Mass Citizens

From the BBC:

"Hungary creating new mass of EU citizens"

Hungary has granted tens of thousands of passports to people in neighbouring countries, making them automatic citizens of the EU with all the advantages that brings. The man leaving the Hungarian consulate looks at me with incomprehension when I greet him in Hungarian.  "He does understand it - he just doesn't speak it very well yet," says his female companion, hastily.  The man clutches a brown folder in his hand, containing his new Hungarian citizenship papers. He took the oath of allegiance to Hungary 15 minutes earlier. Now, they are on their way to take photos, for his first Hungarian passport.  Some 100,000 people have applied for Hungarian citizenship in Serbia, and more than 500,000 worldwide since a new Hungarian law came into force, in January 2011. There are only two conditions - a direct ancestor who was a Hungarian citizen, and a basic knowledge of the language. Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina, Transylvania in Romania, Slovakia, and Transcarpathian Ukraine were all parts of Austro-Hungary until 1920, and many parts were briefly re-annexed by Hungary during World War Two.  Therefore most families in the region have a grandparent or great-grandparent who qualifies.  While Romania and Slovakia are already in the EU, the value of a Hungarian passport is inestimable for a Serbian citizen. It is seen as a chance to escape the domestic economic crisis and - regardless of the EU's own deep unemployment - to live and work anywhere in the bloc.   Serbia's government has accepted the Hungarian law calmly - after all it has its own equivalent, with Serbs in Bosnia able to claim Serbian citizenship.  But others are more nervous about Hungarian motives. The Slovak government passed a law banning dual citizenship, and some politicians accused Hungary of irredentist claims on its former territory.  Fifty-one Slovak Hungarians who claimed Hungarian citizenship have been stripped of their Slovak citizenship, as have several hundred Czechs. "People ask for Hungarian citizenship for either emotional or rational reasons," explains Hungary's general consul in Subotica, Tamas Korsos.  "The emotional one I need hardly explain - that sense of belonging to a national community. The rational one is that one can travel more easily with a Hungarian passport." Does he mind the fact that so many are applying who have no emotional connection to Hungary, and simply want to work in Germany or beyond?  He insists that most apply because they identify with Hungary, but adds: "I do not condemn that in any way… everyone looks after his own interests. I look forward to the day when he can travel everywhere with a Serbian passport too!" When it passed the new citizenship law, the Fidesz government in Hungary explained that the purpose was to give Hungarians around the world, and especially those in neighbouring countries, the chance to belong to the motherland again.  The European Commission has no official comment on the reality of half a million new EU citizens - just as there was no criticism of Romania for inviting Moldovans to take up Romanian citizenship - about 400,000 have already.  The soft underbelly of the scheme is the language knowledge. There is no exam, no list of questions - just a requirement that each person who applies "be able to handle their everyday affairs in Hungarian".  The consular staff spend two days a week on the road, visiting villages and towns to popularise the measure. On each occasion, they are presented with a pile of filled out application forms. From the consulate, 100 new Hungarian citizens emerge each day.  The sudden popularity of the Hungarian language - one of the hardest in Europe - has spawned a brisk trade in language schools. Many Hungarians offer teaching over the internet by Skype. One I speak to refuses an interview. "It's too sensitive," she explains.

^ I believe the citizenship of any country should be tightly controlled and not simply given (unless born to a parent who is a citizen or someone who was naturalized) or sold. With that said I don't see an issue with Hungary's law. Countries of Europe changed hands so often throughout the years. I once knew I man who said: "I have lived in 4 different countries without ever leaving my house." I see no issue with extending citizenship to someone whose parent or grandparent was a citizen of another country (but getting into great-grandparents, etc is going too far.) Germany extended German citizenship to anyone who can claim an ethnic German root (that's how many people behind the Iron Curtain left places like: Poland or the USSR and moved to West Germany.) Russia used to have a law that allowed any person born anywhere in the Soviet Union to become a Russian citizen. The Russian law didn't extend to ancestry (ie a parent or grandparent) and I personally believe there shouldn't be a statue of limitations - if someone was born anywhere in the USSR from 1922 to 1991 they should have the option to become a Russian until everyone from that time period dies out (Russia announced in December 1991 that it was the successor-state to the USSR and so this is part of that.) Spain had a similar law that allowed any person who had a parent or grandparent discriminated by Franco and lost their Spanish citizenship to regain it - that had a statue of limitations too. Israel allows anyone who is a Jew (through their mother) to get Israeli citizenship - it should be changed to allow a person with any Jewish parent. I also believe European (and other countries) should allow dual-citizenships. Most (ie Germany, Slovakia, Japan, the Ukraine, etc) do not. I see no issue with having multiple citizenships if it is all through ancestry and not naturalization (I also think "birth right citizenship" like the US and Canada gives should be done away with.)  I am a dual Canadian-American (since Canada changed the law a few years ago.) I am not considered, by either the United State or Canada, as being a naturalized citizen, but a full-blooded citizen. I also can not give Canadian citizenship to any children I may have - that is just plain discrimination. If I was naturalized I could understand it, but I can not see what "logic' the Canadian Government uses to forbid a native-born Canadian from giving it to their children. One way for countries to allow dual-citizenships and at the same time to restrict it is to do what places like the US, Canada, Russia, etc do: you have to enter the United States on a US Passport and Canada on a Canadian Passport (or a Russian passport for Russia.) That way you are legally recognized by that country as that nationality and not any of the others you have. Along the same lines I believe that people born outside the country to parents who are citizens of that country should not have any restrictions (political or otherwise) placed on them. I know many friends and family-members born outside the US to at least one American parent who can not become President, etc (and many of those who forced to live outside the country because the American Government sent them to a certain place.) Citizenship varies around the world and there are so many issues and problems that every country should look at and address. Bottom line here is I think ancestry citizenship should be up to the grandparents with no statue of limitations, birth-citizenship should be eliminated, dual-citizenship should be allowed, native citizens should always be allowed to give it to their children and those born outside the native country to at least one native parent should have no limitations placed on them. ^

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24848361