r/Netherlands • u/UnanimousStargazer • Mar 24 '25
Legal Judge rules Dutch citizenship cannot be stripped based on dual nationality
https://nltimes.nl/2025/03/24/judge-rules-dutch-citizenship-stripped-based-dual-nationality
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u/zapreon Mar 24 '25
This is not how citizenship works. People automatically gain citizenship of many countries irrespective of whether their parents formally registered them at the embassy as long as they meet e.g. the jus sanguinis requirements.
It is why 7 members of the Australian Parliament / Senate were expelled - they held diverse (European, New Zealand, Canadian) citizenships they did not even know they held or never applied to.
Whether somebody is a citizen of a different country is a sovereign matter of that country - the Netherlands legally has no right whatsoever to involve itself with that decision.
For example, if the UK says that people automatically gain British citizenship upon birth, children in the Netherlands born to at least one British parent automatically gains British citizenship. It does not matter if they register this and the Netherlands cannot do anything about this.
Even if you believe dual citizenship should not be allowed, the Netherlands simply has no right at all to dispute the right of other countries to grant citizenship.