Thousands of citizens per year give up Kosovo's citizenship

According to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration, Kosovo citizens who have renounced citizenship and elected one of the European Union's states to obtain new citizenship have been forced to take this action because some states do not allow dual citizenship.

The January-December 2019 period “, 5461 citizenship exemptions have been made in the State Division. Of them, 5394 are positive decisions, 67 negative decisions. The substates most of Kosovo's citizens receive are German, Austrian, Slovenian and other”, says the Interior Ministry and Public Administration data.

According to the data, on average, more than 5,000 thousand citizens have been released from Kosovo's substate year-on-year. The substate release trend has marked rising by 2014.

Visar Jamaicai from the Democracy Institute for Development (D4D) says that if years of giving up Kosovo's citizenship are analysed, then it is seen that we have increased this phenomenon, which he considers to be disturbing.

And we need to focus on why these citizens are leaving and why they are giving up on Kosovo's citizenship. If we refer to World Bank statistics, according to their reports, youth unemployment (in Kosovo) is about 50 percent, while half of Kosovo's population is under the age of 30 and trend is the same in the last 5 years”.

Also, there are no indicators showing that this trend is shrinking, so many citizens, in particular young people, are looking at it as the solution to migration from Kosovo and the moment they have the opportunity to become citizens of any of the EU countries, do so and give up Kosovo citizenship”, says Jamaica.

He adds that if data is analysed for lifting Kosovo's substatement from 2014 to 2016, there is a trend of growth and that for 20 percent.

If we take the figures since 2009, a year after the declaration of independence, we note we have a total of 400,000 Kosovo citizens who have given up substate. This does not happen only in Kosovo, but also in the countries of the region”, he says.

Over the years, Kosovo Statistics Agency data has shown a large number of citizens who are releasing Kosovo. In the last decade, more than 220 thousand Kosovo citizens have left the country.

The countries where Kosovo citizens have emigrated mostly during 2010-18 are Germany, France, Austria, Croatia and other states.

According to a report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration, Kosovo reportedly has lost about 2 percent of the country's population.

Freedom Krasniqi, researcher and policy analyst in the non-governmental organisation '%Germinı, who deals with the diaspora body in a written response sent Radio Free Europe, says the large number of Kosovo citizens who are giving up substate is worrying about a country.

The majority of citizens who are giving up citizenship are doing it because of the benefit of documents in other states, given that some states do not allow duality. This is disturbing because giving up citizenship implies that these people do not see Kosovo as their future state and do not plan to live in Kosovo. If citizens give up citizenship, that should not be done by Kosovo institutions”, Krasniqi says.

However, he adds, although these citizens give up Kosovo's citizenship, the Kosovo state must find ways to connect and keep in touch with them.

Kosovo must first build democratic and fair institutions within, because this reflects also in the external aspect, and especially in the diaspora's credibility, regarding Kosovo institutions. Furthermore, initiatives should be brokered and developed aimed at preserving ethnic and cultural identity, mediating professional exchanges at different periods in Kosovo, which would help build human capacities, as well as representing the diaspora in decision-making institutions”, Krasniqi says.

The number of Kosovo citizens living abroad, according to data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, by the end of 2018, is estimated to be over 850 thousand people.