In the Netherlands, despite a general requirement that persons who obtain Dutch citizenship through naturalisation renounce their previous citizenship, persons acquiring Dutch citizenship on their own initiative are allowed to retain their citizenship of origin if they can make use of one of the several exemptions, or if they can acquire Dutch citizenship through a declaration procedure, for which until now renunciation was not required. There are currently more than a million residents in the Netherlands with Dutch citizenship and at least one other citizenship (see also EUDO Citizenship news item from 15 December 2009).

The new law removes the exemption to the renunciation requirement for a specific category of persons who acquire Dutch citizenship by naturalisation: adults who have spent part of their youth in the Kingdom will, in future, have to renounce their non-Dutch citizenship when acquiring Dutch citizenship. The government argues that this is plausible due to “the fact that the Netherlands is the country with which they have the closest ties. The other nationality will no longer play any relevant legal role in daily life. The renunciation requirement clarifies their legal position, which clarification serves both the interests of society as well as the interests of the citizen.” The renunciation requirement applies in case of naturalisation, but also if the persons involved make use of a declaration procedure. Second generation migrants who have resided in the Netherlands since the age of four will also have to renounce their non-Dutch citizenship if they wish to acquire Dutch citizenship via lodging a declaration of option (Art. 6 Dutch Nationality Act).

The bill also deals with three other important issues. First, it permits so-called latent Dutch citizens to acquire Dutch citizenship. The issue of latent Dutch citizens concerns a group that was born of a Dutch mother before 1985, but who do not hold Dutch citizenship, because, at the time, Dutch citizenship could only be passed on via the father. As of 1985, persons also acquire Dutch citizenship, if born of a Dutch mother and a foreign father. Despite the fact that there was a transitional scheme in place for this group at the time, not everyone made use of it. The new act regulates that those who are born before 1985 of a Dutch mother can as yet opt for Dutch citizenship. Grandchildren, i.e. persons whose parent(s) were born before 1985 to a Dutch mother, can also acquire now Dutch citizenship if their parent(s) opt for it or they can acquire it themselves through a declaration of option if the relevant parent has died. This, in the words of the government “does justice to the basic principle that men and women are fully equal in nationality law.”

It is estimated that up to 95.000 latent Dutch citizens can potentially make use of this provision. However, it has to be stressed, that the mother still had to possess Dutch citizenship at the moment of birth of the child involved. For children born within wedlock, this raises a difficulty. Women used to lose their Dutch citizenship in principle by marriage with a foreigner until 1 March 1964. If the Dutch mother married before that date, she only kept her Dutch citizenship if she did not acquire the citizenship of her husband or could not acquire this nationality easily. The access to Dutch citizenship of the (grand)children of women married with a foreigner before 1 March 1964 therefore depends on the answer on the question, how discriminatory the citizenship rules were in the country of the husband. If the country of the husband discriminated against women, the access of the children born within such a marriage to Dutch citizenship is hindered. A country like Argentina, for example, neither provided for an automatic acquisition of citizenship by a foreign wife of an Argentinean man nor for an easy possibility to register as such since 1897. A country like Belgium abolished the automatic acquisition of Belgian citizenship due to marriage only in 1985. For children whose mother with Dutch citizenship married a foreigner before 1 March 1964, their chances to become Dutch citizen themselves depend therefore on the degree of equal treatment of men and women in a foreign country. This remarkable situation is likely to be the next issue on the agenda of advocates of equal treatment in the field of citizenship law in the Netherlands.

Second, the new Act introduces a double language test for applicants for naturalisation residing in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. Until now applicants living in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom can chose whether they take a language test in Dutch or in the language used next to Dutch on the island of residence. This other language is Papiamento on Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, and English on St. Martin, St. Eustatius and Saba. The new Act now abolishes this choice and introduces – quite unique – in the world – the obligation to do a test in both languages Dutch and Papiamento, or Dutch and English respectively. This is particularly remarkable because of the fact that the Netherlands did not list Papiamento or English as a protected regional or minority language under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (concluded 5 November 1992, ETS 148) (The Netherlands did list Frisian, Lower Saxon, Limburgish, Yiddish and Romani).

Third, the revised Nationality Act now also provides for the opportunity to withdraw Dutch citizenship from persons who have been irrevocably convicted of a crime that has seriously harmed the essential interests of the state. These crimes are not explicitly described in the revised act, but the government explains that one can think in this context of terrorist crimes, crimes against humanity and, for example, crimes against state security sanctioned with punishment of at least 8 years. The Minister of Justice has a discretionary competence to decide to withdraw Dutch citizenship in cases in which the above applies. In order to avoid statelessness, this new deprivation possibility only applies on persons who possess also another citizenship.

See also Press release by the Dutch Ministry of Justice, 16 June 2010.