Dual citizenship means that an individual holds citizenship in two nation-states. Theoretically, an individual may even have more than one citizenship. International law states that each nation-state has their own authority to decide who is their citizens according to their own law. The main conditions for global acknowledgment of citizenship is that a justifiable connection exists between the individual and the state. Also, the determination of each nation-state’s citizens is expected to be respected by every other nation-state. Restrictions may be placed only through international agreements. There is numerous ways an individual can be considered a citizen of a nation-state. Some countries give citizenship to those born in the country like …show more content…
Therefore as long as individual nation-state does not restrict it, an individual can hold more than one citizenship. For example, some countries allow individuals to apply for foreign citizenship without forsaking their original citizenship hence resulting in dual citizenship. Legislators of the past see dual citizenship as an upset in natural order. Loyalty to the state were seen as linked to citizenship. This meant that only by being a citizen were one be seen as loyal to their country. By holding dual citizenship, the legislators were afraid that immigrants would not integrate into their country as they would still be loyal to the country they were originally from. Also, the politicians were scared that the citizens from the enemies would cause trouble. There is also the view that dual citizenship will cause national citizenship to lose its value. It was also thought that dual citizenship would threaten the legitimacy of democracy as it would clash with the principle of “one people, one vote”. A dual citizen is bound by laws of both countries and hence deciding which nation’s laws to prosecute if one commit a crime may be very difficult. Dual citizenship not only cause problems for the nation, the individual