




See also immigration.


Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship or nationality by somebody who was not a citizen or national of that country when he or she was born.


Nationality is traditionally based either on jus soli ("right of the territory") or on jus sanguinis ("right of blood"), although it now usually mixes both. Whatever the case, the massive increase in population flux due to globalization and the sharp increase in the numbers of refugees following World War I has created an important class of non-citizens, sometimes called denizens. In some rare cases, procedures of mass naturalization were passed (Greece in 1922, Armenian refugees or, more recently, Argentine people escaping the economic crisis). As naturalization laws had been created to deal with the rare case of people separated from their nation state because they lived abroad (expatriates), Western democracies were not ready to naturalize the massive influx of stateless people which followed massive denationalizations and the expulsion of minorities in the first part of the 20th century — the two greatest such minorities after World War I were the Jews and the Armenians, but they also counted the (mostly aristocratic) Russians who had escaped the 1917 October Revolution and the war communism period, and then the Spanish refugees. As Hannah Arendt pointed out, internment camps became the "only nation" of such stateless people, since they were often considered "undesirable" and were stuck in an illegal situation (their country had expelled them or deprived them of their nationality, while they hadn't been naturalized, thus living in a judicial no man's land).

After World War II, the increase in international migrations created a new category of refugees, most of them economic refugees. For economic, political, humanitarian and pragmatic reasons, many states passed laws allowing a person to acquire their citizenship after birth (such as by marriage to a national or by having ancestors who are nationals of that country), in order to reduce the scope of this category. However, this system still maintains in some countries a large part of the immigrated population in an illegal status, albeit some massive regularizations (in Spain by José Luis Zapatero's government and in Italy by Berlusconi's government).

Different naturalization laws

In Finland

Finland became independent on December 6, 1917. The old constitution, dating back to Swedish rule, required all Finnish citizens to be of Evangelical Lutheran faith. Both Jews and Muslims started to apply for Finnish citizenship in 1918. Muslims, however, were accepted only after the Constitution of Finland was modified and general freedom of religion was declared by 1919.

In the United Kingdom

There had always been a distinction in English law between the subjects of the monarch and aliens: the monarch's subjects owed him (or her) allegiance, and included those born in his dominions (natural-born subjects) and those who later gave him their allegiance (naturalized subjects).

The modern requirements for naturalisation as a British citizen depend on whether one is married to a British citizen or not.

For those married to a British citizen the applicant must:

  • have lived legally in the UK for three years

For those not married to a British citizen the requirements are:

  • at least five years legal residence in the UK
  • indefinite leave to remain or equivalent must have been held for 12 months

All applicants for naturalisation must be of "good character". Naturalisation is at the discretion of the Home Secretary but is normally granted if the requirements are met.

In the United States


Congress is given the power to prescribe a uniform rule of naturalization, which was administered by state courts. There was some confusion about which courts could naturalize; the final ruling was that it could be done by any "court of record having common-law jurisdiction and a clerk (prothonotary) and seal."

The Constitution also mentions 'natural born citizen.' The first naturalization Act (drafted by Thomas Jefferson) used the phrases 'natural born' and 'native born' interchangeably. To be 'naturalized' therefore means to become as if "natural born" -- i.e. a citizen.



Note also that the Amendment is ambiguous on the issue of singular or plural United States. In the early days the phrase 'United States' was used as a singular or a plural according to the meaning. After the Civil War, it was generally always a singular. The Amendment does not say 'its jurisdiction' or 'their jurisdiction' but 'the jurisdiction thereof'.

The Naturalization Act of 1795 set the initial parameters on naturalization: 'free, White persons' who had been resident for five years or more. The Naturalization Act of 1798, part of the Alien and Sedition Acts, was passed by the Federalists and extended the residency requirement from five to fourteen years. It specifically targeted Irish and French immigrants who were involved in anti-Federalist politics. It was repealed in 1802.



The enabling legislation for the naturalization aspects of the Fourteenth Amendment was the 1875 Page Act, which allowed naturalization of 'aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent,' but is silent about other races.



Following the Spanish American War in 1898, Philippine residents were classified as US nationals. But the 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act, or Philippine Independence Act, reclassified Filipinos as aliens, and set a quota of 50 immigrants per year, and otherwise applying the Immigration Act of 1924 to them.





Other Countries


  • Netherlands: 5 years continuous (dual citizenship allowed under specific circumstances, such as acquiring a spouse's nationality, otherwise prohibited)
  • Belgium: 3 years continuous
  • Ireland: 5 years over the last 9 years, including at least 1 year before applying. Dual citizenship is allowed, however Irish citizenship can be revoked if a naturnalized citizen obtains citizenship of another state (other than automatic citizenship by marriage) subsequent to naturalization or leaves the state for an extended period without periodically expressing their intention to return.

Massive naturalizations

A few rare massive naturalizations procedures have been implemented by nation states. In 1891, Brazil granted naturalization to all aliens living in the country. In 1922, Greece massively naturalized all the Greek refugees coming back from Turkey. The second massive naturalization procedure was in favor of Armenian refugees coming from Turkey, who went to Syria, Lebanon or other former Ottoman countries. Canada instituted a mass naturalization by Act of Parliament with the enactment of the Canadian Citizenship Act 1946.

The most recent massive naturalization case resulted from the Argentine economic crisis in the beginning of the 21st century. Right of return laws in Spain and Italy allowed many of their diasporic descendants to obtain—in many cases to regain—naturalization in virtue of jus sanguinis, as in the Greek case. Hence, many Argentinians and Latin Americans acquired European nationality.




After World War II

Loss of U.S. citizenship was a consequence of foreign military service based on Section 349(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act until its provisions were found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1967. Following the 1923 United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind Supreme Court decision, which claimed Indian-origin immigrants could not claim to be Caucasian, and thus be given the privilege of US citizenship, A. K. Mozumdar, who had been naturalized ten years before, lost his nationality.

After annexation of the territories east of the Curzon line by the Soviet Union in 1945, Communist Poland denaturalized en masse all the inhabitants of those territories - including ethnic Poles, as well as its other citizens who had been deported into the Soviet Union, mainly to Kazakhstan. Those persons were forcibly naturalized as Soviet citizens. In contrast to Germany, which affords the ethnic German population in Russia and Kazakhstan full citizenship rights, Poland has only a very limited repatriation program and treats the repatriates as foreigners who need to be naturalized.

Yaser Esam Hamdi was a U.S. citizen captured in Afghanistan in 2001. The U.S. government claimed that he was fighting against U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces with the Taliban. He was named by the Bush administration as an "illegal enemy combatant", and detained for almost three years without receiving any charges. On September 23, 2004, the United States Justice Department agreed to release Hamdi to Saudi Arabia on the condition that he gives up his U.S. citizenship, which was later revoked by the courts after his refusal to give it up.

Between World Wars











Before World War I


See also


External links

  • Videos of 2008 US Presidential Election Candidates' Positions regarding Immigration

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