Peter J. Spiro
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780814785829
- eISBN:
- 9780814724347
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814785829.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter describes the dramatic change in global attitudes to the status. During the late twentieth century, other countries also relaxed their position on dual citizenship. Developing states ...
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This chapter describes the dramatic change in global attitudes to the status. During the late twentieth century, other countries also relaxed their position on dual citizenship. Developing states once equated emigration with abandonment, forsaking those who left by terminating nationality. Today, developing countries seek to harness emigrant communities as diasporas for economic and other purposes. Citizenship is part of the toolbox for keeping diasporas connected to the homeland. These “sending” states have moved from merely tolerating dual citizenship to actively embracing it. Other countries, including most European states, have also come to appreciate ethnic kin outside the homeland. Because citizenship no longer provokes turf battles between states, many states have abandoned previous restrictions on the status. With a few major hold-outs, a clear majority of countries now permits dual citizenship, and the trend is unidirectional. The more pressing question today is not so much whether dual citizenship is acceptable but rather how citizens residing outside the homeland should be politically accommodated, especially with respect to voting rights. This chapter addresses novel issues of diaspora citizenship rights, arguing for the extension of full political rights to external citizens. Those who have relocated elsewhere and acquired another citizenship will still have interests in homeland governance which should be reflected in institutionalized voice.Less
This chapter describes the dramatic change in global attitudes to the status. During the late twentieth century, other countries also relaxed their position on dual citizenship. Developing states once equated emigration with abandonment, forsaking those who left by terminating nationality. Today, developing countries seek to harness emigrant communities as diasporas for economic and other purposes. Citizenship is part of the toolbox for keeping diasporas connected to the homeland. These “sending” states have moved from merely tolerating dual citizenship to actively embracing it. Other countries, including most European states, have also come to appreciate ethnic kin outside the homeland. Because citizenship no longer provokes turf battles between states, many states have abandoned previous restrictions on the status. With a few major hold-outs, a clear majority of countries now permits dual citizenship, and the trend is unidirectional. The more pressing question today is not so much whether dual citizenship is acceptable but rather how citizens residing outside the homeland should be politically accommodated, especially with respect to voting rights. This chapter addresses novel issues of diaspora citizenship rights, arguing for the extension of full political rights to external citizens. Those who have relocated elsewhere and acquired another citizenship will still have interests in homeland governance which should be reflected in institutionalized voice.
