Regional Report on Citizenship: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 2.4. Restrictive nationality strategies A specific challenge in the Arab Gulf relates to how increasingly rich countries became increasingly exclusive as to who they included as their citizenry. In the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, the non-citizen population outnumbers the citizen population that live on the territory. Additionally, as rentier states they have, to varying degrees, generous welfare systems for their citizens – having the nationality of one of these countries brings great financial advantages. This is a reason for these states to view nationality as a very exclusive status and limit access to it accordingly. Among the Gulf states there are also some of the few countries in the region that have amended their nationality laws to make them progressively less inclusive over time. For example, in Kuwait, there have been several amendments to the Kuwaiti nationality law since its coming into force in 1959, notably in 1980, 1982, 1994, 1998 and 2000. The amendments have made the regulation of nationality progressively more restrictive – such as by adding a prohibition for non-Muslims to apply for naturalisation and restricting the circumstances in which women can transfer their nationality to their children. This perception of exclusivity can also be seen in other parts of the nationality law. The stringent naturalisation requirements of the Gulf legislations demonstrate this. For example, to become an Emirati an individual would have to reside in a ‘continuous and statutory manner in the member Emirates for a period not less than thirty years’. 31 The prohibition on dual nationality, as an element of all nationality laws in the Gulf sub-region and Iran – which is not present in other countries in the region that often financially rely heavily on their emigrant diaspora – further highlights the state’s understanding of the exclusivity of their nationality. The high inward migration from around the world – in the Emirates for example approximately 7.8 foreigners live alongside 1.4 Emirati citizens – coupled with stringent naturalisation requirements can become problematic. Illiberal features of other laws, such as marriage permission systems, in the Gulf 32 – can exacerbate the problems within these restrictive citizenship regimes. 2. 5. The Arab Spring and its aftermath In 2010-2011, a wave of change began to sweep across the MENA region that would again transform the geo-political dynamics of the region. The so-called ‘Arab Spring’ that swept many countries would lead to popular demonstrations, regime changes and civil conflicts and in most of the situations to power vacuums and crises. What this turmoil also did was highlight how states in the region would and could use nationality as a political tool to serve their agendas. The 31 Article 8 of United Arab Emirates: Federal Law No. 17 for 1972 Concerning Nationality, Passports and Amendments Thereof. 32 For more information on some of the other problematic laws in the Gulf that relate to access to nationality see Fisher, B, Statelessness in the GCC: Gender Discrimination Beyond nationality Law, ISI working paper series, 2015/01, access at http://www.institutesi.org/WP2015_01.pdf RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2017/3- © 2017 Author(s) 7