Dual-Nationality in Greece

I've just read an article illustrating the convoluted processes by which succesive Greek Governments have sought to achieve a definition of who is, is not and could be a Greek citizen. Although it's not mentioned in the article, the modern Greek conceptualisation is reminscent of Herodotus' old definition of the Greeks, perhaps the first explicit definition of a nation that we have. Herodotus' definition is in fact put in the mouth of an Athenian, responding angrily to a Spartan, during the war against Xerxes:
"the kinship of all Greeks in blood and speech, and the shrines of gods and the sacrifices that we have in common, and the likeness of our way of life, to all of which it would not befit the Athenians to be false. "

However, it is noteworthy that Herodotus himself was profoundly sceptical of notions of Greek racial purity. "For this reason, and for no other, the Ionians too made twelve cities; for it would be foolishness to say that these are more truly Ionian or better born than the other Ionians; since not the least part of them are Abantes from Euboea, who are not Ionians even in name, and there are mingled with them Minyans of Orchomenus, Cadmeans, Dryopians, Phocian renegades from their nation, Molossians, Pelasgian Arcadians, Dorians of Epidaurus, and many other tribes; and as for those who came from the very town-hall of Athens and think they are the best born of the Ionians, these did not bring wives with them to their settlements, but married Carian women whose parents they had put to death. For this slaughter, these women made a custom and bound themselves by oath (and enjoined it on their daughters) that no one would sit at table with her husband or call him by his name, because the men had married them after slaying their fathers and husbands and sons. This happened at Miletus." Perseus

All these peoples could be called Greeks in one sense, but it is doubtful they would have met the criteria of the angry Athenian. The Carians even fought on the Trojan side, according to Homer.

From the introduction to the article:

Possessing citizenship in the state of one’s residence unquestionably constitutes a fundamental factor for social integration, while not being a citizen is likely to cause social exclusion. Thus, the legal norms regarding the acquisition or the loss of citizenship, and therefore dual citizenship or statelessness, take on major importance for social stability. However, national ideology should accommodate such a perspective, and this is not an obvious undertaking. The choice by states to permit or to prevent dual (or multiple) citizenship is essentially political in nature, regulated by legal regulations and conditioned by historical factors. In this context, ius sanguinis and ius soli offer legislators a series of options. However, citizenship law is also closely linked to the ideological perception that a state has of its most valuable asset- its own citizens.

Greece does not constitute an exception to these thoughts. To comprehend citizenship issues in Greece, one has to consider the political and legal context regarding the acquisition and loss of Greek citizenship / nationality in its past and present status and the inter-relation between the Greek nation, the Greek state and the phenomenon of alterity. The homogeneity of Greece is built upon the elements of religion (Greek-Orthodox), language (Greek), national consciousness and an ambiguous cnceptualization of “Greek descent”. Thus, alterity in Greece, regarding Greek citizens, may be described in terms that are religious (Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Jehova’s Witnesses), linguistic (Turkish, Arvanite, Romanes, Vlach, Slavo-Macedonian/Pomak), or ethnic/national (Turks, Macedonians, Jews, Armenians, Pomaks, Romas). This“traditional” otherness was enriched during the 1990s by the massive settlement of immigrants who represented 10% of the population in Greece in 2004.

This paper presents and analyzes the historical background which has affected citizenship law in Greece, and the law in force on citizenship, with special emphasis given to citizenship deprivation. Furthermore, it examines court and administration practice and especially immigration as a challenge for socio-economic and political citizenship policies. Education on otherness, and Greece’s citizenship perspectives within the European context, are the topics on the basis of which the present paper achieves the analysis of the politico-legal and social state membership in Greece

Citizenship in
Greece
Present challenges for future changes
Konstantinos Tsitselikis
University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki.