By Stanley A. Renshon

Continue to: References

Back to Table of Contents

End Notes

³⁵ For information on Australia see Zappala and Castles (1999, 273, fn 137; see also Castles 1997) who quote the Australian Citizenship Act of 1948 as follows: “People must have deliberately sought and acquired the citizenship of another country in order to lose their Australian citizenship; if they acquire it automatically rather than by taking some action to acquire it they do not lose their Australian citizenship.”

³⁶ In July 1999, The Citizenship Law Reform Act was published in the German official gazette. This act entered into force on January 1, 2000. Under the new law, German citizenship has always been and will continue to be passed on by parents to the children. Any child of a German national (mother or father, married or not married) will be considered a German citizen by birth, whether born inside or outside Germany. The Reform Act introduces an aspect of “Äûterritorial acquisition”:  any child born inside Germany to parents of foreign nationality will acquire German nationality by birth if at least one parent has been lawfully  resident in Germany for at least eight years and has for at least three  years been the holder of a certain higher form of residence permit. This new  provision will apply to most children of migrant workers who have been living  in Germany for at least eight years. Those children, however, once they  have grown up will have to decide between keeping German citizenship and  renouncing their other citizenship (i.e. that of their parents) or keeping the foreign nationality and losing the German nationality. Under the existing German Citizenship Law (which in this respect corresponds to that of many other countries)  German nationals lose their German citizenship if and when they acquire a foreign nationality upon their own application, i.e. by naturalization.

It  has always been possible in theory to be granted a waiver by German authorities for keeping German citizenship when acquiring a foreign  nationality. Under the new law this waiver will be granted more easily. The relevant  section of the Act reads: “When deciding upon an application in accordance  with sentence 1 (waiver), the public and private interests will have to be  balanced. In the case of an applicant with residence abroad, it will have to taken into consideration whether he/she can make the case for continuing  links to Germany.”

That means, in effect, that in terms of the naturalization of foreigners as well as the acquisition of foreign citizenship by Germans, the threshold of tolerance of dual citizenship (which has never been a problem in the case of acquisition of several nationalities by birth) will be made much more flexible.

While there is a provision requiring renunciation, Stephan Senders says that in the past there has been no requirement to prove that it was done. He reports that according to unofficial government estimates eight percent of naturalizing Turks retain their Turkish citizenship. Ethnic Germans who have other citizenships were allowed, even under the old law, to retain their German citizenships even when they were naturalized in other countries. A 1993 government study estimated that 1.2. million Germans legally held a second foreign citizenship. See  Senders (1996, 158-159).

The fact that the United States makes no effort to follow through on the renunciation clause in its own oath of allegiance essentially renders any such provisions in the laws of other countries a moot point.

³⁷ See Schuck (1997,11; 1998, 222).

³⁸  Kalvaitis (1998, 231, fn 184, 227; footnote 184)  reads: “Members of the Latvian diaspora, however, are allowed to hold dual citizenship. See Law on Citizenship (Lat.), supra note 175, transitional provisions 1, 2.” Footnote 227 reads: “Lithuania, however, allows members of its Western emigre community to hold dual nationality, despite the fact there is no established law to this fact.”

³⁹  See Schmitter-Heisler (1998,103-104, fns14, 15).