Ordinary Naturalisation

Abstract

Naturalisation is the major mode of acquisition of citizenship after birth. In the context of increased international migration, legal provisions regarding the naturalisation of foreigners in Europe have become progressively more contested and politicised. Today’s heated debates about citizenship tests and about integration clauses in the process of naturalisation breathe new life into older questions about the relationships between citizenship, social integration, cultural specificity and nationalism. It is important to notice that naturalisation raises issues that go beyond these topical concerns about the incorporation of immigrants. Naturalisation provisions also concern emigrants and their descendants and people who have never crossed international borders but who have seen borders moved over them. Whereas residence in the country is the major, though never the only, requirement for naturalisation, states sometimes grant citizenship through simplified naturalisation procedures to non-residents. In this analysis I consider “naturalisation” to include all the procedures regarding the acquisition of citizenship after birth, regardless of specific legal terminology. This is because the main analytical distinction in this survey is that between the acquisition of citizenship at birth (birthright citizenship) and the acquisition of citizenship after birth (naturalisation).