[3] Those who acquire nationality at birth include: Naturalization can be granted to persons who have resided in the territory for a sufficient period of time to confirm they understand the customs and traditions of Ivory Coast.
[13] Persons who previously had nationality and wish to repatriate if they voluntarily lost their status must establish residency and request reinstatement.
[15] In 1471, Portuguese explorers João de Santarém and Pêro Escobar discovered the gold trade which was active in what is now Ghana and Ivory Coast.
[16] The discovery led to the decision to build a fortress and trading station, São Jorge da Mina (now Elmina Castle) in 1481 on the Ghanaian coast.
[19] The Portuguese traded throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with various groups of Akan-speaking people and the Wangara who brought goods from interior regions.
[23][24] They abandoned it in 1704, as the area known as the Quaqua Coast was typically outside of the normal trading networks of Europeans because of the difficulty of navigating the territory, as it had no harbors and strong coastal currents, making anchoring difficult.
[23][26] Under the typical arrangement, paramount chiefs of the kingdom served as arbiters in disputes, distributed resources, and administered broad control of a region.
[27] Villages within the kingdom, made up of kin networks, were administered by headmen, who expanded their control and influence by prudent allocations of goods and services in exchange for loyalty.
[23][33] The Baule Kingdom (also Baoulé), emerged around 1750, breaking away from the Ashanti Confederacy and first settling in the south near Tiassalé before expanding northward to the center of the Quaqua Coast at Bouaké.
[23][37] In 1842, under instruction of the French Navy, Édouard Bouët-Willaumez negotiated treaties for land concessions at Issiny and Grand-Bassam, for which they received a trade monopoly in exchange for annual tributes.
Each secured agreements with the major kingdoms of the region and when they met in 1889, declared the southern Quaqua Coast a French protectorate.
This provision laid the groundwork for nationality legislation based upon whether the native inhabitants were able to be assimilated by adopting European standards.
[52] These laws prevented a wife from being treated as a slave, required her husband to support her, and entitled her kin to a bride price, to compensate them for the loss of her fertility to their kinship group and secure the legality of the union.
[56] Clarification in the 1897 decree included that bestowing nationality by birth in French territory only applied to children born in France, restoring descent requirements for the colonies.
[60] From 1908, France implemented laws that would generate income to support the colony by renting land to planters and developed state owned businesses to extract resources and build infrastructure.
[62] The decree noted that married women and minor children acquired the status of their husband or father however, this was only the case if the marriage had been conducted under French law, rather than customary practice.
24 on 25 March 1915 that allowed subjects or protected persons who were non-citizen nationals and had established domicile in a French territory to acquire full citizenship, including the naturalization of their wives and minor children, by having received the cross of the Legion of Honor, having obtained a university degree, having rendered service to the nation, having attained the rank of an officer or received a medal from the French army, who had married a Frenchwoman and established a one-year residency; or who had resided for more than ten years in a colony other than their country of origin.
[70] It also allowed children born in France to native-born French women married to foreigners to acquire their nationality from their mothers.
[61] At the end of the war, a statute issued on 7 March 1944 granted French citizenship to those who had performed services to the nation, such as serving as civil servants or receiving recognitions.
[79] It expressly applied to Algeria, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion and was extended to the Overseas Territories in 1953, but in the case of the latter had distinctions for the rights of those who were naturalized.
[93] It specifically excluded children born in the territory to two foreign parents from automatically obtaining Ivorian status, but included any child of unknown parentage discovered to be living in Ivory Coast.
[94] Taking into account the large numbers of migrants who resided in the country because of the labor policies of France, children born in Ivory Coast could naturalize by declaration to obtain Ivorian nationality.
[95] In addition, any foreigner, who was present in the territory at independence and habitually lived in Ivory Coast, could opt within one year to acquire nationality through a special process.
[91][97] This meant that orphans, foundlings and children born to foreign parents in Ivory Coast could no longer obtain Ivorian nationality.
[93] These changes were in reaction to not only an attempt to limit nationality to those who were assimilated to Ivorian culture, but also as a result of a large influx of orphaned refugees who came to Ivory Coast during the Nigerian Civil War.
[97] In 1995, after many years of lobbying for a correction of their situation, workers who had been brought from Upper Volta when its territory was incorporated into Ivory Coast in 1932 were extended collective naturalization under Decree N°.
[101] Following the coup, social tension, human rights violations, and political posturing split the populace along ethnic and religious lines.
The 2003 treaty, known as the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, called for an end to state-sponsored discrimination against foreigners, suspension of the government's identity program, and updated naturalization processes for migrants and their descendants.