Cambodians enjoy the benefit of dual citizenship.

[ASEAN NOW]

 

Citizenship is a contract between an individual and a country that establishes certain rights, responsibilities, and advantages, such as the ability to vote, the need to pay taxes, and the benefits of social welfare. By birthright, family, marriage, residency, and investment, a person can earn at least five citizenships.

 

Although a government cannot prevent a person from acquiring a new citizenship, it can deprive that person of citizenship within its jurisdiction if he or she has several citizenships. Dual citizenship is permitted in Japan until the age of 21, after which a citizen must select only one citizenship.

 

If the person does not make a decision within a certain amount of time, Japan will deprive them of their Japanese citizenship. Naturalised people must lose prior citizenship in Germany, where the age limit for selecting German citizenship is 23.

When Sam Rainsy incorrectly claimed in a Guardian article that Prime Minister Hun Sen secretly possessed a Cypriot passport, he was unaware that dual citizenship is a Cambodian government-granted privilege. Cambodia is one of the few countries in the world that allows dual citizenship with little restrictions, especially when it comes to running for office.

 

Sam Rainsy is a dual citizen of France and Cambodia. This implies he can freely travel between the two nations and stay there indefinitely without needing a visa. When committing illicit crimes, he can also flee to either of them.

Sam Rainsy's French passport permits him to travel visa-free inside the 27 European Schengen states and to North America for tourism and political activities, but his Cambodian citizenship allows him to represent Cambodian opposition members when meeting with US senators and Cambodian Americans.

 

It would be more difficult for Sam Rainsy to travel between Cambodian diasporas around the world if he renounced his French citizenship. He cannot represent Cambodians if he renounces his Cambodian citizenship.

 

Sam Rainsy has spent a lot of time in Paris during the last two decades. His unhappy party members would have to apply for political asylum in a foreign nation, which is a time-consuming process loaded with uncertainty and financial hardship.

 

For Sam Rainsy, dual citizenship has been a privilege, and he has reaped the rewards far more than any other politician in Cambodia. Despite this, he voluntarily upped it due to "three uncorroborated paragraphs" in a Guardian piece that has since been corrected.

 

In Cambodia, abolishing dual citizenship for top government jobs is still lenient. Dual citizenship is a prevalent practice in many nations, even if Cambodia does not recognize it.

 

Only single citizenship is permitted in a third of the world's countries. In Asia, countries such as Japan, South Korea, China, Egypt, Israel, and Indonesia restrict dual citizenship. Dual citizenship is prohibited in 12 of the European Union's 27 members.

 

Candidates seeking key government positions in European countries that allow dual citizenship must choose a single citizenship before running to ensure the highest level of devotion and responsibility from the candidates.