By Robert Sanga
A citizen is an inhabitant of a state who is entitled to the rights, privileges and protections. The state is responsible for the welfare of its citizens. The obligations of a citizen toward the state are different from one country to another. Natural, naturalize, honorary and dual citizenship are commonly known citizenship.
Natural citizenship is granted to all the children of those parents who are already the citizen. They acquire citizenship by birth as their parents are the citizen. A citizenship is automatically granted to such persons. There are some states which grant automatic citizenship to the persons who have been born in their territory even if their parents are not citizen of that country.
However, all the people living in a particular state cannot automatically become a citizen. The aliens, refugees, migrant workers, tourist and other people living in a state are not citizens. Though they are granted some rights but they do not enjoy the same rights as those of citizens. Certain rights like right to vote, social equality and benefits offer by state to citizens are not given to them.
Diplomatic representatives, ambassadors, commissioners, counsels and other staff attached with Embassy are not citizens of their residential place of work. But they are entitled to certain privileges and immunities. These could not be taken away as they are in the jurisdiction of the state and country to which they originally belong to.
Citizenship can be acquired by fulfilling certain criteria and condition as laid down by a state. A person can apply for citizenship of any country for which the resident state may or may not grant. This type of apply citizenship is known as naturalize citizenship and it can be acquired to subject to rules and regulations of a state.
The general requirement set by Norwegian government to grant Norwegian citizenship to a foreigner is not the same as those of other countries in which the authorities set specific standard for acquiring citizenship. Citizenship can be generally acquired through long residence, marriage, adoption and government service. It can also be lost by obtaining a citizenship of another country.
However, country like India, Norway, German, America, Australia, England and a few other countries grant dual citizenship. It means that their citizen can get a chance to have a citizenship of another countries without losing their original citizenship. They can also grant and receive a honorary citizenship.
Democratic leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was given Canadian honorary citizenship in 2007. It's a great symbol for the country in honoring her struggle against brutal Burmese military regime. The state has to respect religions, ethnicities, languages and cultural diversity of citizens. It’s very sad that Burma (Myanmar) continue to face over sixty years of civil war as Burmese military regime do not want to grant certain rights, privileges and protections to fellow citizens.
