Naturalization in African states: its past and potential future

Abstract

The existing literature on the grant of citizenship by naturalisation largely focuses on the experience of Europe and the immigrant-founded states of the Americas and Australasia. This article considers the African experience. It sets out the comparative law on naturalisation, and the limited information that exists on the implementation of these rules in practice, noting that formal naturalisation is rare in all countries in the continent. The article argues that amendments to the rules on naturalisation are mainly performative, rather than aiming at any broader public policy outcome. Although there have been some important initiatives by some states to reach out to particular groups excluded from citizenship, these are rare. Yet public attitudes to acquisition of citizenship by foreigners is more open than the practice. Historically, integration of foreigners into the citizen body has happened largely through local processes of certification of identity. New efforts to strengthen identification systems in Africa may well make these processes more closed, and also make the difficulty of formal naturalisation more visible.

Going Global: Opportunities and Challenges for the Development of a Comparative Research Agenda on Citizenship Policies at the Global Level

“…But the practice of naturalising newcomers is not limited to the liberal democracies of Europe and thus, employing this functional definition in non-European contexts may misinterpret reality. As Bronwen Manby (2021) has recently shown in the context of some of the states in Africa, naturalisation has an additional function of being "performative" -meaning that its restrictive nature acts as a Ashley Mantha-Hollands signal "that the non-African minorities privileged during colonial rule will not be allowed to continue to dominate the political economy". Or furthermore, looking to Noora Lori's research in the Gulf States, naturalisation is seen by the state as a mechanism for ensuring national security (Loori, 2019).…”