Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark: How Nation States Not Recognizing Dual Citizenship Deprive Residents In Their Territories and Their Citizens around the World of Significant Democratic Rights

People from nations not accepting dual citizenship risk being expatriated against their will if naturalizing in another country and thus do not apply for citizenship in their new host nations. Accordingly, these migrants live and work without the ability to exercise such basic democratic rights as to vote and hold elected office, which require citizenship. 

Making matters worse: the very same nations that officially do not accept dual citizenship in fact grant exceptions to as many as 40% of immigrants creating a situation of highly unequal access to dual citizenship. 

Using select EU nations as examples, this article describes why modern liberal democracies should work towards allowing dual citizenship and how nations would actually gain from accepting dual citizenship instead of trying to resist it; a fight that has largely proven futile anyway.

Published in the Florida State University College of Law Journal of Transnational Law and Policy, Volume 20 (2010-2011)

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