More than 60 percent of the Dutch public think immigrants should give up their foreign passport if they acquire Dutch citizenship, according to Statistics Netherlands.
As many as 70 percent think cabinet ministers shouldn’t be allowed to hold dual citizenship.
Non-Western immigrants have fewer objections: sixty percent believe that dual nationality should be permitted, and 50 percent think there is no problem with cabinet ministers holding more than one passport.
Although dual citizenship is restricted in the Netherlands, 1.1 million people out of a population of over 16.5 million are entitled to hold more than one passport. In principle, immigrants naturalising in the Netherlands are required to give up their original citizenship. However, there are exceptions, for example for those who acquire Dutch citizenship through marriage, or whose native county doesn’t permit them to renounce their citizenship.
(mb/ae)
© Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Email this Bulletin
Printer-friendly version
I wonder how many of us living in the Americas have dual Dutch/"Canadian" or Dutch/"American" citizenship.We have them because one or both of our parents are Dutch citizens and we were born in the Americas.
I was born in the U.S. a year after my parents immigrated from the Netherlands in 1956. When I was 17, they went back to the Netherlands for good, and I went along with them. They never became U.S. citizens, they had their green cards. I have a Dutch and a U.S. passport. I lived in the Nethelands for years, and 4 of my 5 children were born in the Netherlands. (their father is an American) We now live in the U.S. and my children all have U.S. passports, and 3 of them have Dutch passports as well. The other 2 never bothered to apply for their Dutch ones, but might do in the future. It's a part of their Dutch heritage. I consider myself to be Dutch more than anything. I was raised bi-lingual, and feel more at home in Holland than here in the U.S. The only reason I'm living here is because my children and grandchildren live here. (and of course my husband) If I could afford to, I would live half of the year in Holland and the other half here! I really miss Holland terribly... my aunts, uncles, and cousins all live there... I'm so grateful for the internet, it really helps to make a difference!
Hi Anonymous in the USA:
If your two children without Dutch nationality are still under 28 make sure they apply for their Dutch passports post-haste or else they'll end up losing their right to Dutch nationality. If they're over 28 they can still re-gain their Dutch nationality but it won't be as easy as filling out a passport application (and, if the current gov't has its way, they may end up having to give up their US nationality in the process).
Those who cannot have dual citizenship are of course against it.Forcing people to renounce one's nationality is an act inspired by fascism and national socialism, the same as forced integration so fomented by a lot of Dutch authorities.
I suspect you'll find that most, in most Western countries, a majority of people are opposed to people holding two passports. What makes the difference is whether the gov't is prepared to lead or whether they give in into their darker instincts and cater to the evil that is xenophobia.
In Canada, for example, a country in which the overwhelming majority of citizens can trace their ancestry to immigrants and in which the largest city of 2.5 million (Toronto) counts more people born outside of the country than inside the country as residents you can see a hardline right-wing anti-immigrant, xenophobic sentiment rising.
In 2009 the hardline right-wing conservatives managed to get an anti-immigrant bill passed with the help of one of the opposition parties that created two classes of citizenship. Canadians born abroad as Canadian citizens are not able to pass on their nationality yet naturalized Canadians born abroad can.
PS That bill was a direct result of racism--in 2006 many dual-nationals had to be evacuated from Lebanon when Lebanon and Israel fought their latest war. Because they weren't Christian, and, especially because they weren't Jewish they were perceived as second class citizens. Thus, we now have this bill :(