The editor of the respected newspaper Die Zeit Giovanni di Lorenzo, who has both German and Italian citizenship, boosted on a prime time talk show that he has voted twice in the elections for European Parliament last weekend. Dual citizens Read More …
Last week German Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck hosted a ceremony of naturalization in his residence Schloss Bellevue. In his address to 22 new citizens he called for a new understanding of German identity. Germany’s head of state pointed to a need for accommodating immigrants also in a symbolic way: “There is a new German ‘we’, the union of the diverse.” At the same time, he hailed the successful integration of 16 million immigrants since the republic’s birth. The former pastor promoted an affirmative approach to immigration as a precondition for discussing in a relaxed manner the problems of an immigration society. Pointing to a recent reform of the German ‘option model’ of citizenship, he acknowledged dual citizenship as an “expression of the lived experience of a growing number of people”. The ceremony was at the same time a celebration of the 65th Constitutional Anniversary.
One day later in the Bundestag German-Iranian author Navid Kermani also addressed the issue of German immigration. In his Anniversary speech he made a conciliatory move by combining his lament over insufficient recognition of guest-workers’ merits in the past with a vicarious expression of immigrants’ gratitude for the German provision of freedom.
In the eve of the elections for European Parliament, the UN High Commissioner for the Refugees called for attention to the nearly half a million stateless persons living in Europe who live under the radar and are denied some of Read More …
The right to vote has always been the central privilege of citizenship. Its extension to resident migrants holds a promise of democratizing citizenship by bringing it closer to principles with deep roots in liberal and republican traditions, and further away Read More …
In the last decade, researchers have developed many innovative ideas for the construction of indices measuring immigration policies. Methodological considerations have, however, been largely absent from the discussion. To close this gap, this paper investigates the characteristics of existing indices Read More …
Debates concerning the ‘democratic deficit’ have been a prevalent feature of the normative literature on the European Union, but rather less attention has been paid to ‘demos problems’ constructed by the normative ordering of the EU and what such problems Read More …
The UK Parliament adopted the controversial amendment granting new powers to the Home Secretary to withdraw British citizenship when she has “reasonable grounds for believing” that the person has acted in a way “seriously prejudicial to the vital interests” of Read More …
A bill is pending in the Canadian parliament which would restrict the access to citizenship. It will also empower the government to withdraw citizenship of persons suspected in terrorist activities and shield such decisions from effective judicial review. Unlike a Read More …
Upon his formal reelection as a prime Minister, Victor Orban stated that he would continue his policies of uniting the nation “beyond the borders” and claimed that “Hungarians living in the Carpathian basin are entitled to have dual citizenship, are entitled to community rights, and also autonomy.” During his previous term of office, he had already granted Hungarian citizenship to many of them and their votes contributed to his landslide victory in the last month’s elections. According to Reuters, he has pointed to the 200,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine, “entitled to Hungarian citizenship and also the right to self-administration.” Ukraine, as Slovakia, does not accept that its citizens adopt a foreign nationality. Orban’s proposal is therefore bound to be controversial.
Read more details by Reuters, Euronews, and Budapest Business Journal.
Read our earlier news on naturalisations of ethnic Hungarians abroad and on their role in the recent elections here.
The Netherlands lacks an adequate mechanism for the identification of stateless persons, and is therefore not complying with its international obligations in the field of statelessness. Contrary to the position of the Dutch government, the existing procedures that stateless persons Read More …
