MRN joins international support for Greece's citizenship reforms promoting 'common good' and 'public interest'

MRN has added its support to a public statement prepared by  i.RED, which records the support of organisations supporting the rights of migrants in Greece for an important reform of citizenship law in that country.

Greece has been noticed for having some of the toughest 'Ius Soli' ('law of blood') based citizenship laws in Europe.  These have made possession of a so-called Greek ethnicity the heart of the acquisition of citizenship which has entailed a strong bias against the country's large non-European, non-Orthodox Christian migrant communities.

The statement links the significance of this reform to the devastating economic and social crisis which is sweeping acoss Greece as a consequence of the credit and sovereign debt crises. It states:

In times of unprecedented economic as well as socio-political crisis in Greece and in Europe, the respect and consolidation of notions such as ‘common good’ and ‘public interest’ cannot occur but by valorizing and building on the people and their wish to serve the collectivity by participating productively in their society of belonging.