We want to build on the insights from our last forum debate in a webinar that looks into the broader question of how important access to citizenship is in the global South compared to other legal statuses and documents, such as birth certificates or permanent residence permits.
On January 1 2020, Norway followed its Nordic neighbours and allowed for dual citizenship. The law change led to a massive increase in the number of citizenship applications: 30.000 applications were submitted during the first six months of the year. By contrast, the number of applications have remained stable at around 20.000 annually, from 2014 to 2019.
The webinar Citizenship and Populism: a Twenty-First Century Challenge across the Globe will draw on case studies from India, Western Europe, Latin America and elsewhere in order to illuminate engagements between citizenship, democracy and the people.
We are delighted to announce the launch of the Webinars page on our website, which brings together the recordings of our 2020-21 series of webinars. The recordings are made available as study and teaching material on topical issues in citizenship studies.
On 8 October 2020, Jo Shaw presented her new book, The People in Question, at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Together with other distinguished scholars she explored the interaction between constitutions and citizenship and their nexus with to stories of peoplehood, collective identities, and borders and boundaries.
According to Erm News and Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative, the transitional government of Sudan has stripped thousands of naturalised foreigners, including Syrians.
In Liechtenstein, a referendum on dual citizenship took place on 30 August 2020, together with the popular vote on questions of gender parity in parliamentary representation, and the railway connection. Dual nationality was rejected by 61.5% of the voters, while 38.5% voted in favor of it.
On 20 October, the European Commission (EC) has issued letters of formal notice regarding the investor citizenship programmes in Cyprus and Malta, thus opening an infringement procedure against the two countries.
Over the last fifty years most states have expanded their electorate by offering voting rights to their citizens residing abroad. Turnout has, however, remained almost consistently low and only in a few occasions has the expat vote had a significant impact on electoral outcomes.
On 20 and 21 September 2020, Italian voters cast their ballots in a referendum to amend the Italian Constitution. Two core issue are put to popular vote: to reduce the number of Members of Parliament from 630 to 400 in the Chamber of Deputies and from 315 to 200 in the Senate.
