In consequence of the outbreak of the First World War, the Spanish government, as a matter of practice and under the irresistible pressure of foreign policy, made a substantial intervention in the administrative dynamics of citizenship recognition. In the absence of a public debate and any parliamentary discussion, the executive suspended all requests for the naturalisation of foreigners, but did so through a cumbersome process, the discretionary powers and contradictions of which laid bare its inherent weaknesses and lack of careful preparation. The examination of the administrative procedures to which naturalisation applications presented in those years were subjected, and the type of response given by the different institutions involved in the process (the ministries of Foreign Affairs, of the Interior, of Grace and Justice, and the permanent commission of the Consejo de Estado), allows us to highlight how a way of understanding the attribution of nationality gave way to a new system that expanded the options of the state apparatuses—whose sovereignty appeared weak in comparison to the structural changes of a globalised context—to the detriment of individual freedom and the self-determination of territorial communities.
In conseguenza dello scoppio della Prima guerra mondiale, il Governo spagnolo intervenne in modo sostanziale, in via di prassi e dietro la pressione irresistibile della politica estera, nelle dinamiche amministrative in materia di riconoscimento di cittadinanza. In assenza di un dibattito pubblico e di qualsiasi confronto parlamentare, l’esecutivo sospese tutte le richieste di naturalizzazione degli stranieri, ma attraverso un procedimento farraginoso, non privo di discrezionalità e di contraddizioni, che ne mostrarono tutta la debolezza e l’impreparazione. L’esame delle procedure amministrative cui furono sottoposte le richieste di naturalizzazione presentate in quegli anni, il tipo di risposta che fu data dalle differenti istituzioni coinvolte nel processo (i ministeri degli Esteri, degli Interni, di Grazia e Giustizia, la commissione permanente del Consejo de Estado), consente di mettere in luce la fine di un modo di intendere l’attribuzione della nazionalità, e l’inizio di un nuovo sistema che ampliava lo spazio di discrezionalità degli apparati statuali– la cui sovranità appariva debole in rapporto ai cambiamenti strutturali di un contesto globalizzato – a discapito della libertà individuale e di autodeterminazione delle comunità territoriali.
Naturalisation processes in the Kingdom of Spain and the impact of the Great War
Marcella Aglietti
Primo
2021-01-01
Abstract
In consequence of the outbreak of the First World War, the Spanish government, as a matter of practice and under the irresistible pressure of foreign policy, made a substantial intervention in the administrative dynamics of citizenship recognition. In the absence of a public debate and any parliamentary discussion, the executive suspended all requests for the naturalisation of foreigners, but did so through a cumbersome process, the discretionary powers and contradictions of which laid bare its inherent weaknesses and lack of careful preparation. The examination of the administrative procedures to which naturalisation applications presented in those years were subjected, and the type of response given by the different institutions involved in the process (the ministries of Foreign Affairs, of the Interior, of Grace and Justice, and the permanent commission of the Consejo de Estado), allows us to highlight how a way of understanding the attribution of nationality gave way to a new system that expanded the options of the state apparatuses—whose sovereignty appeared weak in comparison to the structural changes of a globalised context—to the detriment of individual freedom and the self-determination of territorial communities.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
