The Powers of the State vis-à-vis the Foreign Population Living in Argentina: Naturalization as a Field of Dispute

Abstract

In January 2017, the Argentinian government, in the hands of the “Cambiemos” Party, made use of exceptional measures to deepen its intervention on migration issues. Presidential Decree N°70/2017 introduced key changes into both the current Migration Act and the Citizenship and Naturalization Act, thus marking a “before” and an “after” in the local contemporary migration policy. Public and academic debates have almost exclusively focused on the impact this decree has had on the Migration Act; however, little attention has been paid to its effects on the Act of Citizenship and Naturalization. In order to offer a complete panorama of the migration changes introduced by the Macri Administration, this paper examines the impact of Decree N°70/2017 on naturalization while exploring, at the same time, the role dispute arising in such context among the three branches of state power.