And to be fair, Europeans as well. I can understand allowing some ex-pats from Iraq to be able to vote, but not the children of Iraqi immigrants to other nations. So why do they have the rule that if your father (and why just the father and not the mother?) was born in Iraq, you can vote in the upcoming election, even if you’ve never set foot in Iraq?
You didn’t think we would allow something as dangerous as democracy in Iraq, did you?
In many countries you inherit your parents’ citizenship, no matter where you were born. Is that different in the US? In addition to that, in many countries children of immigrants don’t get the local citizenship by birth.
American citizens who’ve never set foot in American can vote in American elections. It depends on the law of the country holding the election - including the discrimination of the paternal-lineage element. It’s up to Iraqis to change that law.
In the US, I’m not sure exactly how the citizenship laws are worded anymore, but it used to be that if you were born in America, you were an American citizen, and it’s well-neigh impossible in the US to have dual citizenship, so one would have to choose. If the chose Iraqi, I could understand them being allowed to vote, but that’s not how the policy’s worded according to news accounts. It doesn’t care if you’re a citizen of another country or not.
I’ve known a number of Americans who held dual citizenship. The only ones I’ve known who had to renounce one or the other was due to the laws of their other nation, not America’s.
China Guy had a thread about how the State Department was making it tough for him to get dual citizenship for his kid. Every immigrant I’ve discussed the subject with has said that the US wouldn’t allow them to do it.
Iraq (presumably) neither knows nor cares about US attitudes to dual citizenship, and even if the US does have a hangup about dual citizenship there is no reason to suppose that Iraq has as well. The Iraqi law may be as simple as this:
[ul]
[li]Iraqi citizenship passes by descent (for at least one generation)[/li][li]If you’re an Iraqi citizen, you can vote in the Iraqi election[/li][/ul]
The issue of whether you have, or are entitled to claim, the nationality of another country as well may not enter into the question. Why should it?
My brother, an Irish national, immigrated to the United States. His three children, born in the US and with a mother of US nationality, all have both Irish and US nationality from birth. No biggie, apparently.
A number of US states prior to 1900 allowed non-citizens to vote. The requirements were genereally fairly low, like saying they intended to become citizens. IIRC, Texas allowed the declaration of intent to be made at the polls, so there was a lot of abuse by candidates bringing in Mexican citizens on election day.
It’s not at all unusual for countries to allow children of their citizens to “inherit” citizenship; the unusual part for purposes of the Iraqi election is that such people are not required to obtain separate documentation of their own Iraqi citizenship before registering to vote; they just need to show documentation of the Iraqi citizenship of their father, and of the parental relationship.
Actually, a very close friend of mine is temping as a poll worker for the next couple of weeks for the Iraqi elections here in Chicago. (Coolest temp job ever!) They are being trained right now on what documentation is acceptable as proof of identity and Iraqi citizenship. Oddly enough, this particular friend is a U.S. citizen by birth, but if he pursued it, could be both a Croatian and a Bosnian citizen by descent. Yep, a few years ago he was potentially draftable by three different armies.
Info on election procedures for Iraqi citizens abroad:
http://www.iraqocv.org/php/index.php?lang=eng
Also, the U.S. officially allows dual citizenship, and as a practical matter it’s difficult for them to find out whether U.S. citizens hold another citizenship. I’m no surprised that individual U.S. government employes make it a pain in the ass, though. Info: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1753.html
The US government doesn’t like Americans from possessing dual-citizenship, but it is not prohibited. In fact, thanks to several laws and court cases, barring some defined moves on the part of the individual, holding a second citizenship is pretty much a right for American citizens if the opportunity presents itself. I know this first-hand.
See Dual Citizenship FAQ for more information.
I don’t know a single person who has had a problem with this. I know Polish-American duals, Irish-American duals, Israeli-American duals, Hungarian-American duals, and a Polish-American-Australian triple.
Maybe they’ve tightened up recently, but I’ve never heard of anyone having a problem, and there’s especially a lot of people with Irish and American dual citizenships, as Irish citizenship seems particularly easy to get.
I’m a dual Australian-American citizen, I’ve never had a problem with it.
I was born in America however, then moved to Australia very early in my childhood, so that may be different to someone born overseas but still retaining dual citizenship.
(I’m not sure what all the discussion of dual citizenship in the US has to do with the OP, but anyway…)
We all know that there are a large number of Iraqis who fled the country during Saddam’s regime. I don’t have hard numbers, but a significant groups sought political asylum in other countries, others simply fled (but never sought asylum), and a number of Iraqis were even stripped of their citizenship by Saddam’s government.
Given that there are likely hundreds of thousands of Iraqis living abroad presents a sticky situation when it comes to voting. How could the Iraqi government, which already has its fair share of troubles, hope to separate the unjustly exiled from the Iraqis who have moved on with their lives?
The Transitional Administrative Law, what is more commonly called the Iraqi interim constitution, gives a broad-brush answer to that tough question. Article 6 states: “The Iraqi Transitional Government shall take effective steps to end the vestiges of the oppressive acts of the previous regime arising from forced displacement, deprivation of citizenship, expropriation of financial assets and property, and dismissal from government employment for political, racial, or sectarian reasons.” There are other, more specific protections of citizenship (not dealing specifically with voting), but suffice it to say, the interim constitution casts a very broad net when it comes to Iraqi citizenship, including a guarantee to the right of dual citizenship. TAL.
Many will inevitably raise the point that the TAL was basically written by the Coalition Provisional Authority, and approved by the Iraqi Governing Council which was comprised of Iraqis appointed by Bush Administration officials.
As far as the citizenship being passed through the father, this is a fairly common practice in a number of countries, both inside and outside the Middle East. I’m blanking now on the countries that I have come across that have such a policy, but I recall that there’s a fair number.
Give it a rest, this ‘Iraq won’t get a democracy’ bashing is really getting on my nerves, its almost pathological in wanting to see the state fail.
Not sure about the ones outside the Middle East, but this is the norm in Arab countries. Mrs. Gas (she hates that) was born in Cairo to an Egyptian mother and Iraqi father, but she was considered by both countries to be an Iraqi citizen, and held an Iraqi passport, although she has never been to Iraq.
She is mulling over whether to vote in the Iraqi election, since she is eligible (even though she let the Iraqi passport expire after she became a US citizen), though there is some concern over the fact that they said that voter registration lists would be available for public inspection.
Perhaps they’re trying to uphold the Oath of Allegiance, which reads, “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen…” Like everything else about American immigration practice, it reeks of hypocrisy to allow dual citizenship, yet pretend that the new dual citizen isn’t perjuring himself when he takes the Oath.
Not to ruin your whatver that was with facts, but “we” had nothing to do with the decision. The United States and the UN both opposed the Iraqi government’s decision to allow expat voting as too difficult logistically.