Models of Citizenship and Rules of Naturalisation

Abstract

Granting citizenship is traditionally viewed as a key element of national sovereignty. Each state is free to define the criteria according to which new members are accepted. The different points of departure in the building of a nation and the historical traditions of colonial powers as sending and receiving countries have led to a wide range of rules for transferring and acquiring citizenship. Within democracies, citizenship is not only (or primarily) an expression of national identity-it also means access to a complex bundle of rights. Equal distribution of these rights is one of the basic conditions for democratic legitimation of political authority. Inclusiveness, too, is a norm postulated in a liberal democracy. All people subject to the laws of the land must have basic rights as citizens and must be represented in the legislative process. Access to citizenship must be kept open if the resident population and the number of citizens are no longer equal because of, say, continuing immigration. In liberal democracies this implies normative constraints on national legislation regulating naturalisation.