As the Dutch parliament prepares to vote in December on a highly anticipated bill regarding dual nationality, a stark divide has emerged over who stands to benefit from the proposed legislative changes. The bill, which has been winding its way through the political landscape for nearly a decade, addresses a long-standing grievance for hundreds of thousands of Dutch citizens living outside their homeland by proposing the legal right to hold dual citizenship. However, the current ruling coalition’s governing agreement has drawn a sharp boundary, explicitly backing the expansion of dual nationality rights for expatriate citizens while withholding support for foreign nationals seeking to naturalize within the Netherlands.
Eelco Keij, the founder of the Foundation for Dutch Nationals Abroad (SNBN), a prominent advocacy and lobbying organization representing Dutch citizens living overseas, argues that this political reality underscores a fundamental truth of the Dutch political system: marginalized or unrepresented communities must organize, mobilize, and lobby on their own behalf, or risk being completely left behind by lawmakers. Drawing parallels between the historical political voicelessness of the Dutch diaspora and the current status of foreign residents within the Netherlands, Keij emphasizes that lasting political influence requires deliberate strategy, cross-partisan engagement, and structural organization.
The roots of the SNBN trace back to 2011, when Keij successfully acquired United States citizenship while retaining his native Dutch nationality. Because his specific circumstances fell under one of the narrow legal exceptions permitted by Dutch law at the time, he was able to hold both passports legally. While celebrating his own good fortune, Keij quickly realized the deep injustice of a system that denied the same privilege to the vast majority of Dutch citizens living abroad. Having spent years working in advocacy, public lobbying, and within the corridors of the Dutch parliament, he came to a sobering realization: no one within the established Dutch political machinery would naturally stand up for the interests of citizens living beyond the nation’s borders unless forced to do so.
Determined to spark change, Keij initiated a public debate on dual nationality from New York, swiftly followed by a petition directed at the Dutch diaspora. The response was astonishing, generating massive public engagement and catching the attention of the national press in the Netherlands. Seeking a sustainable, long-term strategy, Keij examined how other European nations managed relations with their overseas citizens. His research revealed that countries like France, Denmark, and Switzerland boasted well-organized diaspora interest groups that successfully maintained ties with their home governments.
Recognizing that the Dutch living abroad similarly required a formal vehicle to make themselves heard in The Hague, Keij teamed up with other concerned expatriates to officially establish the Foundation for the Dutch Abroad in 2019. Designed from the ground up to be strategic and results-oriented, the SNBN operates as a volunteer-driven advocacy and lobbying organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights of the global Dutch community.
Gaining Recognition
Navigating the Dutch political scene requires a sophisticated understanding of its fragmented, coalition-based, and inherently unpredictable nature. To ensure maximum effectiveness, the SNBN board was intentionally constructed from Dutch citizens living abroad who hold memberships across a diverse spectrum of political parties. By remaining strictly non-partisan as an institutional entity, the organization’s individual board members maintain a vast network of formal and informal contacts spanning the entire political landscape. This cross-party approach ensured that Dutch politicians finally began both hearing and seeing the diaspora as a legitimate constituency.
These concerted lobbying efforts bore fruit in 2022 with a historic constitutional change that finally enabled Dutch citizens living abroad to participate directly in elections for the Dutch Senate via a specialized electoral college. Furthermore, the foundation’s continuous outreach on various legislative files has repeatedly led to the mitigation of restrictive laws and fostered a genuine willingness among lawmakers to engage with the diaspora, having discovered an active, engaged new electorate they could no longer afford to ignore.
At present, the SNBN remains fully concentrated on advancing the upcoming parliamentary vote on the dual citizenship bill, a piece of legislation introduced nearly a decade ago that forms the absolute core of the foundation’s mission. If passed in its original form, the bill would finally lift the ban that forces Dutch citizens living abroad to surrender their native passport upon acquiring foreign citizenship, while simultaneously removing the requirement that forces foreign residents naturalizing in the Netherlands to give up their original nationalities.
However, political realities have intervened. The SNBN’s ongoing political mapping has revealed a crucial roadblock: there is currently no viable political majority within the Dutch parliament to support foreign residents in the Netherlands in their pursuit of dual citizenship. Because advancing the rights of foreign residents falls well outside the mandate of an organization dedicated exclusively to Dutch nationals, the SNBN cannot champion their cause. Consequently, the political endgame of the December vote appears increasingly likely to favor the Dutch diaspora while dropping equivalent progress for foreign residents residing within the Netherlands, meaning the foreign resident aspect of the legislation faces a high risk of being excised entirely from the bill.
Time to Start Lobbying
This impending political outcome has highlighted a striking absence in the national conversation. To the surprise of the SNBN leadership, there has been no visible, coordinated, or structured lobby operating on behalf of foreign residents in the Netherlands throughout the intense debate over dual citizenship. Although the pending legislation directly impacts their legal status and future, foreign residents have remained largely absent from the advocacy arena, leaving their interests without a dedicated voice in the parliamentary corridors.
In countries such as Germany, Luxembourg, and Ireland, robust migrant-representing organizations are already firmly established fixtures of the political landscape, actively shaping integration, naturalization, and residency policies. Yet, a comparable, visible lobby advocating for foreign residents has been notably missing from the Dutch debate.
The situation presents a clear path forward for those affected. Using the SNBN blueprint as a potential model, foreign residents in the Netherlands now face the challenge of stepping up to organize themselves, establish formal advocacy groups, and begin the hard work of political engagement. An effective interest organization could address a wide array of pressing issues currently affecting non-Dutch communities, ranging from citizenship requirements and naturalization procedures to family reunification policies, political participation, and local voting rights. Above all, creating such an organization would grant foreign residents the crucial political visibility they currently lack among Dutch politicians.
Drawing from years of hard-won experience, the SNBN can attest that a vital component of securing lasting political influence is the deliberate embedding of diverse perspectives and political streams directly within an organization’s operational structure, whether through volunteer staff, board members, or an advisory council. Paired with sustained commitment and strategic execution, the foundation’s trajectory demonstrates that building enduring political leverage is entirely achievable for communities willing to organize themselves. For the foreign residents of the Netherlands, the path forward now lies in their own hands.
