T H E G L O B A L S TAT E O F C I T I Z E N S H I P What matters is also how the law specifies the procedure to acquire citizenship. The pathway to Swedish citizenship mentioned above is a highly inclusive one, because when a minor child meets all the requirements, she has the right to acquire citizenship via a simple declaration by her parents. In many other cases, the acquisition under these facilitated conditions remains discretionary, which means that the authorities can still reject applications. In such cases, key questions are whether the authorities have to justify the negative decision and whether you have the right to appeal. 1.5 DIFFERENT WAYS TO LOSE CITIZENSHIP Ways to lose citizenship You will find rules on how to voluntarily renounce your citizenship in the laws of most countries. These rules often emphasise that you can only give up your citizenship as long as this does not leave you stateless. In a significant minority of 35 countries, however, citizens are stuck with their citizenship for life, as the law does not allow them to renounce it (or, in practice, makes it impossible), even when they can demonstrate they also hold the citizenship of another country. Fraudulent acquisition 157 Voluntary renunciation 156 Disloyalty or treason 132 Other offences 79 Loss of citizenship by parent 76 Other servicein foreign country 75 Service inforeign army 70 Acquisition foreign citizenship 56 Residence abroad 55 Establishment of foreign citizenship 51 No. of countries Frequency of 10 selected loss grounds across 191 countries | 2024 Source: GLOBALCIT Citizenship Law Dataset, v3, selected modes Increasing acceptance of multiple citizenship Besides voluntarily renouncing citizenship, there are several ways to lose your citizenship, whether you want to or not. Most commonly, citizens risk losing their citizenship when they acquire another one if they are citizens of a country that does not allow dual citizenship. In some countries, the mere fact of residing abroad and holding another citizenship is enough to risk losing citizenship. There is a range of security-related grounds based on which governments may deprive persons of their citizenship. We discuss this in further detail in section 4 of this report. Finally, losing citizenship may not only affect your own security and life chances, but also that of your dependents, as a person’s citizenship deprivation can extend to their children in 40% of countries. One of the major trends across the globe is the increasing acceptance of multiple citizenship, whereby a person is recognised as a citizen by two or more states. These legal links to two states (or more, in case of ‘multiple citizenship’) are nowadays seen as an inevitable and generally unproblematic reflection of a globalised world where many people have either migrated across borders in their lifetime or are descendants of people who have done so. In other cases, such as after the break-up of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, or the Soviet Union, people find themselves living in the same territory but belonging to a different political entity. Traditionally, dual citizenship was viewed as problematic due to citizens’ potentially conflicting loyalties, especially in times of interstate armed conflicts. Which country would a dual citizen defend in case of war? 9