Regulation against weaponisation: a double-edged sword?
Nonetheless, every single one of these programmes, including the one of the Comoros that Jain
mentions in her kick-off contribution, is perfectly lawful.
The same is true of any of the other “zombie citizenship” categories, creating extraterritorial
communities with little to no connection to the state of which they have become nationals. Russian
expansive passport policies are as lawful as the grant of passports to ethnic kin, practiced, among
others, by Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, or Serbia.33 By letter of the law, they are also not
dissimilar from policies adopted by Spain, Portugal, or Poland to bring remedial justice to populations
who have historically been persecuted;34 or policies seeking to maintain links with emigrants and
diasporas that Italy, Spain and Portugal have in place for Latin American countries.35 This leads us
to the key question about the instrumentalization of citizenship policies by states: does the fact that
something is permissible under the law make it right?
The plethora of examples that Jain raises give a clear answer.36 And it is important to discuss
the ways in which abusive grants of nationality can take place and propose ways to prevent them.
An international regulation of nationality, or an enhanced human rights protection system, are
insufficient for that, as such nationality grants are within the parameters of law. For as long as
individuals remain insufficiently educated on the value of membership – not as nationality but as
belonging to a political community of fellow human beings – the rules for citizenship conferral will
remain a weapon in the hands of power-thirsty autocrats on the lookout for new territories or means
to stay in power.
Your will, your problem: or is it?
A vast majority of individuals worldwide acquire their citizenship at birth, involuntarily, through what
Ayelet Shachar has referred to as the “birthright lottery”.37 The diffusion of dual citizenship tolerance,
coupled by the increase in global mobility, and the enhanced opportunities one might have by virtue of
being a national in more than one country, made multiple nationality highly desirable for individuals.38
This is particularly the case with citizens from countries located in the so-called Global South, or those
living in the peripheral regions of Europe or North America.39 Hence, except for nationality changes
that occur due to redrawing of territorial boundaries, most nationality acquisitions are, at least to
some degree, voluntary. That is, they are based on an individual’s action permissible under the law.
Extraterritorial citizens often initiate the acquisition of their second nationalities themselves, even if
these are offered for instrumental purposes by states and prone to misuse by them. Individual motives
include a multitude of reasons: from mere opportunistic ones (mobility or travel),40 to compliance with
hidden coercion (state officials conducting door-to-door campaigns)41 or deprivation of some kind
(owning property).42 If such citizenships are weaponised, they can have severe ramifications: in the
first case, for the countries concerned; in the second, for the individuals affected.
The Russian passportisation is obviously the most extreme manifestation of the first kind of such
ramifications. Yet in other cases of extraterritorial citizenship the grant of nationality through ethnic
kinship or cultural affiliation ultimately led to claims against the state whose citizens were the main
beneficiaries of the external nationality-granting state. For instance, over 120,000 citizens of North
33 Dumbrava C. (2019), The ethno-demographic impact of co-ethnic citizenship in Central and Eastern Europe’, Journal of Ethnic and
Migration Studies, 45:6, 958-974.
34 Maatsch A. (2011), Ethnic Citizenship Regimes: Europeanization, Post-war Migration and Redressing Past Wrongs, Springer.
35 Escobar, C. (2007). ‘Extraterritorial Political Rights and Dual Citizenship in Latin America’ (Derechos Políticos Extra-Territoriales y
Doble Ciudadanía en América Latina), Latin American Research Review, 42(3), 43–75.
36 Jain 2022.
37 Shachar A. (2009), The Birthright Lottery: Citizenship and Global Inequality, Harvard University Press.
38 Vink M. et. al. (2019), ‘The international diffusion of expatriate dual citizenship’, Migration Studies, 7(3) 362–383.
39 Harpaz Y. & Mateos P. (2019), ‘Strategic citizenship: negotiating membership in the age of dual nationality’, Journal of Ethnic and
Migration Studies, 45:6, 843-857.
40 Id.
41 ‘Elections in Canada’, Oral Questions Period, House of Commons Canada (16 October 1995), Debates (Hansard) No. 240 - October
16, 1995 (35-1) - House of Commons of Canada (ourcommons.ca).
42 Akcapar S. and Simsek D. (2018), ‘The Politics of Syrian Refugees in Turkey: A Question of Inclusion and Exclusion through Citizenship’, Social Inclusion 6(1).
European University Institute
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