The ethno-demographic impact of co-ethnic citizenship in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Many countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) grant preferential access to citizenship to co-ethnics living outside their borders. This overlaps with several key regional demographic trends, such as a dramatic decrease of fertility rates, high emigration and changes in the ethnic structure of the populations. The paper analyses co-ethnic citizenship policies of five CEE countries in order to assess their demographic impact on both the kin-states and on the communities of co-ethnics living outside their kin-state. It argues that, despite their important potential, co-ethnic citizenship policies in the region have yielded little ethno-demographic benefits. The size of both core ethnic groups in the kin-state and of co-ethnic communities living outside the kin-state has decreased throughout the region. Moreover, on several occasions, the situation of co-ethnics has worsened as a direct consequence of co-ethnic citizenship policies.

Strategic citizenship: negotiating membership in the age of dual nationality

“…In Latin America, descendants of European immigrants (re)acquire citizenship from their ancestors' countries of origin, while others draw on their migration background or place of birth to secure the U.S. citizenship (Harpaz 2019;Mateos 2019;Cook-Martin 2013;Harpaz 2015Harpaz , 2016. In Eastern Europe, millions of people in non-EU countries obtain citizenship from ethnic-kin countries such as Romania and Hungary that have already joined the Union (Harpaz 2019;Dumbrava 2019;Knott 2019;Pogonyi 2019;Spiro 2019). In addition to those pathways, people have carved numerous other avenues to a second citizenship, including circular migration, marriage, outright purchase for cash and even fraud (Kim 2019;Joppke 2019;Mateos and Durand 2012).…”

“…In settings as diverse as China, Moldova, Mexico and Israel, individuals are acquiring citizenship from countries with which they often feel practically no connection. Often, people acquire citizenship from one country in order to gain easy access to another country -South Korean, Spanish or Romanian passports as a way to immigrate to the United States or Germany, for example (Kim 2019;Knott 2019;Mateos 2019;Dumbrava 2019;Harpaz 2013). While some countries (such as Spain or Hungary) offer citizenship to individuals of the right ancestry or ethnicity, others -for example, Cyprus or St. Kitts and Nevis -simply offer it for sale (Joppke 2019;Spiro 2019).…”

“…Instead, they view their second passport as an 'insurance policy' or use it for short-term visa-free travel to new destinations. Sometimes, the passport -and the border crossings it allows -is used to display its bearer's high status or her ethnic identity (Harpaz 2013;Kim 2019;Dumbrava 2019;Knott 2019;Mateos 2019;Pogonyi 2019;CookMartin 2013). These findings lend support to the mobility paradigm, suggesting that from a dual citizen's perspective, much of the value of her second citizenship has to do less with social welfare or voting rights and more with securing an advantageous position within a global hierarchy of travel freedom.…”

Pragmatic Trans-Border Nationalism: A Comparative Analysis of Poland’s and Hungary’s Policies Towards Kin-Minorities in the Twenty-First Century

“…In Poland, the policy towards kin-minorities that is aimed at encouraging their members to settle in the country is presented as a positive counter-example for the migration policy of Western Europe, where -according to the Polish authorities-the policy of accepting foreigners from culturally distant countries and the integration policy based on multiculturalism have failed. 5 Many countries in Central and Eastern Europe grant co-ethnics living outside their borders certain benefits in the homeland, preferential access to citizenship and/or a kind of certificate that proves their ethnic belonging to the nation (Dumbrava, 2019;Waterbury, 2014). Concerning the latter benefit, the Karta Polaka and the Certificate of Hungarian Nationality (Magyar Igazolvány) were introduced as documents guaranteeing the holder's adherence to the Polish or the Hungarian nation.…”

Migration-Facilitating Capital: A Bourdieusian Theory of International Migration

“…These groups become the constituent nodes of brokerage networks through, among other ways, rent-seeking, remittance-driven developmental strategies, regulatory needs, delegation by labor-importing states, and advocacy for (a particular group of) aspiring migrants. According to this broad definition, migration brokers would include a Bulgarian church in Moldova issuing certificates of membership to Moldovan citizens who want to acquire evidence of their Bulgarian ethnicity—that is, evidence of their possession of “ethnic capital”—to secure Bulgarian, and by extension, EU citizenship (Dumbrava 2018). 13 Migration brokers would also include numerous state agencies in the Philippines—for example, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the International Labor Affairs Service (ILSA), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)—that monitor trends in global labor demand, offer its citizens extensive opportunities in skill training (from computer programming and seafaring to nursing, housekeeping, and “entertainment”), and aggressively market the superiority of Filipino migrant workers to overseas clients (Rodriguez 2010).…”