WHAT IS A DEFINITION OF CZECH CITIZENSHIP?
According to the Jus sanguinis (“right of blood” in Latin) principles the Czech citizen at birth is a descendant of a Czech parent. • it does not matter if that person is born in the Czech Republic or abroad • if the parents are not married and only the father is Czech, a proof of paternity is required • babies born in the Czech Republic to foreign parents do not get Czech citizenship unless the parents are stateless or have a permanent resident card HOW DOES IT AFFECT EMIGRANTS? Thousands of Czechs and Slovaks had left the communist regime behind during the years of 1948 to 1989 by escaping to the West. The jealous Czech government punished those people by taking away their citizenship. Understandably, after the the fall of communism in 1989 lot of these emigrants wanted their citizenship back. Because of the tricky wording of the law only few people took advantage of it. Also, the citizenship was “granted” to them and not “returned” (weird!)….and they had to get rid of their foreign
