Statelessness in the European Union effective control of a government. It furthermore denotes membership of a nation, from which the term ‘nationality’ is inherently derivative. 11 The acquisition of nationality is, with few exceptions, dependent on the presence of a genuine link between the person and the state. Its attribution is therefore generally based upon elements that demonstrate the existence of such a link, such as birth in the territory (jus soli), descent (jus sanguinis) or residence (jus domicile). 12 In accordance with international law, it is the state that holds the sovereign prerogative to determine when a genuine connection is present, meaning that different modes of nationality acquisition exist depending on the state. 13 Throughout Europe, particularly among EU Member States, the system of jus sanguinis is generally adhered to, though features of the jus soli system are regularly combined with the dominant jus sanguinis principle. 14 Citizenship, on the other hand, encompasses an internal regime of rights, duties and privileges conferred upon individuals on the basis of membership to a particular political community, such as the state. 15 It follows from this definition that ‘citizenship’ consists of a membership and a rights dimension. Citizenship rights, as understood for the purposes of this contribution, include not merely civil and political rights, but also encompass economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to education, healthcare, employment and so forth. 16 This extensive conception of citizenship is based on the notion that the aforementioned categories of rights — civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural rights — are interdependent and interconnected. 17 For instance, only by exercising one’s civil and political rights, such as the right to vote or the right to petition, is a person capable of having a say in what rights hold for them. In addition to the rights dimension, citizenship may also be understood as constituting identity, which denotes the identification of an individual with other individuals in the same group based on attributes they have in common. 18 Despite its local origins, citizenship has become closely attached to the state, where rights are granted to individuals because they possess nationality of a 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Carlos Closa, ‘Citizenship of the Union and Nationality of the Member States’ (1995) 32(2) Common Market Law Review 487. Essentially, the term ‘nationality’ thus alludes to membership of a nation-state, although the term ‘state’ is used throughout this article for purposes of clarity. Edwards (n 8). Convention on Certain Questions relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws, opened for signature 12 April 1930, 179 UNTC 89 (entered into force 1 July 1937) art 1. Christian Joppke, ‘Comparative Citizenship: A Restrictive Turn in Europe?’ (2008) 2(1) Law & Ethics of Human Rights 1; Caia Vlieks and Katja Swider, ‘The Jus Sanguinis Bias of Europe and What It Means for Childhood Statelessness’, European Network on Statelessness (Blog Post, 17 June 2015) <https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/jus-sanguinis-bias-europe-and-whatit-means-childhood-statelessness>. Gerard Delanty, ‘Models of Citizenship: Defining European Identity and Citizenship’ (1997) 1(3) Citizenship Studies 285; Rubenstein and Adler (n 9). The fact that citizenship encompasses not merely political rights, but other rights as well is explicated by this statement by Nils Muižnieks: ‘Without citizenship, one lacks not only political rights, but often social and economic rights as well. On a symbolic level, citizenship implies being a full member of a national community, and even further, of humanity’. Nils Muižnieks ‘Governments Should Act in the Best Interest of Stateless Children’ Commissioner for Human Rights (Comment, 2013) <https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner//governments-should-act-in-the-best-interest-of-stateless-childr-1>. Michael MacMillan, ‘Social Versus Political Rights’ (1986) 19(2) Canadian Journal of Political Science 283. Engin Isin and Patricia Wood, Citizenship and Identity (SAGE 1999) ch 1; Christian Joppke, ‘Transformation of Citizenship: Status, Rights, Identity’ (2007) 11(1) Citizenship Studies 37. 27