The Shifting Parameters of Nationality 279 4 Nationality: The Legal Bond Between an Individual and a State Without denying the importance of various ongoing controversies about the dimensions of belonging and identity,62 this special issue of the Netherlands International Law Review will, obviously, focus on the legal facets of citizenship. The remainder of this introductory article will provide the overarching framework for the articles of this special issue,63 introducing the themes developed by them, where relevant including explicit cross references. Throughout, the interrelations between the various discussion points are highlighted. This contribution furthermore supplements the other articles with an explicit discussion of the shifts in rights that are contingent on nationality, while underscoring the central importance of citizenship as a status that guarantees equal rights for all citizens.64 Several pressing questions arise in relation to nationality, as referring to the legal bond between an individual and the state.65 This part will address several of these, often interwoven, questions. Questions about the meaning/rational of this special membership and the related delimitation of membership (4.1) are closely interwoven with the identification of the effects of this status. The (shifts regarding the) rights (including entitlements and protection mechanisms) (4.2) determine the importance of this status, and thus also the relevance of the fight against statelessness (4.3) and the acceptability of deprivations of nationality. All of the above considerations inform the debate about the acceptability of dual (multiple) nationality (4.4). As was highlighted above, the emergence of nationality as legal status happened at the intersection of various developments in the 17th–18th century: the emergence of the nation-state, the division of the earth surface into a set of mutually exclusive territorial jurisdictions, each of which sovereign within its territory, and the development of the administrative capacity to demarcate land and identify people as belonging to a state.66 All of the states thus demarcated have a vital interest in controlling migration across one’s borders, and thus also to determine who belongs to the nation.67 In the words of 62 See in this respect the broader debates on how to turn migrants into members (inter alia, Baldi and Goodman (2015)), and relatedly the different types of membership and engagement that a sate seeks (Goodman (2014), distinguishing between national and state identity). In this regard, it is interesting to notice that integration requirements often feature as prerequisites for obtaining nationality (through naturalisation) while nationality is argued to increase political and civic engagement, which in turn would strengthen the identification with the national community, and social integration (Bloemraad (2017), p. 544). 63 For further information on the articles contained in this special issue, and the order in which they feature, see the explanation at the end of this contribution. 64 See also Rubenstein (2004), pp. 5–6. Bloemraad (2017) correctly highlights the reality of society discrimination that undermines the promise of equal rights, p. 537. 65 This special issue is indeed concerned with the nationality of natural, not legal, persons. 66 Brubaker (1992), p. 22. 67 Goodman (2014) identifies as reasons why states emphasize their sovereignty in determining who are its nationals because of the importance of resource allocation, and the goal of social cohesion, loyalty and solidarity, pp. 22–25. 123