CITIZENSHIP
Citizenship
is the status of a person recognized under the custom or law as being a member
of a country. A person may have multiple citizenships and a person who does not
have citizenship of any state is said to be stateless.
Nationality
is often used as a synonym for citizenship in English– notably in international
law – although the term is sometimes understood as denoting a person's
membership of a nation (a large ethnic group). In some countries, e.g. the
United States, the United Kingdom, nationality and citizenship can have
different meanings (for more information, see Nationality Nationality versus
citizenship) A person can be a citizen for several reasons. Usually citizenship
of the place of birth is automatic; in other cases an application may be
required. Each country has their own policies and regulations which change the
criteria of who is issued citizenship.
• Parents are citizens (jus sanguinis). If
one or both of a person's parents are citizens of a given state, then the
person may have the right to be a citizen of that state as well. [a] Formerly
this might only have applied through the paternal line, but sex equality became
common since the late twentieth century. Citizenship is granted based on
ancestry or ethnicity, and is related to the concept of a nation state common
in China. Where jus sanguinis holds, a person born outside a country, one or
both of whose parents are citizens of the country, is also a citizen. States
normally[citation needed] limit the right to citizenship by descent to a
certain number of generations born outside the state.[clarification needed]
This form of citizenship is not common in civil law countries.
• Born within a country (jus soli). Some
people are automatically citizens of the state in which they are born. This
form of citizenship originated in England where those who were born within the
realm were subjects of the monarch (a concept pre-dating citizenship), and is
common in common law countries.
In
many cases both jus solis and jus sanguinis hold; citizenship either by place
or parentage (or of course both).
• Marriage to a citizen (jure matrimonii).
Many countries fast-track naturalization based on the marriage of a person to a
citizen. Countries which are destinations for such immigration often have
regulations to try to detect sham marriages, where a citizen marries a
non-citizen typically for payment, without them having the intention of living
together.
• Naturalization. States normally grant
citizenship to people who have entered the country legally and been granted
permit to stay, or been granted political asylum, and also lived there for a
specified period. In some countries, naturalization is subject to conditions
which may include passing a test demonstrating reasonable knowledge of the
language or way of life of the host country, good conduct (no serious criminal
record) and moral character (such as drunkenness, or gambling), vowing
allegiance to their new state or its ruler and renouncing their prior
citizenship. Some states allow dual citizenship and do not require naturalized
citizens to formally renounce any other citizenship.
• Excluded categories. In the past there
have been exclusions on entitlement to citizenship on grounds such as skin
color, ethnicity, sex, and free status (not being a slave). Most of these
exclusions no longer apply in most places. Modern examples include some Arab
countries which rarely grant citizenship to non-Muslims, e.g. Qatar is known
for granting citizenship to foreign athletes, but they all have to profess the
Islamic faith in order to receive citizenship. The United States grants
citizenship to those born as a result of reproductive technologies, and
internationally adopted children born after Feb 27, 1983. Some exclusions still
persist for internationally adopted children born before Feb 27, 1983 even
though their parents meet citizenship criteria.
Different
methods of acquiring citizenship and How a citizenship lost
Citizenship
may be acquired according to two methods—(i) by birth, or (ii) by
naturalization.
Birth:
There
are two practices which are observed regarding the acquisition of citizenship
by birth—Jus Sanguinis and Jus Soli.
Jus Sanguinis:
According
to Jus Sanguinis, a child acquires the citizenship of parents irrespective of
the place of birth, e.g., child born of Indian parents is an Indian citizen whether
it is born on Indian soil or abroad. The practice of Jus Sanguinis was very
popular in ancient times.
Even
now, it is observed by most of the states in the world. This practice is
natural as well as logical. It is exclusively observed in Germany, Italy,
Sweden, Norway etc.
Jus Soly:
According
to this practice, citizenship is determined by the place of birth and not by
parentage. This practice is now not popular. It was, of course, popular in the
middle ages when citizenship was asso¬ciated with land. At present, however,
this practice is exclusively ob¬served in Argentina.
In
England, U.S.A. and France, both the above practices are em¬ployed
simultaneously. Observance of both the practices sometimes gives rise to
duplication of citizenship. A child born of English parents in America, for
example, becomes the citizen of America according to the practice of Jus Soli.
The
same child becomes a citizen of England also according to the practice of Jus
Sanguinis. The problem is solved by giving an option to the child to accept the
citizenship of either state it likes when it comes of age.
Naturalization:
This
is a method of acquisition of citizenship differs from the first two, as in
this case you acquire a citizenship at pleasure. The term “naturalization” or “rooting”
also is used. A person who wants to acquire citizenship is required to submit
an application, and government authorities should make a decision, having a
right to deny a citizenship.
A
foreigner who has uninterrupted permanent residence in Nigeria for at least
eight years immediately preceding the filing of an application is entitled to
apply for granting citizenship of the Nigeria Republic.
Citizenship
can also be acquired through naturalization. According to this method, an alien
can become a citizen after fulfilling certain conditions. Though these
conditions vary from state to state, yet some of the general principles which
are observed may be summed up as follows:
1.
Residence:
A
certain period of residence in the state is essential before an alien can be
granted citizenship. This period varies from state to state.In England and
U.S.A. this period is 5 years. In France, it is 10 years.
2.
Oath of Allegiance:
An
alien must take an oath of allegiance before he can become a citizen of another
state.
3.
Purchase of Real Estate:
An
alien, who buys real estate in a foreign land, can get the rights of
citizenship if he so desires.
4.
Service (Civil or Military):
An
alien my be given rights of citizenship if he renders meritorious service in
another state.
5.
Marriage:
Women
acquire the citizenship of their alien husbands e.g., an English lady will
acquire the citizenship of India if she marries an Indian.
The
condition of marriage in Japan, however, is quite different. Japanese women do
not lose their citizenship even if they marry alien husbands. The alien
husband, on the other hand, acquires the citizenship of Japan if he marries a
Japanese lady.
Loss
of Citizenship:
Citizenship
may be lost under the following conditions.
1.
Renunciation:
One
may renounce the citizenship of one's original state and may become the citizen
of a foreign state by naturalization.
2.
Marriage:
Women
lose the citizenship of their original state if they marry aliens. In England,
there is a move to retain English citizen¬ship for women marrying foreigners.
3.
Acceptance of Service, Decoration or Title from a Foreign State:
Some
states deprive their citizens of citizenship, if they accept service, honor or
title in a foreign state.
4.
Long Absence:
In
some state, like France and Germany, citizens who absent themselves from their
states for more than ten years may lose their citizenship.
5.
Treason or Felony:
A
person, who is charged with treasonable activities, may be deprived
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is
the legal act or process by which a non-citizen in a country may acquire
citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done by a statute,
without any effort on the part of the individual, or it may involve an
application and approval by legal authorities. The rules of naturalization vary
from country to country and typically include a minimum legal residency
requirement, and may specify other requirements such as knowledge of the
national dominant language or culture, a promise to obey and uphold that
country's laws. An oath or pledge of allegiance is also sometimes required.
Some countries also require that the person renounce any other citizenship that
they currently hold, forbidding dual citizenship, but whether this renunciation
actually causes loss of the person's original citizenship, as seen by the host
country and by the original country, will again depend on the laws of the
countries involved.
The
massive increase in population flux due to globalization and the sharp increase
in the numbers of refugees following World War I created a large number of
stateless persons, people who were not citizens of any state. In some rare
cases, procedures of mass naturalization were passed. As naturalization laws
had been designed to cater for the relatively few people who had voluntarily
moved from one country to another (expatriates), western democracies were not
ready to naturalize the massive influx of stateless people which followed
massive denationalizations and the expulsion of ethnic minorities from newly
created nation states in the first part of the 20th century, but they also
counted the (mostly aristocratic) Russians who had escaped the 1917 October
Revolution and the war communism period, and then the Spanish refugees. As
Hannah Arendt pointed out, internment camps became the "only nation"
of such stateless people, since they were often considered
"undesirable" and were stuck in an illegal situation (their country
had expelled them or deprived them of their nationality, while they had not
been naturalized, thus living in a judicial no man's land).
Since
World War II, the increase in international migrations created a new category
of refugees, most of them economic refugees. For economic, political, humanitarian
and pragmatic reasons, many states passed laws allowing a person to acquire
their citizenship after birth (such as by marriage to a national – jus
matrimonii – or by having ancestors who are nationals of that country), in
order to reduce the scope of this category. However, in some countries this
system still maintains a large part of the immigrated population in an illegal
status, albeit some massive regularizations (in Spain by José Luis Zapatero's
government and in Italy by Berlusconi's government).
Denaturalization is the reverse of
naturalization, when a state deprives one of its citizens of his or her
citizenship. From the point of view of the individual, denaturalization means
"revocation" or "loss" of citizenship. Denaturalization can
be based on various legal justifications. The most severe form is the
"stripping of citizenship" when denaturalization takes place as a
penalty for actions considered criminal by the state, often only indirectly
related to nationality, for instance for having served in a foreign military.
In countries that enforce single citizenship, voluntary naturalization in
another country will lead to an automatic loss of the original citizenship; the
language of the law often refers to such cases as "giving up one's citizenship"
or (implicit) renunciation of citizenship. In another case, affecting only
foreign-born citizens, denaturalization can refer to the loss of citizenship by
an annulment of naturalization, also known as "administrative
denaturalization" where the original act of naturalization is found to be
invalid, for instance due to an administrative error or if it had been based on
fraud (including bribery). In the US, the Bancroft Treaties in the 19th century
regulated legislation concerning denaturalization.
CONCLUSION
Conferment
is a method of acquisition of citizenship differs from the first two, as in
this case you acquire a citizenship at pleasure. The term “naturalization” or
“rooting” also is used. A person who wants to acquire citizenship is required
to submit an application, and government authorities should make a decision,
having a right to deny a citizenship.
A
foreigner who has uninterrupted permanent residence in Nigeria for at least
eight years immediately preceding the filing of an application is entitled to
apply for granting citizenship of the Nigeria Republic.
REFERENCES
Old field, Adrian (1994). Bryan Turner; Peter Hamilton, eds.
Citizenship: Critical
Concepts. United States and Canada: Routledge. pp. 476 pages total; source: The Political Quarterly, 1990 vol.61,
pp. 177– 187; in the book,
pages 188+.
Daniele Archibugi, "The
Global Commonwealth of Citizens. Toward Cosmopolitan
Democracy", Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2008
Violaine Hacker, « Citoyenneté culturelle et
politique européenne des
médias : entre compétitivité et promotion des valeurs », NATIONS, cultures ET entreprises EN europe,
sous la direction de Gilles Rouet,
Collection Local et Global, L'Harmattan, Paris, pp. 163-184
The Commonwealth Countries and Ireland
(Immunities and Privileges) (Amendment)
Order 2005
"National curriculum". British
Government, Department for Children, Schools
and Families. Retrieved 2009-02-02.