Dr. Bronwen Manby, Senior Visiting Fellow, LSE Human Rights and Senior Visiting Fellow, Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa— Written evidence (LTN00011)
1. I am an independent consultant and senior policy fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. My principal area of expertise is in comparative citizenship law and statelessness, especially in Africa.
2. Among the 54 states in Africa, there are only one or two where the citizenship law specifically mentions a test in relation to proof of civic integration in order to naturalise, usually in relation to language knowledge.
3. However, requirements to show assimilation into the national community are common: see the table below, which is taken from my report Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study (Open Society Foundations, 3rd edition, 2016).
4. I don’t have detailed comparative knowledge of the ways in which these requirements are applied, but in most cases naturalisation is within the discretion of the executive – although in some cases courts are involved in certifying that the conditions are fulfilled (eg Guinea, Liberia), or citizenship boards advise or decide on naturalisation (eg Uganda, Ghana), or officials from local government structures at different levels must indicate their consent (eg Nigeria, Tanzania). Proof of integration would in most cases include statements in support from community leaders, etc.
5. Naturalisation is very rare in practice in all African states, largely due to the common requirement to prove ‘legal’ residence. A substantial proportion of those residents who are considered to be non-citizens (many of them born in the country) do not have such documents, and therefore cannot fulfil the conditions. Fees also place naturalisation out of reach.1
6. I maintain the Citizenship Rights in Africa website, which consists of a database of news stories, reports, legislation, court judgments, and other documents relating to nationality and statelessness in Africa, including resources relating to acquisition of nationality by naturalisation: please see the “search the database” menu tab.
7. The Global Citizenship Observatory (GlobalCit), a project of the European University Institute, has developed a database on modes of acquisition of citizenship (to which I contributed), which provides comparative information from across the world. If you search mode of acquisition A06d – ordinary (residence-based) naturalisation / civic integration – you will find listed all those countries that have such a condition for naturalisation. You can download a version of the database in Excel, for easier manipulation.
06 May 2022
1 See Bronwen Manby, “Naturalisation in African states: Its past and potential future”, Citizenship Studies Vol.25, No.4, 2021, pp.514-542.