National Front leader Marine Le Pen has outlined a policy where dual citizens from non-European countries would be forced to make a choice which they want to keep.
ADVERTISEMENTAfter watching National Front leader Marine Le Pen being interviewed on France Deux on Thursday night many dual nationals in France are now worried they’ll be forced to give up one of their passports if she becomes president.
They listened as Le Pen outlined a policy where dual citizens from non-European countries would be forced to make a choice.
“I am against dual nationality outside Europe, so I ask to choose their nationality, that does not mean that if they do not choose French nationality, they will have to leave France,” she said.
When pressed on which nationalities would be considered European she stated that Russians would be – but that Americans and Israelis would not.
French Jews 'will have to give up dual Israeli citizenship' if Marine Le Pen wins presidential election https://t.co/4JfVYe7aWwpic.twitter.com/S4h6y3o7Es
— Telegraph News (@TelegraphNews) February 10, 2017
There are only estimates of how many dual citizens live in France, one of which is about three point three million.
That’s because dual citizens are not required by law to report their other nationality.
Le Pen also linked her policy to employment, saying that French citizens would be prioritised when it came to being employed.
France’s unemployment rate stands at around ten percent, about double that of Britain, and along with immigration it’s a key election issue.
Dual citizenship in France is acquired either by naturalization after at least five years of residence, or by marrying a French citizen or at birth, if one of the parents is a dual citizen or a foreign national.
In 2013 38,000 people became dual citizens, most of them from North Africa and many from Europe, but also people from all over the world.
As the law stands, dual citizens can only be stripped of their French nationality if they have harmed the interests of the nation or they’ve been convicted of a terrorist offence.