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Olympic Athletes Get the Fast-Track to Citizenship
Reprinted from the Salt Lake Tribune
February 22, 2002

By Joanne van Selm

Today, Bart Veldkamp will once again take part in the men's 10,000-meter speedskating race. It will be his fourth outing at Olympic level at this distance. In Albertville, he won gold and was the toast of the Netherlands, the land where he was born and in which he still lives. But if he should win again in Salt Lake City, it's the Belgians who will be cheering.

On Day Two of these Winter Olympics, Johann Muehlegg, a patriotic German by birth, took gold in the 30-kilometer cross country skiing race. Yet his congratulatory telegram came from King Juan Carlos of Spain, whose anthem was sung in Meuhlegg's honor at the medal ceremony.

Veldkamp and Muehlegg are two examples of an increasingly common phenomenon: both have changed their citizenship to improve their chances of competing in international sporting events. These athletes are perhaps the ultimate opportunity-seekers, switching nationality to improve their life opportunities. But they are fairly unique among those seeking to adopt a new homeland in Europe. For the average immigrant to Europe, gaining citizenship can take 10 years or more, and applicants are required to actually live in the country in which they hope to gain citizenship. Even obtaining legal immigrant status is very difficult, and during the whole process, discrimination rather than adulation is the name of the game.

The Olympic Charter states that individuals who are put forward by National Olympic Committees compete for themselves, as individuals, and not for their countries. Yet patriotism is a key element of any Olympic Games--generally in a positive sense. The tear-jerking moment of many an Olympic triumph is the hoisting of the flags and singing of the national anthem of the winner's country. In an increasing number of cases, however, we should perhaps call it the winner's team, not the winner's country. Olympic athletes are demonstrating that in pursuit of their desire to compete, changing citizenship can be as easy as switching teams.

Meuhlegg took a year off from competition while he made the switch from the German national team, with which he had "fallen out" and was no longer happy, to the Spanish national team. Because his mother has Spanish citizenship, it seemed like a natural choice. But Meuhlegg, his home page makes clear, remains Bavarian, and German, at heart.

Veldkamp realized after the Lillehammer games that competition for places on the Dutch skating team was becoming harder and harder. With only three places available for a country with some two-dozen top-level skaters at every distance, Veldkamp decided that the only way to secure an Olympic future was to switch to plan B. B for Belgium. He explains on his Web site how surprised the Belgians were by his decision: they had no facilities for skating, no history of skating. That didn't matter to Veldkamp: he explains that he needed a passport to the Olympics and other international events, and Belgium gave him that passport. He still lives in The Hague, Netherlands. He has no obvious connection to Belgium, other than a passport, and the title given him by the Dutch media of "Skating-Belgian." When he took the bronze in the Nagano Olympics behind two Dutch skaters, Holland treated it very much as a Dutch clean-sweep.

Veldkamp isn't the only Dutch skater to have taken this path either. Other athletes have also switched teams along the way: in many cases seeking not only the ability to compete, but also the opportunity to train in good facilities, and make use of other resources. Emese Hunyady, for example, switched from Hungary to Austria in the 1980s, specifically in search of better training.

For the normal immigrant to Belgium, three years of legal residence are required before a person can naturalize. In Austria, 10 years of residence are required, as well as knowledge of the German language. Spain also requires ten years of legal residence. None of these countries has a regular immigration program like the one in the U.S. There are no Green Card lotteries, and only few opportunities for immigration as a skilled worker or as a student. Those people who did immigrate to Europe legally in the 1950s to mid 1970s have gradually brought immediate family members to join them, under legal family reunification and family formation programs. Otherwise, the majority of immigrants have either sought asylum in European states, or entered illegally, and remained illegally, with amnesties as their only hope for getting a legal status--and only years after that having the opportunity to become citizens.

So, why do states grant the select few, the Veldkamps for example, the chance to pursue the opportunities they seek in life, while creating policies which are aimed at restricting the migration and citizenship chances for the overwhelming majority of the world's people? Why can Veldkamp get Belgian citizenship without even living in the country, while the Moroccan immigrant who might be employed sweeping the entrance area to the rink on which Veldkamp trains will have to wait years? That immigrant probably cheers Veldkamp on as hard as any of his Dutch or Belgian "compatriots"--but is deliberately kept "outside" and is vilified by much of the European media and population, as well as a number of political parties, as a scrounger for seeking the opportunities life didn't simply hand to him.

There is a cruel contradiction at work here. But there is also proof that if governments choose to grant citizenship, they can do so at their discretion. The average immigrants might not win a gold, silver or bronze medal. But they will pay taxes and make their own contributions to society if given a chance--as the American model shows.

I wouldn't want to deny Veldkamp his chances in life: but others, who don't compete on the Olympic plateau, shouldn't be denied theirs, either.

Joanne van Selm is Senior Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.