Dual Citizenship; a Divided Loyalty (A Case Study of Immigrants with Dual Citizenship in Malmo, Sweden)

In the recent decades we have seen a continuous rise of dual citizenship; many states are now officially accepting it and many people are making use of this opportunity. In other states, however, dual citizenship is (still) forbidden and much contested. It is especially feared that ‘one cannot serve two masters’, that loyalty towards the nation state and thus national cohesion and democracy are undermined. Whereas, others see dual citizenship as vanguard of citizenship identities and practices above and across states, and as an important source for democratizing a globalizing world order. However, these fears and hopes regarding dual citizenship are usually built upon speculations. The actual consequences (here, especially in terms of loyalty issues) of such a dual status are not well understood due to lack of empirical data on this specific group. Thus, the case of immigrants with dual citizenship in Malmö, Sweden is used as an illustration to show how this issue of loyalty of dual citizens manifest itself in reality. This is done by analyzing and interpreting the data gathered on first generation immigrants with dual citizenship through survey and interviews (follow up); hence explanatory mixed methods. Based on the analysis, this paper offers empirical evidence on the loyalty of the immigrants with dual citizenship in Malmö to their country of residence (Sweden) and that of their country of descent