Hi,

there are many different ways how you can acquire citizenship of a country.

In general, countries with an Anglo-Saxon law tradition give citizenship to
anyone born on its territory, regardless of the citizenship of the parents!
Examples are Australia and the U.S. One or two years age there was a
discussion in California, where Republicans wanted to suspend this right at
least partly, because now even children of illegal immigrants become U.S.
citizens by birth.

Countries with a Roman law tradition generally give citizenship by
parentage, that means that at least one, or even better both parents should
have one citizenship which is then acquired by the child. Examples are all
continental European countries. Some of these allow dual citizenship, some
don't. A special case is Germany, where anyone "of German blood" has a right
to the German citizenship. This is why all these Russians of German decent
were automatically granted German citizenship.

Greetings,

Anton Z.

>From: "Jan Krogh" <jakro64@...>
>Reply-To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: RE: [BoundaryPoint] Dutch soil in the air
>Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 11:01:47 +0200
>
>Harry,
>
>In some countries the country of birth may give residence rights for the
>child, but I have never heard that it also gives citizenship. In my ship
>example I had only birth registration and issuing of birth certificate in
>mind. It is the ship or aircraft captain's duty get a birth certificate to
>the newborn!
>
>Jan

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