Greece belongs to the Greeks but who are the Greeks it belongs to?

Greece’s citizenship law  – reformed in 2010 to give more room for the jus soli principle, integrating into the citizenry the relatively large number of second generation migrants (children born in Greece of foreign parents) as well as immigrants who have been settled in Greece for a long time – has recently been judged anti-constitutional by the country’s State Council.

The reasoning for the State Council’s decision (yet to be made public officially but already commented upon by the Prime Minister who is in favour of the annullment of the 2010 citizenship law) is that naturalisation should only happen when there is a ‘real bond’ bewteen the foreigner and the Greek nation and that such a real bond cannot be ascertained by formal legal requirements such as those in the 2010 law which require the foreigner to have been resident in the country for 7 years (and be in possession of a long term type of permit) or for the child to have been born in Greece by parents living in Greece for at least 5 years, or to have studied in Greek schools for at least 6 years.

For more details on the law, my opinion on the issue and several comments by experts in various countries (including how the Greek law compares with citizenship law in other European countries) read here: http://www.rscas.org/accept/blog/?p=182 and leave your own comment!