Welcome to my Blog,
I created this Blog solely for the purpose of sharing, comparing and analysing information with you and hopefully you will participate actively on the topic of life, love and marriage of mixed nationality marriage. My aim is to gain insight on the condition and impact of mixed nationality marriage in regards to the policies taken by our respective government throughout the world.
My intention is to bring awareness to the lawmakers in their endeavour to safeguard and protect the wellbeing of families from mixed nationality marriages.
On this topic I will discuss very briefly regarding government policies towards the future wellbeing of children of mixed marriage. As I am an Indonesian citizen, I will open the discussion based upon the current Indonesian law. I ardently hope that you will share your knowledge on your domestic law regarding similar issues, or otherwise share your opinion if you are an Indonesian married to a foreigner or a foreigner married to an Indonesian or children or adult from a mixed nationality marriage.
For starters, I am married for seventeen years to a British citizen, blessed with three children all holding dual citizen. I come from a country that follows codified law, whilst my husband follows the common law system. As a result my children follow both. Only five years ago the Indonesian Government recognized the right for Indonesian women to maintain their Indonesian citizen lineage to their children. Prior to that, it is by law that the children follow their father's nationality only.
Such breakthrough under the Indonesian Citizenship Law No. 12/ 2006 requires prudent approach for reformation on laws relating to family matters. Due to the nature of single nationality as the main framework upon which the Indonesian legal structure is build, a slight deviation from this principle requires careful attention, scrutiny and calls upon further research and studies on areas of the law relating to mixed nationality marriage. I called it as slight deviation because single nationality is the main theme of the Indonesian Citizenship law, those who are eligible for dual nationality are children at the age between 0 until 18 years old, with a grace period of 3 years. At which time they are bound by the law to choose either one. Whilst for an adult age 21 years above, holding dual nationality is prohibited under the Indonesian Citizenship Law.
This give rise to a question of ifs: what if the foreign country of which these children are a citizen recognises and follows dual nationality? In which case these children as they become 21 years old could chose to be an Indonesian citizen whilst maintaining their foreign citizenship as well ( as allowed and recognised by their other country). The question will then be: what are the impact on land ownership, legal right to vote and taxation among others in Indonesia for these children in the future? Will they be acting against the Indonesian law if their other country acknowledges and accepts that their citizen is also holding another citizenship hence no requirement is necessary for these children to relinquish their foreign citizen in order to obtain Indonesian citizen as their principal citizenship?
What if the foreign country only recognizes single citizenship as well? Meaning that these children will either be one or the other only, what then are the impacts for these children on issues for example regarding inheritance law especially relating to land ownership? Surely they will be forced by the respective law to waive their rights of inheritance in the case of land ownership- as under Indonesian Land Law (Agrarian Law No. 5/1960) foreigners are prohibited to own land under right to own /hak milik, if for instance these children chose to relinquished their Indonesian citizen and become foreign citizen under the Indonesia law or vice versa, what about the human rights issues? Are we not obligated to protect the right and welfare of these children regardless of their background or race or nationality? Is not inheritance a private family matter?
Let's now see how the policy under the Indonesian government relates to the welfare of these children when they do become foreign citizen. Recently the lawmakers promulgated the Immigration Law No. 6/2011. It is said that this law follows the spirit that is embedded in the Indonesian Citizenship Law No. 12/2006 which are - save for this topic - equal rights and acknowledgement of mixed nationality marriage families.
However, the equal rights and acknowledgement as believed, in my opinion is not wide enough as to embrace and oversee the need and the future of these children when they become an adult and had chosen to become foreigners in Indonesia. Although being an ex - Indonesian they are in theory will be given an instant access of permit to stay and under the same law is permitted to work, they may for sure stumble upon the permit to work in Indonesia. A permit that is crucial in order to obtain legality and workers protection in Indonesia.
The law relating to work permit is not under the Immigration law but under the Labour Law -the later requires that a foreigner holds a certain position in the company either as a Director of the Company or similar to that position, secondly each foreign worker under the Labour Law must obtain sponsorship from the company that hires them. So as a matter-of-fact these children who will be an adult one day, able to live in Indonesia instantly but will not be able to work instantly if they are not in a Directorship position and hold a reference from the company that hires them.
In my opinion, it is rather peculiar that during the deliberation of Immigration Law in which it contains the permission for foreigners to work once they hold resident permit, the related institution which is the Minister of Labour where not present to participate actively on the discussion of that particular topic. To me, the effectiveness of such regulation depends upon close synergy between related department which are the Minister of Justice and Human Rights and the Minister of Labour.
How on earth will a fresh graduate be fit for a Director's position in a company without sufficient experience and knowledge - baffled me. And how those different regulations be synchronized in order to protect and assist the welfare and the future of children of mixed nationality marriage in Indonesia remained to be seen.
As a keen advocate and activist of law reform in Indonesia on mixed nationality marriage and base on my personal experiences: following closely and advocating rigorously on the construction and implementation of the Indonesian Citizenship law, and later on a distant basis for Indonesian Immigration Law - due to family relocation to the United Kingdom. I have come to a conclusion that more information is needed for the Indonesian lawmaker to grasp, to understand and become fully aware of the dynamics of mixed nationality marriages. So that, when they do decide to evaluate certain law relating to the welfare and the wellbeing of families from mixed nationality marriage their approach will be more in sync and hence avoiding patch work results.
Due to the nature of mixed nationality marriage itself, a comparative study between two different systems of law in one marriage is a must. This is where I need your participation to share information on your current domestic laws on issues regarding mixed nationality marriage i.e.: Marriage Law, Citizenship Law, Immigration Law, Labour Law, Inheritance Law, Land Law and Taxation Law among others, or other laws and regulations which are related to mixed nationality marriage that is significantly and uniquely tailored base on the culture, social, politics and law structure of your respective countries.
For those married to Indonesian citizens or are an Indonesian citizen yourself, feel free to participate, discuss or share your opinion or even ask related questions.
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