Preferential Naturalisation

Many citizenship laws have provisions regarding the preferential naturalisation of foreigners who are considered to have special ties with the state. Such preferences can be based on several grounds, such as family bonds between foreigners and citizens, special contributions to the state, cultural affinity with the country, or specific international agreements. In this chapter I focus on rules of preferential naturalisation that concern people who have ethno-cultural links with the country. I call these people public relatives because the preferential treatment they enjoy is not based on a family relationship with particular citizens, as in the case of spouses or children of citizens (private relatives), but primarily on a presumed special relationship with the state and the community subsumed by the state. I further distinguish between two categories of public relatives: (1) political relatives; and (2) ethno-cultural relatives. In the case of political relatives, preferential access to citizenship is triggered by the possession, in present or in the past, of a particular status of citizenship. This category includes: (1a) citizens of privileged states, and (lb) former citizens and descendants of former citizens. In the case of ethno-cultural relatives, preferential access to citizenship is based on the existence of national, ethnic, or cultural ties between foreigners and the state. This category includes: (2a) persons who share certain cultural features with citizens of the state; and (2b) members of a particular ethno-cultural community.