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Dual Citizenship and Download the report in .pdf format Table of Contents So What? Some Basic Questions About Dual Citizenship The Domestic Context of Dual Citizenship Dual Citizenship and the Integration of Immigrants Dual Citizenship and Conflict: The War of 1812 Redux? Mexico's Dual Citizenship Decision: A Mix of Self-Interested Motivations Appendix: Countries/Territories Allowing Dual Citizenship in Some Form
Introduction In recent decades, Bourne's vision appears to be on the verge of being realized. The number of countries allowing, and for many immigrant-sending countries, encouraging, their nationals to hold multiple citizenships has exploded. Before 1991, only four Latin American countries that opted to recognize dual citizenship existed: Uruguay (1919), Panama (1972), Peru, (1980), and El Salvador (1983). Between 1991 and 1997 alone, an additional six South American countries have done so (Jones-Correa, 2000, 2). Once a relatively rare phenomenon, there are now at least 93 countries that recognize dual citizenship (see Appendix).1 No doubt others will soon be added to that list. Moreover, as Richard W. Fox and James T. Kloppenberg (1995, 85) point out in their recent biographical essay on Bourne, some modern theorists, "have seized upon Bourne's 1916 essay 'Trans-national America,' as a multicultural manifesto for a new American national identity." T. Alexander Aleinikoff (1998b; see also Spiro, 1997) for example, specifically embraces Bourne's vision for the United States, while another advocate has called on dual or multiple citizenship to become a basic human right enforced by the United Nations General Assembly (McGarvey-Rosendahl, 1985, 305, 321-325). The question I want to raise in this essay is whether Bourne's vision represents a dream to which we should give our support, or whether it is a utopian fantasy whose serious and potentially harmful implications for this country Bourne, and his contemporary advocates, did not seriously think through. The
need to do such thinking is all the more critical given the enormous number of
new immigrants arriving in the United States, both legally and illegally, as
well as President Bush's stated interest (cf., Schmitt 2001; Eggen
and Fears, 2001) in regularizing the status for some number of illegal
immigrants. Surprisingly, given the role that porous borders and lax
immigration enforcement (Brown and Connolly 2001, A17) played in allowing
terrorists to enter the United States, President Bush is reported (Associated
Press, 2001) to have told Mexican President Vicente Fox after the September 11
attack, that he "hasn't forgotten that we have commitments to work to
regularize the situation of immigrants." In other words, he is still
considering some form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.
That group is now estimated at between 8.5 million (Porter, 2001) and nine million (Cohn, 2001) and rising, with no signs of abatement. Mr. Bush's statements have been vague, but it seems clear that he wishes to regularize and exert some further control over a very porous border with Mexico's promise to help, and the price of that help is some form of regularization (Jordan and Sheridan, 2001). Others have suggested it is part of his longer-term political strategy with Hispanics (Gigot, 2001). While others (Skerry, 2001) have noted that it is responsive to the business wing of the Republican Party, which favors a steady supply of labor. While labor, political, and control issues have appeared to take center stage in the president's proposal, there is a much more important and rarely discussed set of issues — those dealing with cultural cohesion and integration. Put bluntly, a new regularization may make, with Mexico's real help, control of the border easier to maintain. It may also be helpful to Mr. Bush politically, although that is debated (Gimpel and Kaufmann, 2001). And it might help some labor-intensive industries. However, the real question that needs to be addressed is whether it benefits the country's cultural and political fabric to focus narrowly on immigration control, economics, or the future of Hispanics in the GOP. What really needs to be frankly discussed is the relationship of immigration policy to our policies concerning maintaining and improving the quality of civic mindedness, and cultural and political integration, combined with a concern for strengthening the individual traits and outlook that support them. These issues have not been superceded by the return to patriotism in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. On the contrary, those events underscore the critical necessity of having a public that takes the idea of "One America" seriously, and in doing so is able to persist in putting national interests before ethnic, racial, and religious interests. How to sustain and strengthen the forces of national integration is, if anything, now even more crucial to our country's well being. It is within that set of concerns that questions about dual and multiple citizenships arise. What Is Dual Citizenship and Why
Does It Matter? A person in the United States may acquire multiple citizenships in any one of five ways. (Aleinikoff, 1998a, 26, 27; see also O'Brien, 1999, 575) He or she may be born in the United States to immigrant parents. All children born in the United States are U.S. citizens regardless of the status of their parents (jus soli). Second, a person may be born outside the United States to one parent who is a U.S. citizen and another who is not (jus sanguinis). A child born to an American citizen and British citizen in the United Kingdom for example, would be a citizen of both countries. Third, a person becomes a naturalized citizen in the United States and that act is ignored by his or her country of origin.3 This is true even if the country of naturalization requires, as the United States does, those naturalizing to "renounce" former citizenship/nationality ties. In the case of the United States, failure to take action consistent with the renunciation carries no penalties, and others countries can, and often do, simply ignore that oath of allegiance. Fourth, a person can become a naturalized citizen of the United States and in doing so lose her citizenship in her country of origin, but can regain it at any time, and still retain her U.S. citizenship.4 There is also a fifth and in some ways newly emerging vehicle for developing multiple citizenships unremarked upon by either Aleinikoff or O'Brien. Citizens of a country like the United States that does not formally recognize dual citizenship, but does not discourage it either, may have citizens whose countries of origin have dual citizenship agreements with third, fourth, and even fifth countries. For example, a number of Latin American countries recognize dual nationality with Spain, as Guatemala does with other Central American nations (Jones-Correa, 2000, 2). The common citizenship status towards which the European Union is moving is an another example of what might be called block multiple citizenships. The United States does not formally recognize dual citizenship, but neither does it take any stand, politically or legally, against it. No American citizen can lose their citizenship by undertaking the responsibilities of citizenship in one or more other countries. This is true even if those responsibilities include obtaining a second or even a third citizenship, swearing allegiance to a foreign state, voting in another country's election, serving in the armed forces (even in combat positions, and even if the state is a "hostile" one), running for office, and if successful, serving.5 Informed constitutional judgment suggests Congress could legislatively address any of these, or other, issues arising out of these multiple, perhaps conflicting responsibilities.6 Yet, to date, it has chosen not to do so. Is dual citizenship and multiple nationality really an issue for the United States? An examination of the numbers suggests it is. The latest official estimates (1999) of the number of foreign-born persons, of whatever legal status, living in the United States is almost 26 million (26.4).7 This is the largest foreign-born population in our history and represents a thirty percent rise (six million) over the 1990 figures. The number of immigrants for the last few years of the decade stretching from 1990, coupled with the total number of immigrants in the previous decade (1980-90) add up to the largest consecutive two-decade influx of immigrants in the country's history.8 Immigration Service official figures for 1994-1998 show that 17 of these "top-20"9 immigrant-sending countries (85 percent) allow some form of multiple citizenship. Of the more than 2.6 million immigrants from the top-20 sending countries, 1994-1998, over 2.2 million (86 percent) are multiple-citizenship immigrants. Keep in mind that while 17 of the "top-20" immigrant-sending countries are multiple-citizenship- allowing countries, that number (17) represents only a small percentage of the total number (92, not including the United States) of such countries. And, of course, many of these remaining 75 countries send the United States many thousands of immigrants. Adding those countries to these figures suggests that almost 90 percent of all immigrants come from countries that allow or encourage multiple citizenship. Historically, of the 22 million-plus immigrants legally admitted into this country between 1961-1997, 16 and a third million, or almost 75 percent are from dual/multiple citizenship-allowing countries. The basic data are indisputable: American immigration policy is resulting in the admission of large numbers of persons from countries that have taken legislative steps (for economic, political, and cultural reasons) to maintain and foster their ties with countries from which they emigrated. One may disagree about the importance or the implications of these facts, but not with their existence. Continue to: So What? Some Basic Questions About Dual Citizenship End Notes 2 Dual or multiple citizenship is not the same as dual nationality. Citizenship is a political term. It draws its importance from the political, economic, and social rights and obligations that adhere to a person by virtue of having been born into, or having become a recognized or certified member of a state. Nationality, on the other hand, refers primarily to the attachments of members of a community to each other and to that community's ways of viewing the world, practices, institutions, and allegiances. Common community identifications develop through several, or more, of the following elements: language, "racial" identifications, ethnicity, culture, geography, historical experience, and identification with common institutions and practices. Nationality is often thought of as expressed primarily through emotional attachments, and these are important. Yet, it would be a mistake to divorce a person's emotional attachments from the understandings and knowledge which both reflect and inform them. In many culturally homogenous countries nationality and citizenship coincide, yet they are not synonymous. Or, as has been noted, "an individual's national identity is not necessarily the same as the passport she holds." See Editorial (1997, 1817). 3 The reasons for ignoring these circumstances vary. A country may simply not perceive the practice as sufficiently important or widespread to merit attention or action. Or, it may serve its own purposes — political, economic, or cultural — by ignoring other ties from which they benefit. Or, the country may have legal prohibitions against the practice, which are weakened by another of that country's political institutions. For example as Franck (1996) points out, Australian law as legislated in 1948 appeared to withdraw citizenship from any Australian who "does any act or thing: (a) the sole or dominant purpose of which; and (b) the effect of which; is to acquire the nationality or citizenship of a foreign country." Yet a recent court case there held that this provision did not apply to an Australian of partly Swiss origin who applied to the Swiss government for recognition of her jus sanguinis status as a Swiss citizen. The case thereby opened the door to recognition of dual nationality since the court held that to lose Australian citizenship, the citizen's motive must have been to acquire Swiss citizenship, rather than to obtain recognition of an already-existing status of foreign nationality. 4 For example, Jones-Correa (2000, 32) offers Bolivia, Honduras, and Venezuela as examples of Latin American countries which allow repatriation upon return. Goldstein and Piazza (1998,1630) add Haiti to this list. This is, of course, a form of de facto dual citizenship. This form does not allow the exercising of formal political rights in the immigrant's country of origin, but to the extent that repatriation is the person's ultimate goal, it may very well affect attachments to a new country. 5 While the Department of State now takes the position that acceptance of policy-level employment with a foreign government will be presumed to be a basis for denaturalization, a number of American dual citizens have held rather high positions without loss of citizenship. Raffi Hovannisian became Foreign Minister of Armenia, and stated publicly: "I certainly do not renounce my American citizenship," thus closing off a legal challenge to what he had done. Mohammed Sacirbey, Foreign Minister of Bosnia in 1995-1996, is an American citizen and dual national. The chief of the Estonian army in 1991-1995 also was an American, Aleksander Einseln. Many Americans have served at the United Nations as ambassadors of their other country's citizenship (Franck 1996). 6 For example, in 1986, following the Supreme Court's decision in Afroyim v. Rusk (387 U.S. 253), Congress repealed parts of the statutory provisions of American citizenship law by adding the key requirement that loss of citizenship could occur only on the citizen's "voluntarily performing any of the following acts with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality"[Act of Nov. 14, 1986, § 18, 100 Stat. 3655, 3658 (codified as amended in 8 U.S.C. § 1481 (1988)]. With that, the onus shifted to the Government to demonstrate that a designated act had been performed both voluntarily and with the specific intent to renounce U.S. Citizenship (Franck,1996). 7 These figures are drawn from the U.S. Department of Commerce (2000). 8 The figures are drawn from the U.S. Department of Commerce (1997, 52-53). 9 See U.S. Department of Justice/Immigration and Naturalization Service,(1999a, 8); also U.S. Department of Justice/Immigration and Naturalization Service (1999b, 9).
About the Author He is the author of over 60 articles in the fields of presidential politics, leadership, and political psychology and has also published nine books: Psychological Needs and Political Behavior (Free Press); The Handbook of Political Socialization: Theory and Research (Free Press); The Political Psychology of the Gulf War (University of Pittsburgh Press); The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership (Westview Press); The Psychological Assessment of Presidential Candidates (New York University Press, 1996; Routledge Press 1998, updated paperback edition); High Hopes: The Clinton Presidency and the Politics of Ambition (New York University Press, 1996, updated paperback edition,1998 Routledge Press); [with John Duckitt] Political Psychology: Cultural and Cross-cultural Foundations (Macmillan); One America: Political Leadership, National Identity, and the Dilemmas of Diversity (Georgetown University Press, 2001); and two forthcoming books, America's Second Civil War: Political Leadership in a Divided Society (Transaction, 2002) and [with Deborah Larson] Good Judgment in Foreign Policy: Theory and Application (Rowan & Littlefield, 2001). His next book, The 50% American: National Identity in a Global Age will be published by Georgetown University Press in 2003. His book on the Clinton presidency, High Hopes, won the 1997 American Political Science Association's Richard E. Neustadt Award for the best book published on the presidency. It was also the winner in 1998 of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis' Gradiva Award for the best published work in the category of biography. His current work focuses on American national identity and the dilemmas of diversity. He was recently awarded research fellowships from the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., and the Institute of Race and Social Division at Boston University to further this work. During the 2000-20001 academic year he was appointed a Research Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School to study the role of character issues in the 2000 presidential election. Dr. Renshon would like to thank Nathan Glazer, Eugene Goldstein, Peter Spiro, Peter Schuck, Stephan Thernstrom, Mark Krikorian, and especially Noah Pickus for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper or its constituent sections. He would also like to acknowledge the valuable research assistance of Ms. Sandra Johnson.
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