8. CITIZENSHIP – this is a much underestimated area – and needs to be addressed by the constitution in detail. Citizenship should be treasured and under no circumstance treated as a commodity or convenience and certainly nothing that can be sold or exchanged for favour. There is a further dimension to citizenship that is routinely ignored – its effectiveness in encouraging or discouraging immigration. If citizenship is hard to attain, less will be inclined to seek asylum or frivulous gain
on our shores for matters of convenience– it is one of the pull factors. Genuine refugee would care solely about safety and do not fret about citizenship, others would think even further. Thus I suggest that citizenship should only be granted to people born in Malta of natural born parents. Only citizens would be allowed the right to vote. Citizenship should not be confused with residency or other rights. The merits of dual citizenship should also be discussed at length.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation