Access to Citizenship by Naturalisaton: Privilege or Right?

Access to citizenship through naturalisation has gained an increased relevance in the context of large-scale immigration in the last two decades. The United Nations estimates that there are 42 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide. This figure includes 15.2 million refugees, 827,000 asylum-seekers and 26 million internally displaced persons. The Geneva Convention encourages ratifying States to grant citizenship unto refugees and displaced persons as quickly as possible, recognising that only through citizenship can a full and equal allotment of rights distribution be achieved. Yet claims to State sovereignty over national borders, together with attachments to national identities, determine citizenship acquisition through naturalisation a restrictive undertaking; consequently excluding those outside the national identity/territory from the protection of rights. Although citizenship-like freedoms are being afforded to Third Country Nationals (TCNs) under the Maastricht Treaty, TCNs cannot be proclaimed ‘EU citizens’ as defined therein, except by means of naturalisation within the hosting Member State. The issue with this is that naturalisation laws, policies and procedures differ between Member States, from liberal to restrictive ends, making the EU identity, not least national identities and national rights, difficult to attain. Of the aforementioned figures, Ireland has the lowest acceptance rate of refugees in the European Union (EU), recognising a mere 5 percent of refugee applications in 2011, a figure far below the average EU rate of 11.6 percent. Notwithstanding this, Ireland’s ethnography is changing, with an average of 3,000 foreign-nationals being naturalised each month. The current European migration and refugee crisis has opened dialogues concerning citizenship and national identity, posing age-old socio-political questions like “will they ever be one of us?”. Liberals argue that such nationalistic questions and views are unwarranted in an era where globalisation remains prominent. Post-nationalism has been argued to erode national identity as regards defining who should be included in the distribution of national constitutional rights. Post-national citizenship, such as EU citizenship, allows for rights to transcend national borders, and perceives citizenship as rights rather than of identity. The Irish naturalisation procedure exemplifies this, as no knowledge of the State is required, contrasting with countries like the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK which have put in place systems (e.g. Civic Integration Tests) aiming at ensuring that the ‘outsider’ has knowledge of the State before he can be considered a State national. Yet many countries, including Ireland, consider citizenship ‘a privilege’ rather than ‘a right’ - at what stage, if any, does access to citizenship become a right? Yet the question of citizenship, as a privilege or as a right, is far more complex than that of simply following a list of legal requirements; it encompasses questions of identity (what it means to be Irish) and integration (can one “become” Irish, in part if not whole?). It is in light of this complexity that my paper examines the legal and political framework of naturalisation in Irish law before discussing the anomalies of the system from a socio-legal perspective.