Interior ministry has reportedly prepared a draft bill enabling second generation immigrants to apply for Greek citizenship

Second-generation immigrants residing in Greece will have the right to apply for citizenship, according to a draft bill prepared by the interior ministry, the Kathimerini newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The law will, reportedly, apply to minors that were born in Greece to migrant parents and meet certain education criteria- completing minimum compulsory education (primary school and junior school) or six years of secondary education or graduating from Greek higher education after having completed high school.

Quoting interior ministry sources, the paper said 50,000 migrants meet the requirements set in the bill, but it was still not clear how many can actually apply for citizenship.
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As things stand now, some 200,000 or so children and young adults born to immigrant parents are essentially considered and treated as aliens, enjoying no rights.

The law, if passed into legislation, will fill the void left behind in 2013 when Greece’s Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, declared as unconstitutional a law passed in 2010– which permitted second generation immigrants to apply for Greek citizenship and run in local elections.

The Ragousis law, named after former interior minister Yiannis Ragousis, stipulated, among others, that second generation immigrants had voting rights, automatic citizenship if at least one parent was born in the country, and the right to apply for citizenship if they completed at least six years at a Greek school and their parents have lived in Greece legally for five years.

But the law was scrapped in 2013 after Prime Antonis Samaras said it did not comply with the Greek constitution and ordered its repeal.

The Council of state agreed, arguing the law did not go far enough in establishing a genuine bond with Greece and declared as unconstitutional the right of non-Greek citizens to run in local and regional elections.
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Migrant groups at the time had charged the government with caving in to right wing policies.

According to figures released this week by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical authority, Greece granted 16,200 citizenships in 2012, but  only 2% of them to non-EU countries