Fig. 6 - People registered with an unknown nationality for more than three years 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 age 0- 18-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 17 65+ Source: CBS, situation 1 January 2010 65. Almost 13,000 children have been registered for longer than three years as being of unknown nationality, although the graph suggests that as time passes the issue is often resolved. Considering that naturalization is possible from the age of majority onwards and that children are naturalized together with their parents, the sudden drop at age 18 is logical. Nonetheless, at later ages too the declining trend persists and most individuals apparently acquire some form of acknowledgment in the course of their lives (either of a nationality or of statelessness). A little over 1,000 people over the age of 65 have (still) not been able to substantiate any nationality. Presumably, these persons are in the Netherlands without a residence permit or have arrived relatively recently, since otherwise they could have applied for Dutch nationality after five years of legal stay. 66. As indicated above, the category “nationality unknown” covers a wide array of cases, including undocumented refugees, persons from collapsed States awaiting a new nationality and stateless persons unable to meet the GBA’s high standard of proof to be registered as such. According to Busser and Rodrigues, a thus far undetermined number of people in this category have at least an “ineffective nationality” and are thereby de facto stateless.86 In the year 2008 alone, the IND counted 9,021 individuals of unknown nationality who migrated to the Netherlands.87 The lack of clarity about the meaning of this considerable figure is compounded by the experience that the category “nationality unknown” is in practice used by municipal officials as a lump-category for all individuals who have trouble substantiating their nationality status.88 However, examining the residence status of persons of unknown nationality may yet provide greater clarity. 86 A. Busser and P.R. Rodrigues, “Staatloze Roma in Nederland”, Asiel- en Migrantenrecht, no. 8 (2010), 387. 87  ederlands nationaal contactpunt voor het Europees migratienetwerk (EMN), “Statistisch N Jaaroverzicht Migratie en Internationale Bescherming – Nederland 1 januari 2008 - 31 december 2008”, (2010), 31. 88  he 9,021 immigrants of unknown nationality who arrived in the Netherlands in 2008 constituted T more than 6 per cent of the country’s total immigration. Considering that no other State in Europe (apart from Cyprus) receives even nearly this many persons of unknown nationality, the suspicion that this classification is being used as a “catch-all” category is reinforced (Source: Eurostat, 2008). in the Netherlands 29