While talking one of my Indian born American citizen friend he casually mentioned that now he is an American national and citizen also. I decided to ask a number of friends and realized that most of us are confused between nationality and citizenship and think both are synonymous terms. Whereas both are different terms with different unique meaning and different concepts.
Nationality refers to a person's place of birth or in which country he was born. It confers some privileges and responsibilities and the country ensures the safety of its people. Whereas citizenship is when the person meets all the legal requirements of the country and the country then gives him the citizenship. For an individual both may or may not be same. When a person becomes a citizen of a country he or she gets aright to work, vote ,dwell and participate in national events.
Nationality can not be changed and a person can be national of one country only whereas citizenship can be changed and a person can become a citizen of more than one country. A nationality by virtue of its nature can not be reversed whereas a citizenship can be reversed or even changed. Nationality can be obtained by birth or by inheritance whereas citizenship can be obtained by birth, inheritance, naturalization, marriage, etc. Nationality is an ethical and racial concept while citizenship is a legal or judicial concept and a political status. Some countries do permit dual citizenship but India does not and one has to renounce his Indian citizenship when he or she accepts the citizenship of another country.
No comments:
Post a Comment