Abstract In this chapter, we engage the linguistic justice scholarship to defend a novel rights claim on behalf of non-resident citizens whose language proficiency might prevent them from meaningfully exercising a number of fundamental rights, including their right to vote. We argue that non-resident citizens have a right to being proficient in the dominant language of their country of origin and that the latter has a duty to protect that language right. More specifically, our argument is that when individuals have certain fundamental rights qua citizens of a specific state, that state has a duty to provide them with (and, if necessary, financially support) the means necessary to exercise those rights. Those means, we propose, include the right to a sufficient level of proficiency in the dominant language of the country of origin, without which citizens may be unable to exercise their fundamental rights (for example the right to work or voting rights). We conclude by suggesting ways in which diaspora institutions could be enhanced to protect non-resident citizens’ language rights.