NEW Democracy leader Antonis Samaras (L) announced his party’s intention to completely overhaul ruling Pasok’s latest immigration law as soon as his party comes to power. Pasok’s law in March of this year opened a path to the automatic acquisition of citizenship for a child born in Greece whose parents have been legally and permanently residing in Greece for at least five years. Samaras has harshly criticised the law. He says he wants to make the rules stricter.
“The children of illegal immigrants who are born here should be granted the right to citizenship when they come of age, but they must first choose between the Greek and the citizenship of their parents’ homeland,” Samaras told an Athens conference on international immigration that was organised by his party on July 5.
Tags: birth certificate, citizenship, education, Greece, Immigration
Loading...
oh really… and will he insist that greeks who already have dual citizenship — as in greek-americans, say — give up one of the two as well, or is this privilege available for a elite few only?
toomanytribbles´s last blog ..knife
Ζήτω η Νέα Δημοκρατία
@ toomanytribbles – A large part of the greek diaspora has dual citizenship and I can assure you nobody will be giving this up. It also makes no sense for the greek government to mess around with this because the greek diaspora plays a vital role in promoting Greece overseas which in turn helps tourism & trade. Not to mention that the diaspora in itself makes up a respectable amount of tourist visitors every year.
Pasok is not looking to healthy these days, a lot of infighting and mountainous problems ahead for them. Who really knows what the next parliament will look like…ND’s shenanigans are still too fresh in people’s heads. Perhaps the smaller parties will make more headway and Samaras may have less influence in getting what he wants.
the difference is that Greek-Americans..are by blood GREEKS these filipinos, arabs, and god knows what else are not by blood Greek…this is a demographic disaster in the making…even with this step back ( i call a step forward , but not far enough).
i thought this was supposed to be for children of LEGAL immigrants in the first place.
“The children of illegal immigrants “…………………..
children of illegals should not get anything.
if we start handing out citizenship like candy Greece is finished …at least as being a Greek Greece.
I believe that there are two different criteria here:
Automatic citizenship (at birth) for children born here and whose parents have been legally and permanently residing in Greece for at least five years.
The right for children born here to parents who are here illegally to apply for citizenship at the age of 18.
Please correct me if I’m wrong but I think this is the law that Pasok have passed. And this is what Samaras has vowed to overthrow if and when ND return to power.
deviousdiva´s last blog ..Greek Journalist Murdered
i have yet to see a study that can determine the nationality of a person by examining his/her blood sample. what a wondrous breakthrough that would be — we could do away with passports altogether!
toomanytribbles´s last blog ..hitch on gibson
What PD means by blood is ethnic roots…that’s why they ask you to prove that your daddy, mommy or granpappys happen to be greeks before granting dual citizenship. Same goes for many other countries who have large diasporas abroad, my friends of italian, spanish & portuguese origin have the exact same process to go through.
whether a person should have dual citizenship is an issue of a country’s policy and not whether one type of ethnicity has a [non-existent] biological justification for it.
what i don’t understand is a policy that would allow dual citizenship to one type of citizen but not to another. are not all citizens of a country equal?
yes? no?
if not, then should they be?
toomanytribbles´s last blog ..the trouble with tribbles posters
Canada allows people to have multiple citizenships (though dual is the most common). There are Canadians with citizenships from at least two other countries. Theoretically at least, it is possible to have more than three too and still be a Canadian. Prior to 1977 even dual was not possible.
My sister is thinking of getting a dual citizenship for herself and her kids. Her husband was born in England though he grew up here, so she is allowed and her kids too. They figure there are advantages. For instance, if their kids are bright and want to do law or medicine they could get into these fields right after high school in Britain while in Canada and America anyone going into these fields has to have at least three of university before they can even apply no matter how intelligent they might be. I have a problem with people who get citizenships for other countries to get advantages yet want to get out of certain obligations. For instance, I think Greek people born outside of Greece who want Greek citizenship yet will do anything to escape the mandatory military requirement perhaps shouldn’t be allowed unless they provide some sort of financial benefit to Greece that is seen as an equivalent in the eyes of Greeks living in Greece.
My parents and I had to give up our Indian citizenships to become Canadians as neither Canada nor India allowed this (India still doesn’t, a good thing in my opinion for it allows more people to have a clean break with that despicable political entity)while my brother and sister were born here. My parents used to to wish it was allowed but don’t care much anymore. The mother of one of my best friends is Scottish and has been in Canada for a good fifty years. She told me she went to get Canadian citizenship but felt like such a traitor giving up her Scottish or British or whatever it was citizenship and just came back home. She still rings in the New Year according to Scottish time and then a second time according to Canadian time.
This is a story I find amusing though I am sure it is not for Conrad Black, a former Canadian.
Conrad Black, a filthy rich guy, a newspaper baron, was made a Lord by the Queen of England. However, we do not like such titles in Canada. All people are equal and we don’t encourage these sorts of affectations. He was not allowed to be a lord and a Canadian, so guess what, he gave up his Canadian citizenship. He was born in Canada but one is still allowed to give up their citizen and he did, to serve in the British government as a Lord.
Well, all would have gone well. However, besides being a filthy rich lord, Black was also a crook. The Americans convicted him for some sort of corporate theft and sentenced him to six and a half years in 2007. Boy did he ever regret throwing away his Canadian citizenship then. Canada would have helped him as one of their citizens and maybe he could have even served his sentence here. Anyway, now he wants to come back to Canada. However, because he is no longer a Canadian and got convicted of a crime, he may not be allowed to -even though he was born here. In the end, of course he may be allowed for the really rich can always buy their way into any country basically.
56% of Canadians don’t want him to be allowed back in Canada,(he had early bail and got out of an American jail a day or two ago) but of course the public is not who will decide.