Monitoring of Administrative Processes for Obtaining Citizenship

The process of obtaining Greek citizenship continues to pose obstacles for people who have lived in the country for years, as well as for children born or raised here, forcing them to prove their ‘right’ to continue their lives in Greece every few years.

G2RED participates in the research project ‘Naturalization bureaucracies: Navigating citizenship acquisition processes in Greece (Natbureau)’ * under the scientific supervision of Assistant Professor Katerina Rozakou (Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Department of Social Anthropology).

The organisation examines how the legislation regarding naturalization and citizenship for children born or raised in Greece is applied. Data is being collected regarding the law, changes, decisions made, and statistical information about the progress of applications.

According to recent developments, despite improvements in the naturalization examination process, the question bank remains opaque, with complex questions that do not take into account the experiences and skills of migrants. There is also a need to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.

However, a fundamental and insurmountable obstacle for most applicants is the requirement to prove a minimum income, which leads to many application rejections. The acquisition of citizenship for individuals who have lived in the country for years and have developed strong ties should not depend on financial factors.

Additionally, delays in processing applications and a lack of staff in citizenship services remain pressing issues, complicating the service provided to applicants. While the establishment of a team for the faster processing of citizenship applications for the second generation pending in Athens for the period 2022-2024 is helpful, the backlog in this category has been evident since 2019, and Northern Greece, which also has a significant volume of pending applications, is not covered.

Obstacles related to social integration and financial criteria must finally be addressed. Services need to be better staffed to handle the volume of applications, while the relevant authorities should publicly disclose statistics regarding pending applications and staffing to ensure transparency and proper monitoring of the process.

Under this project Generation 2.0 will collect and analyse data on the implementation of citizenship legislation by the public administration. In particular, we will monitor the implementation of the procedures of a) naturalization and b) acquisition of citizenship by birth/school attendance in the country.

In addition, we will track legislation and amendments to the legal framework, including administrative acts, decisions granting citizenship, as well as statistical data. We will communicate and gather information from bodies of the General Secretariat of Citizenship, as well as monitor the progress of applications of our beneficiaries that applied for citizenship.

Find here our Reports in Greek on ‘Monitoring of Administrative Processes for Obtaining Citizenship’ by period:

October 2023 – April 2024
May 2024 – August 2024

In addition, we are collaborating with the research team in conducting archival research to highlight gaps in legislation and administrative practice regarding citizenship acquisition procedures and recording testimonies in order to inform and raise awareness among the community.

*The research project is implemented under the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU (Implementing Agency: EL.ID.E.K.) (Project Number EL.ID.E.K.: 15160). The aim of the project is to study and highlight the procedures and institutions involved in the acquisition of citizenship in modern Greece.