Author: rscas.webunit@eui.eu

Several Bills in the Russian Duma Plan Massive Naturalisations in Ukraine

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As reported on EUDO CITIZENSHIP, while Russia has been handing out passports in Crimea, the Duma is also considering new laws that would simplify citizenship acquisition for Ukrainians. According to an Interfax report, competing proposals have been submitted to the Duma as to who exactly would be able to claim Russian citizenship under simplified rules. Specifically, three potential target groups exist: 1) Russian-speaking former Soviet citizens facing discrimination (Communist party proposal); 2) citizens of Ukraine who are ethnic Russians and their family members who are compatriots, provided ethnic Russian origin can be documented (Zhirinovsky’s LDPR party proposal), and 3) all citizens of Ukraine irrespective of ethnic origin (Just Russia’s proposal). The latter is the most recent, the first two were submitted earlier in February. The presence of these competing proposals suggests that Russian lawmakers are debating whether to extend citizenship to more demographically desirable ethnic Slavs, or to a broader category of Russian-speakers, and whether to aim the law at just Ukraine, or the territory of the former Soviet Union generally.

Read a background analysis in the Washington Post by Eric Lohr: What can passports tell us about Putin’s intentions?

Read the Interfax report (in Russian) and a commentary in Eurasianet.org (in English).

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The Human Rights committee of the British Parliament concerned about the power to strip citizenship of naturalised Britons

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In a Report published today, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) expresses significant concerns about the possible use of new powers contained in Clause 60 of the Immigration Bill to deprive naturalised UK citizens of their UK citizenship and leave them stateless.

In its report, JCHR:

– expresses surprise at the Government’s refusal to inform Parliament of the number of cases in which the existing power to deprive of citizenship has been exercised while the UK citizen is abroad, or of the number of cases in which the Secretary of State’s decision was taken wholly or partly in reliance on information which in the Secretary of State’s view should not be made public.   Parliament is entitled to know this information in order to assist it to reach a view as to how the new power is likely to be exercised in practice;

– considers that there was time to hold a public consultation on the controversial new power in clause 60 which would have made for better informed parliamentary scrutiny of the Government’s proposal;

– is not persuaded that there are sufficiently weighty reasons to justify the new power being made retrospective, and recommends that the Bill be amended so as to prevent it having retrospective effect; and

– is concerned about the impact of the new power on children and recommends an amendment to the Bill which requires the Secretary of State to take into account the best interests of any child affected when deciding whether to make a deprivation order under the new power.

Source: UK Parliament

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German Federal Constitutional Court rules that 3% threshold for EP election in Germany is contrary to the principle of electoral equality in the German constitution

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The Federal Constitutional Court found that the 3% threshold which the German parties have to overcome at the elections for the European Parliament violates is unconstitutional. according to the judges this is a serious interference with the principles of electoral Read More …

Italy considers naturalisation of second generation immigrants

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In his inaugural speech at the Italian Senate, the new Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi committed himself to reforming the citizenship law in order to provide better access for the children of the country’s many immigrants. He urged the political parties to find a compromise between advocates of ius soli for all children born in the country to legally resident parents and those favouring naturalisation based on completing school education in Italy. In his speech, Renzi referred to his belief that a shared identity is a basis for integration. He asserted that the opposite of integration is not identity but disintegration.

Read more details in Stranieriinitalia.it

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Citizens’ Rights and the Right to Be a Citizen

Ernst Hirsch Ballin discusses the significance of citizens’ rights against the backdrop of ongoing migration and urbanization in the beginning of the 21st century. The traditional view that each state has the sovereign power to give or withhold citizenship, puts Read More …

Austria: Slight increase in absolute numbers of naturalisation, stagnating naturalisation rate

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By EUDO citizenship expert Gerd Valchars

Naturalisation numbers in Austria remain at a low level. In 2013 7,418 persons obtained Austrian nationality. Compared to 2012 their number increased by 4.4 per cent (plus 311 in absolute numbers). The naturalisation rate – the number of naturalisations as the percentage of the total number of resident non-nationals in the country – reached again 0,7 per cent, as it did in 2012. Regional figures show a diverse pattern: While in some provinces the number of acquisitions increased significantly compared to last year (Styria: +31.8 per cent, Carinthia: +24.2 per cent) it decreased in others (Vienna: -2.7 per cent).

36.7 per cent of all naturalisations in 2013 concerned non-nationals born in Austria (2012: 35.7 per cent). 37.8 per cent of all naturalised persons have been under the age of 18.

Naturalisation in Austria had reached an all-time high in 2003, both in absolute numbers and in relation to the non-national population. In that year the number of naturalisations peaked at 45,117 with a naturalisation rate of 5.96 per cent. After 2003 and due to several amendments to the law, numbers massively dropped and reached a low point in 2010 (6,135; 0.67 per cent). Last year’s amendment, which inter alia introduced an alternative track towards citizenship with higher requirements but a shorter residence period of six years for those considered to be ‘exceptionally well integrated’ (in force since 1 August 2013), seems to have had no effect on naturalisations yet. Only 12 applicants obtained nationality under this new provision in 2013. 

Read the press release from Statistics Austria (in German) and a short version in English.

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Inside out? Directly elected ‘special representation’ of emigrants in national legislatures and the role of popular sovereignty

by Michael Collyer, Political Geography, xxx (2014), 1-10

It is increasingly common for political rights to be extended to citizens who are permanently resident outside their state of citizenship. In a small minority of cases (13 countries as of October 2013) emigrants are not only able to vote but also able to vote for their own representation. Such systems of ‘special representation’ introduce members of national legislatures who are responsible for emigrants across large parts of the world. These electoral systems highlight the problematic characterisation of states as territorial entities with an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’, since the state would then be turning itself ‘inside-out’ by performing domestic functions on foreign territory without the intervention of foreign states. Drawing on data from a recent survey of electoral systems to highlight common patterns between the 13 countries in which special representation is currently operated, the paper highlights the role of inter-national migrants as emigrants, rather than as immigrants. It concludes that such developments cannot be explained territorially without serious problems for states that are manifestly not occurring. Special representation can only be understood as a re-emphasis of the significance of popular sovereignty. Democracy re-founds the legitimacy of the state in ‘the people’ but its extra-territorial performance results in a disarticulation between nation and state which states must creatively contain.

 

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