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I stumbled upon this video of a German-born Vietnamese girl (without the Vietnamese nationality) from parents who had lived in Czechoslovakia before ending up in the Netherlands. They had been here since 2005 and since the parents were Vietnamese born they have received Vietnamese papers which paved the way for Dutch citizenship. However, their daughter was born in Germany and thus the Vietnamese authorities refuse to recognize her and grant her Vietnamese citizenship.. because of this she also can't apply for Dutch citizenship (but she is in the country legally) or even be recognized as stateless as a sound legal framework is missing. According to the Dutch National Government's website, some 4000 people in this country are stateless because "their" former government refuses to take its responsibility. We're having a great number of people in this country who, frankly, should have become citizens and who still retain their former passports but there are thus also people who now land between two stools because of bureaucracy. How is one to deal with matters of statelessness ?
Should a government
- Pass a bill and naturalise those people ? Particularly in cases where parents have already gained citizenship and where there is a strong indication that the person has been assimilated into the culture ?
- Deport them (but where to ?)
- Pass a bill for that naturalises all stateless persons ?
- Look the other way ?
My personal sentiment going for option 1: it may be clear that her (and people like her) are well assimilated (particularly if it's all they have ever known) and do, clearly, not form a security risk in any way, shape or form. Even more so in the case when the parents have already become citizens and where people just fall through the cracks by no fault of their own. I think the government should act and pass a bill in which such individuals who have been raised here legally and shown a tendency towards assimilation but are stateless for no fault of their own are to become Dutch citizens. It's a small group of people, so I am sure this can easily be handled. We can compensate in other ways by stripping those off their passports who have become Dutch citizens but who have refused to give up their old nationality or who have shown no inclination towards assimilation.
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