While Turkey's full membership to the EU has been under the spotlight for many years, a total of 29,807 Turkish citizens acquired EU citizenship in 2017, with Germany leading the list of EU countries that naturalize Turkish citizens. According to the European Statistics Office (Eurostat), 50.2% of Turkish people who became EU citizens chose Germany as their home. Germany was followed by France with 17.2% of naturalized Turkish citizens, then Holland with 10% and England with 5.3%. The remaining 16.6% were distributed among other EU countries. The data also showed that the EU naturalized a total of 825,447 people in 2017. Italy topped the list by representing 18% of this total, followed England with 15%, then Germany and France with 14% each. Sweden and Spain both stood at 8%.

Morocco led the list of countries that acquired the most EU citizenships in 2017 with 8%, followed by Albania at 7%. Turkey and India both represented 4% of the total number.

Starting from 2018, the new popularity of a recently introduced free genealogy service paved the way for a growing trend among Turkish people – applying for dual citizenship in European countries. Many people, after discovering that they had a grandmother or grandfather who had migrated from the Balkan countries, have rushed to apply for dual citizenship, the Turkish-language daily Türkiye reported last year. Turkey is home to a large number of migrants from Bulgaria, Romania and other countries that were once ruled by the Ottoman Empire.