EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Imiscoe Policy Brief. The Acquisition and Loss of Nationality in 15 EU States. Results of the Comparative Project NATAC.

Imiscoe Policy Brief. The Acquisition and Loss of Nationality in 15 EU States. Results of the Comparative Project NATAC.

Introduction

The NATAC project aims to develop a comprehensive comparison of the rules regulating acquisition and loss of nationality in the EU Members States. Three volumes stemming from this project have been published within the IMISCOE-AUP peer reviewed series: click here and an online publication. In this policy brief Bauboeck introduces the results of the international comparative project NATAC and gives various policy recommendations based on the results. He focuses on the impact of citizenship policies of EU member states on the settlement, political participation and integration of migrants.

Description

The project NATAC (The Acquisition and Loss of Nationality in EU Member States) was funded by the 6th EU framework programme and compared nationality laws and their implementation in the 15 old Member States. The project’s main recommendation is that, although the EU has no direct legal competence in matters of nationality, it should initiate a process of open coordination in order to promote minimum standards and good practices in the area of citizenship and nationality law.

There are two main arguments why this is a common concern for the EU and its members:

Access to citizenship for immigrants and their descendants is a crucial condition for integration.
In order to avoid unintended and undesirable effects of their citizenship policies, Member States need to achieve a higher level of coordination among themselves and with migrant sending states.

The NATAC recommendations for reform favour the political inclusion of long-term immigrants and their descendants in the political community of receiving societies, while respecting at the same time the external ties linking emigrants to their countries of origin. The researchers suggest, however, that nationality and EU citizenship should not be offered to external populations without genuine ties with the country concerned.

Background information

From summer 2004 to the end of 2005 an international network of researchers has analysed the rules and practices regulating the acquisition and loss of nationality in the fifteen ‘old’ EU Member States.

This policy brief is part of the IMISCOE publication programme. By using policy briefs we want to bring IMISCOE research to the attention of policy makers and at the same time translate the results into meaningful and useful messages to them.

The results of this EU-funded project with the acronym NATAC (The acquisition of nationality in EU Member States: rules, practices and quantitative developments) are also published in three volumes in the IMISCOE-AUP peer reviewed book series: click here.

EU involvement

IMISCOE is an EU funded Network of Excellence in the Sixth Framework Programme. NATAC was funded by the Commission’s sixth framework programme and co-funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture.

Contact info

IMISCOE Network of Excellence
Karen Kraal (Communication Officer), tel. +31 (0)20 525 3659

Publication date

Project finished

//2006

Researcher

Rainer Bauböck, Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Links

Visit the IMISCOE Network of Excellence website

Download the 'Natac Policy Brief' Report (PDF, Eng, 161 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy

Keywords

Social inclusion & integration