Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/7 The Netherlands Minister-President (Mark Rutte) wrote the following in a letter to citizens in the wake of national elections in 2017: We feel increasingly uncomfortable when people abuse our freedom to cause disruption, while they came to our country to enjoy that freedom. People who do not want to adjust, revile to our customs and repudiate our moral values…I very well understand if people think: If you are fundamentally rejecting our country, I would rather see you leave. It is also what I feel. Behave normally or leave. 64 In the case of France, Sarkozy makes a clear distinction between groups of citizens in a situation to protect national security, which could serve a legitimate purpose when looking at the proportionality test for both non-discrimination and arbitrary deprivation of nationality. The Minister-President of the Netherlands takes it a step further and justifies denationalisation for people who do not share the same norms and values—which would not serve a legitimate purpose—and feeds into a fear that those of foreign descent cannot be trusted, stressing that they need to leave if they do not adapt to our customs. In other words, this is an example of how politicians deploy people’s increasing fears of terrorism to manipulate support for denationalisation measures or by openly supporting such policy measures to gain popularity when campaigning for elections. Consequences of such measures should not be underestimated. It leads to division in society among citizens and it creates suspicion towards those who are ‘different’. It can even indirectly result in racial discrimination when specific groups are affected with such a measure (e.g. discrimination against Moroccans in The Netherlands). As Choudhury explains “It constructs a hierarchy in which the formal equality of legal citizenship is hollowed out by the creation of the hierarchy that draws a distinction between the ‘good’, tolerated’ and ‘failed’ citizen.”65 Naturalised and dual citizens are tolerated citizens, and their citizenship is conditional upon good behaviour. Those who do not share common values are ‘failed’ citizens, justifying denationalisation. However, one should realise that this destabilizes social cohesion and contributes to fears among birthright citizens of accepting people that are ‘different’. 66 These are all important factors to take into consideration when assessing whether a measure meets the proportionality standards. To take a step back, should we give the government the power to revoke a person’s citizenship? More specific, should we give a Minister (of Justice or Interior) discretionary power to revoke citizenship as they see fit in order to protect national security? Nationality deprivation in The Netherlands has occurred only recently, showing that measures on deprivation of nationality no longer only symbolically strengthen antiequality and destabilisation of social cohesion. When looking at other countries where denationalisation to protect national security occurs at a large scale, it becomes evident that such measures threaten the citizenship of all. For instance, 103 Bahraini nationals have been deprived of their nationality in 2017 because the government uses a broad definition of “terrorist acts and incitements to such acts”67 which also includes 64 “We voelen een groeiend ongemak wanneer mensen onze vrijheid misbruiken om hier de boel te verstieren, terwijl ze juist naar ons land zijn gekomen voor die vrijheid. Mensen die zich niet willen aanpassen, afgeven op onze gewoontes en onze waarden afwijzen. (…) Ik begrijp heel goed dat mensen denken: als je ons land zo fundamenteel afwijst, heb ik liever dat je weggaat. Dat gevoel heb ik namelijk ook. Doe normaal of ga weg.” https://www.vvd.nl/nieuws/lees-hier-de-brief-van-mark/ 65 Choudhury, T., ‘The radicalization of citizenship deprivation’, Critical Social Policy 37(2), p. 229. 66 Ibid. 67 Chick, K., Bahrain is stripping dissidents of their citizenship, and the U.S. is silent, The Washington Post, 8 July 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/bahrain-is-stripping-dissidents-of-their-citizenship-and-theus-is-silent/2017/07/08/3ad347d0-5154-11e7-91eb-9611861a988f_story.html?utm_term=.ce8c65548db2. 16