. (2026). Birthright Citizenship and Youth Crime. CESifo Working Paper 12397. https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp12397.pdf
https://www.aeaweb.org/webcasts/2026/legal-status-immigrant-human-capital Presentation of the study by Professor Gordon B. Dahl at the annual conference of the American Economic Association
https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/sd-2026-03-albrecht-etal-staatsbuergerschaft-jugendkrim... Article by the researchers in ifo Schnelldienst
https://www.ifo.de/en/press-release/2026-03-24/birthright-citizenship-reduces-cr...
Professor Stefan Bauernschuster, Chair of Public Economics.
Source: University of Passau
Copyright: University of Passau
The graph shows the effect of birthright citizenship on youth crime. The comparison was made between ...
Source: Professor Stefan Bauernschuster
Copyright: University of Passau
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