Topic: Who is a citizen? Acquiring the Polish citizenship

Author: Anna Rabiega

Addressee:

high school / technical school student

Core curriculum:

• old curriculum:

standard level:

1. A young citizen at an office.

The students:

1) explains, how Polish and European citizenship is acquired.

extended level:

11. Citizen and citizenship.

The student:

1. presents the procedures of acquiring and renouncing Polish citizenship.

• new curriculum:

extended level:

V. State, political thought and democratization.

The student:

4) presents the rules of acquiring citizenship and the procedure of acquiring one in the Republic of Poland; explains what a stateless person is and the question of holding a multiple citizenship.

The general aim of education:

The student characterizes the institutions of the Polish legal system.

Learning outcomes:

The student:

• explains the primary and secondary ways of granting citizenship in Poland and other states.

• presents how a foreigner can apply for Polish citizenship and what the conditions are.

• analyzes what the Polish Card is, who may receive it, and what rights it grants.

• explains how citizenship may be lost.

Key competences:

• communicating in a foreign language,

• digital competence,

• learning to learn,

• social and civic competences.

Teaching methods:

• discussion,

• snowball method,

• teaching conversation using interactive scheme, recording, interactive exercises.

Forms of work:

• self‑learning,

• work in pairs,

• group work,

• whole‑class activity.

Material & equipment needed:

• computers with loudspeakers/headphones and internet access,

• multimedia resources from the e‑textbook,

• interactive whiteboard/blackboard, felt‑tip pen/a piece of chalk.

Lesson plan overview (Process):

Introduction:

1. The teacher presents the goal of the lesson: You will analyze the rules of acquiring and losing citizenship.

2. The teacher asks, how the students acquired their citizenship. If all the answers concern receiving the citizenship by birth, the teachers asks an additional question of whether the students know other types of cases of acquiring citizenship among their friends or from other sources. Willing/selected students answer, and the teacher writes down the various cases on the board. He informs the students that they will need the information later.

Implementation:

1. The teacher informs the students that using the snowball method they will generate the definition of the term “citizenship”. He explains the method if necessary. First, each student writes his definition individually. Then the students join in pairs and decide on a joint definition (writing down their remarks and arguments, too). Then the students form groups of four and even larger groups, negotiating each time a joint definition. The activity ends with a common, whole‑class definition, which is to be written on the board.

2. The teacher asks the students to use the abstract to arrange the methods of acquiring citizenship which are written on the board and complete them if necessary. When classifying each of the given (or new) examples the task of the students is to explain the rule and decide, whether it is a case of a primary or secondary way of acquiring citizenship. Willing/selected students give their answers, the teacher corrects and supplements them if necessary.

3. The teacher informs the students, that they will study one the methods of acquiring citizenship closer and analyze the procedure of repatriation. To this end they will listen to a recording of an excerpt from a statute, and their task will be to answer the following questions:

• What states’ citizens can apply for a Poland visa for repatriation?

• Write down the problems that the repatriates from the East may come across in everyday life in Poland.

• What kind of assistance is necessary to the repatriates from the receiving society, namely Poles.

The students work in pairs. The teacher sets the time to complete the task and plays the recording (exercise 1). After the time is up willing/selected students provide their answers, and the others correct and supplement them.

4. The teacher asks the students to familiarize themselves with the information on the Polish Card contained in the interactive scheme “Polish Card – for whom and for what?”. Then he asks the students the following questions:

• Who may receive the Polish Card?

• What conditions does such a person have to meet?

• Is acquiring the Polish Card same as acquiring Polish citizenship?

• What rights does a person who receives the Polish Card obtain?

Willing/selected students answer the questions, and the others correct and supplement them.

5. The teacher initiates a short discussion on the purpose of the Polish Card – why and what for was it introduced? what goals does it achieve? The students present their suggestions, and the teacher, in a teaching conversation, corrects and supplements them.

6. The teacher informs the students, that the Polish constitution does not allow to deprive a Polish citizen of his citizenship, and that many countries in the world have similar legal regulations. He asks the students, what they think the reason is. The students present their suggestions, and the teacher, in a teaching conversation, corrects and supplements them.

7. The teacher initiates a short discussion on the possibility of losing one’s citizenship (in spite of the legal ban to deprive somebody of his citizenship). He asks the students if there are any cases of loss of citizenship nowadays. In what circumstances? After the discussion is over, the teacher asks a willing/selected student to sum it up.

Summary:

1. At the end of the class the teacher asks the students a couple of debriefing questions to have them reflect, e.g.

• What is the definition of the term “citizenship”?

• What are the methods of acquiring citizenship? How can you divide them? Which of them are applicable in Poland?

• What is repatriation? Who is the procedure applicable to? What conditions must such a person fulfil to be repatriated?

• What is the Polish Card? What is it for?

• In what circumstances can you lose your citizenship?

2. Homework proposal:

a. What benefits and problems might arise from holding a multiple citizenship? Consider, who is this situation beneficial for, and who might find it cumbersome.

b. Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Then do the vocabulary exercise at the end of the chapter.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Citizenship

What is citizenship?

The history of mankind is the history of societies and nations. Societies, especially in today's world, may be multinational. Societies and nations in specific historical conditions were created by states that had, among others, provided them with a sense of security and defined behavioral norms written in the law. This way, a special bond was formed between states and members of societies. We call this bond citizenship.

In today's world citizenship is a legal bond connecting an individual to a state, on the basis of which the individual has specific rights and obligations to the state, and the state has duties and rights to the individual. The determination of matters related to citizenship, and in particular the methods of its acquisition and possibly also the loss, belongs to the state itself.

Ways of acquiring citizenship are regulated by the national law of individual countries. However, states have rather limited possibilities of legal interpretation related to citizenship. Therefore, the legal methods of acquiring citizenship may be divided into primary and secondary.

Primary ways of acquiring citizenship

Secondary ways of acquiring citizenship

In Poland the right of blood is applied. A child acquires – by law – Polish citizenship by birth from parents, at least one of whom has Polish citizenship, regardless of the place of the child's birth. According to the Polish law, the right of the soil may also be applied. This happens when a child is born or found in the territory of the Republic of Poland and both parents are unknown, their citizenship is undefined or they have no citizenship. Then the child acquires Polish citizenship under the law. The Polish law also permits the acquisition of citizenship by adoption. A child adopted by a person or persons possessing Polish citizenship acquires Polish citizenship if the full adoption took place before the child was 16 years old.

The President of the Republic of Poland may grant Polish citizenship to a foreigner, at the foreigner’s request. Foreigners residing in Poland may apply for Polish citizenship through a voivode competent for the place of their residence, and if they reside abroad – through an appropriate consul. In the case of foreigners who apply for Polish citizenship and have previously lived in the territory of the Polish state, it is possible to shorten the procedures and recognize them as Polish citizens. To apply for Polish citizenship by recognition, foreigners have to:

• reside in Poland on the basis of specific permits, and within a long term (at least 3 years) legal stay in Poland have integrated with the Polish society,

• be able to speak Polish,

• have a place to live and a source of income,

• respect the Polish law,

• be of no danger to the state’s defense or security.

This right applies especially to refugees, people with no citizenship, children and spouses of Polish citizens, as well as people of Polish origin. Recognition of citizenship does not require a decision of the President of the Republic of Poland, but may take place in the course of administrative proceedings, in which the first instance is the appropriate voivode.

Citizenship loss

The terms of citizenship loss are determined by each state under its internal law. Most often (also in Poland) however, the principle is applied that citizenship may be waived only by the citizen himself, although in this case the state authorities ensure that the renunciation of citizenship does not lead to statelessness.

According to the UN Convention of 1954, the creation stateless persons, i.e. persons with no citizenship, should be avoided. Being a stateless person is disadvantageous to an individual because of the lack of protection from a state and its consular services or the lack of civil rights of children of such a person, especially if the right of blood is in force in a given country. When parents are known but have no citizenship, children cannot get their citizenship.

The conditions of waiving citizenship are, for example:

• acquisition of citizenship of another country - this may result in the loss of citizenship already held. In democratic countries, dual citizenship is traditionally recognized, even if such a possibility has not been entered into the law,

• joining the military service of another country - there are countries that have mercenary troops. Often, former soldiers from other countries are recruited to them (an example may be the French Foreign Legion). If, however, the interests of a state having such an army are contrary to the interests of the state of which the person is a citizen, he may lose his citizenship,

• marriage with a citizen of another country – rarely the spouse's country recognizes only one nationality. Even then, however, the regulations of the international law are important.

A legal bond, connecting an individual with his state, called citizenship, arises in many ways. The existence of this relationship results in mutual rights and obligations. Nowadays, the legal systems of states allow or tolerate the possession of more than one citizenship. Poland belongs to a group of countries in which citizenship is acquired by birth from parents who are Polish citizens (the right of blood). At the same time art. 34 par. 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland states that a Polish citizen cannot lose his Polish citizenship unless he renounces it himself. After Poland's accession to the European Union, Polish citizens automatically acquired citizenship of the European Union.