Ethnic Citizenship

Albania to grant citizenship to ethnic Albanians in the neighbourhood and diaspora

Gezim Krasniqi
Albanian passport

While it is still too early to speculate about the practical implications of this decree, its adoption together with recent plans to grant citizenship to foreign investors will without doubt transform the conception and configuration of Albanian citizenship and can potentially impact upon the already complex citizenship constellations in the region.  

(Also available at www.eudo-citizenship.eu)

Updated on: 5 July 2013

Twenty years after: The Amendments and Modifications to the Law on Croatian Citizenship

Viktor Koska
Croatian flag

The amendments still did not manage to overcome certain limitations of the previous text of the law. Even following the amendments, the entitlements for facilitated naturalization based on ethnic membership may still be in breach of the non-discrimination principle of the European Convention on Nationality, while certain legal practitioners criticize the law on the grounds that it is technically poorly written which leaves opportunities for arbitrary interpretations of certain sections of the law. 

When in 1991 Croatia enacted its law on Croatian citizenship, probably not even its biggest advocates expected that it would (with only minor amendments) regulate the Croatian citizenship regime for the next twenty years.

Updated on: 4 March 2013

The Risks and Benefits of Ethnic Citizenship by Florian Bieber

Kin-state paternalism

Millions of people in Southeastern Europe are citizens of more than one state. Among the many ‘multi-citizens’ of Southeastern Europe there are probably a million who have received passports from countries they have never lived in.

Millions of people in Southeastern Europe are citizens of more than one state. Many acquired this status when they were gastarbajteri [guestworkers]in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Western Europe; others received a second passport as they fled the wars that accompanied the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Updated on: 10 November 2011
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