Tapio Kuosma

From an individual´s perspective, being a national in a state creates a fundamental legal position. Apart from rights, nationality also entails duties.

People are organised as nations in states. An independent state is a circumscribed, geographical area where the state organs exert sovereign and permanent state power and where a permanent population, that is, a nation, resides.

In general, fundamental rights are granted to every individual, within the sphere of state application of law, regardless of his or her nationality. Recognising one´s rights is directly based either on the Constitution or international treaties on human rights. However, certain principal rights are reserved only for the state´s own nationals.

In principle, the nationality of a democratic state ruled by law guarantees that a subject can get protection from his own state, if necessary, and he is safeguarded on the basis of the human rights to which the state has committed itself by international jurisdiction.

For a refugee, being granted nationality provides an opportunity to fully participate in political activity and societal development in the new country.

The Constitution determines civil rights

According to the Finnish Constitution of 1995, regulations on the basic rights apply to everyone within the Finnish jurisdiction. However, many principal rights and duties do not apply to alien nationals or those without nationality.

The right to vote in a state election and referendum, eligibility in Parliamentary and presidential elections as well as a membership of the Council of State, have been directly linked with nationality. The President of the Republic can assign the supreme command of the armed forces to another Finnish national. It can be prescribed by law that only a Finnish national is appointed to certain public positions or duties. The duty to participate in the national defence applies only to Finnish nationals. A subject must not be prevented from entering the country, being deported or returned against his will or transferred to another country.

Nationality is generally acquired at birth

The first constitutional provisions on nationality were given on 17th July 1919. Accordingly, the right to Finnish nationality was granted to everyone who was born from Finnish parents as well as to an alien female who had married a Finnish male.

In the current Constitution, nationality is acquired on the basis of birth and the parents´ nationality. The child is granted Finnish citizenship at birth if (1) the mother is a Finnish citizen or (2) the father is a Finnish citizen, and (a) is married to the child´s mother or (b) the child is born in Finland and the man´s paternity of the child is established, or (3) the father is dead, but was a Finnish citizen at the time of his death and (a) is married to the mother of the child or (b) the child is born in Finland and the man´s paternity of the child is established.

Citizenship can also be granted through the place of birth. A child acquires Finnish citizenship at birth if he is born in Finland and does not acquire the citizenship of any other foreign state. As a rule and on certain preconditions, a child who is born in Finland acquires Finnish citizenship through the place of birth if his or her parents have refugee status in Finland or if they have otherwise been provided protection against the authorities of their state of nationality.

Citizenship on application

Citizenship can also be granted on the basis of declaration or application, according to the conditions prescribed by law. Being naturalised entails that an alien meets the general requirements for naturalisation. An individual can be released from citizenship only on the basis of legal provisions and providing that he acquires a nationality of another state or he will be granted a nationality of another state.

The first Act on Naturalisation was enacted on 20th February 1920. An alien could be granted Finnish citizenship on application if he met the integrity requirement, had been resident and domiciled in Finland for the last five years without interruption, had provided maintenance for himself and his family and was released from civic duties in a foreign state. However, the requirements pertaining the period of residence and the release from the civic duties of a foreign state could be deviated from for 'well-founded reasons'.

During the truce, on 9th May 1941, a new Nationality Act, that is, the Act on Retaining or Losing Finnish Citizenship, came into force. It entailed provisions on acquiring citizenship based on birth or otherwise directly according to the law, on granting citizenship to an alien or losing Finnish citizenship. Accordingly, an alien could be granted Finnish citizenship on application if he had reached the age of 21, met the integrity requirement, provided maintenance for himself and his family and he had been permanent resident and domiciled in Finland for the last five years. The requirement pertaining the period of residence could be deviated from if an applicant was married to a Finnish citizen.

A language requirement is added

The Nationality Act of 1941 was abolished in 1968. In the amended act, the requirements for an applicant to be naturalised entailed a minimum age of 18, having been permanent resident and domiciled in Finland for the last five years, having met the integrity requirement and provided maintenance for himself and his family. Like the previous acts, the amended Act included the prohibition on dual or multiple nationalities.

The current Act on Nationality is the fourth of independent Finland. All the four acts have prescribed the general requirements for naturalisation to include a period of residence of certain length, integrity and a sufficient livelihood. In terms of the Nationality Acts of 1920, 1941 and 1968, the required uninterrupted period of permanent residence used to be five years while the Act of 2003 determines the period to be at least six years. In the Nationality Acts of 1941, 1968 and 2003, the requirement for naturalisation entailed reaching a certain age, compared to the Act of 1920, which had no such requirement. The 2003 Act prescribes further provisions on naturalisation, such as meeting pecuniary obligations as well as the requirement for language skills, that is, a satisfactory oral and written knowledge of Finnish or Swedish. These provisions were not included in the previous legislation.

The valid Nationality Act differs from the previous naturalisation legislation in three fundamentally important sections. Firstly, acquiring nationality entails that an alien´s identity has been reliably established. Secondly, the Act approves dual or multiple nationalities. It also prescribes that an alien is not naturalised if there is a well-grounded reason to suspect that naturalisation will jeopardise the security of the state or public order or if naturalisation conflicts with "the best interests of the state". The previous acts did not include the corresponding clauses.

Writer Tapio Kuosma, Licentiate in Law, was employed in the administration of foreign affairs for more than ten years and worked for the Supreme Administrative Court for over two decades. He has published several studies and non-fiction, including the following: An Alien´s Entry into the Country and Leaving the Country (1992), An Alien, a Refugee, an Asylum Seeker (1999), the New Nationality Act (2003), the New Aliens Act (2004).