In the world of nation states, citizenship is a fundamental human rights of people. Citizenship gives recognition and individual identity. People who do not possess citizenship can be said vulnerable group as they lack recognition and protection under various schemes of government.
Max Weber described that citizenship is based on national interest, is economic in character (meaning rights to production and labor), composed of legal rights such as property rights, entitlements. In addition, he explained that citizenship signifies the membership in the nation through possession of political membership and certain political rights. It also means the social class membership which determines welfare rights and also create class inequality. His idea is based on the reality in European society in earlier centuries where citizenship status was primarily available to a social stratum of city dwellers, who enjoyed participation in the material, spiritual and artistic cultures of their time and place and showed membership to politics, military, donations, reforms etc.
Citizenship act provides framework to grant citizenship to its people. In Nepal, the first citizenship act was enacted on May 8, 1952 and it has changed over the period.
The first citizenship act in Nepal was enacted on May 8, 1952 which, remained effective even after the promulgation of the Constitution of 1959. The 1952 Act had adopted the following four standards for granting citizenship.
1)Citizenship by birth: Any person born of even non-Nepalese parents could also attain the Nepalese citizenship by fulfilling two conditions: being born in Nepal and having domicile in Nepal with the intent of a permanent residence.
2)Citizenship by descent: Person born in or outside Nepal can acquire citizenship by descent if either of the parents are born in Nepal, and children born outside Nepal to Nepalese parents living in other countries without acquiring foreign citizenship were eligible to acquire the Nepalese citizenship.
3)Citizenship by marriage: Gender bias since no provision for obtaining Nepalese citizenship by a foreign men who married Nepali women.
4)Citizenship by domicile: To get Nepali citizenship by birth or descent, domicile was a pre-condition. Nepalese living abroad can has foreign citizenship can reacquire Nepalese citizen after continuously living in Nepal for one-year. Foreigner could acquire Nepalese citizenship living in Nepal for at least five years. This act also introduced the policy of single citizenship, so to acquire the citizenship of Nepal, foreign citizenship had to be renounced.
The constitution of Nepal 1963 has the law on citizenship in the form of the Nepal Citizenship Ordinance, 1963 which is the amendment to the previous Act of 1952. The same Ordinance was adopted in February 28, 1964 as the Nepal Citizenship Act, 1964. Citizenship Act, 1964 made some drastic changes in the citizenship law of Nepal.
Citizenship Act, 1964 (Citizenship by Descent): Citizenship by descent are the person who are born after the commencement of this Act and whose fathers were Nepali citizens at the time of the child’s birth. Every minor who is found within the Kingdom of Nepal and the whereabouts of whose parents are not known shall, until the father of that minor is traced, be deemed to be a citizen of Nepal by descent. In determining the citizenship of a minor born within a reasonable period after the death of the father of that minor, a status corresponding to the status of that father whatsoever at the time of his/her death shall be deemed to have been maintained.
Citizenship Act, 1964, (Acquisition of Naturalized Citizenship of Nepal): Except minor or insane person, can apply for naturalized citizenship. The requirements are one can speak and write Nepali language, is engaged in any occupation in Nepal, has renounced his/her citizenship of another country, residency requirement in Nepal increased to fifteen years and need to have good character. Foreign women married to Nepali men could acquire Nepali citizenship submitting marriage certificate and the proof of canceling citizenship of the foreign country. Honorary citizenship of Nepal (equivalent to naturalized citizenship) can be granted to the renowned person on the recommendation of Nepal government.
Citizenship Act, 1964: Person having renounced citizenship of Nepal and gone abroad can acquire citizenship of Nepal again by showing proof that he was a citizen of Nepal and should renounce the citizenship of foreign country.
Nepal’s constitution 1990 has citizenship provision in chapter 2 of the constitution and in this constitution, the citizenship act of 1964 was retained.
Interim constitution in 2007 came in effect after people’s movement 2006. The provision of the citizenship is included in part 2 of the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 AD (2063BS) under article 8, 9, 10 and 11.
Interim constitution in 2007 (citizenship by descent): The constitution of 2007 states citizenship by descent to any person who has acquired citizenship by descent prior to the commencement of 2007 Constitution and any person whose father or mother was a citizen of Nepal at his or her birth. Every child found in the territory of the Nepal and whose parents are unknown are considered the citizen of Nepal until the father or the mother of the applicants can be traced. Any person who was born in the territory of Nepal before or on the last day of the month of Chaitra of the year 2046 (13 April 1990) and has been permanently domiciled in Nepal shall acquire the citizenship of Nepal by birth pursuant to the laws in force.
Interim constitution in 2007 (naturalized and honorary citizenship): Interim constitution on 2007 kept same provision of 1964 regarding naturalized / honorary citizenship and regarding citizenship by descent, it allowed citizenship to persons born to a father or mother who were Nepali citizens at the time of the child’s birth but the persons acquire naturalized citizenship certificate if born to Nepali mothers and foreign fathers. This provision resulted in preventing children of single mothers and those whose fathers refused to acknowledge their relation from obtaining citizenship certificates.
The present governing constitution of Nepal is the constitution of Nepal 2015. The new Constitution of 2015 has some new provisions which were not in the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 and has provision for the Nepalese citizenship in part 2 under the article 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the constitution of Nepal, 2015.
The new Constitution of 2015 (the citizen of Nepal by descent): a person who has obtained the citizenship of Nepal by descent prior to the commencement of this constitution, a person whose father or mother was a citizen of Nepal at his or her birth, every minor who is found within Nepal and the whereabouts of whose father and mother are not known shall, until the father or the mother of the child is traced, be a citizen of Nepal by descent, a person born to a single mother who is a citizen of Nepal and father is not traced shall be provided with the citizenship of Nepal by descent(provided that if he/her father is a foreign citizen, the citizen is converted to citizenship of Nepal by naturalization).
The new Constitution of 2015 (the citizen of Nepal by naturalization): Women married to a Nepali men, a person born from a woman who is a citizen of Nepal and married to a foreign citizen and permanently resided in Nepal and has not taken foreign citizenship may get naturalized citizenship. The Government of Nepal may, in accordance with the Federal law, may grant the naturalized and honorary citizenship of Nepal. A person can also obtain citizenship with the gender identity. Non-residential Citizenship is included in article 14 included the power to grant non-resident Nepalese citizenship by a person whose parents/grandparents has citizenship of Nepal by descent. This citizenship allows person to enjoy economic, social and political rights within the federal law of Nepal.
Nationality policy is the backbone of national policies on diverse field. People obtain rights, services and protection from states or nation based on the types of citizenship people hold. It creates categories of citizens, as native citizens, naturalized citizens, non-citizens, undocumented and each group tend to be looked differently by nation . If the country sees itself as a country of immigration, there is more chance that the immigrants gets more citizenship rights and liberal policies to get citizenship in that country. If the country sees that emigrants are threats, then it tends to have restrictive citizenship policy, which means to meet more requirements to hold citizenship of that country.
Also, it is important to note that citizenship policy determines the governance of country and the political ideologies in regard to immigration and emigration, national economies, etc
In fact, citizenship gives us opportunity and at the same time, it also creates diversity. To simply understand, to enjoy economic rights by immigrants as equal to native, citizenship can be one profound requirement because employers tend to hire individual which have visas to carry out the job. Economic policies, job, salaries and opportunities in many contexts are based on citizenship considerations. Therefore, citizenship and nationality policies influence individual rights, identity as well as sharply determine the nation’s socio-economic, migration, social welfare and so on.
References
Barbalet, Jack. (2010). Citizenship in Max Weber. Journal of Classical Sociology. 10. 201-216. 10.1177/1468795X10371717.
http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/rarebooks/downloads/Nepal_1990_Constitution_English.pdf
http://fwld.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Legal-Analysis-of-Citizenship-Law-of-Nepal-Citizenship-Report-English.pdf
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