In the old days if you were an immigrant who wanted to become an American citizen, one of the things you had to do was give up all allegiance to a foreign country. Nowadays, it is apparently possible to become a citizen of the U.S. and still retain citizenship in another country. I don’t approve of this. Am I alone?
What’s your rationale? Just curious.
What about the other way round? What if an American moves to somewhere else and becomes a citizen, should they have to give up their American citizenship?
FFS it just means you can do things like visit your family without it being a pain in the neck.
It doesnt mean you’re going to race off and fight for the other country when the invasion comes.
Otara
Well, the thing is, Ronald, as it stands the Oath of Naturalization STILL reads “I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty”
It was noticed in the practice, however, that many other countries don’t give a hoot about that and refuse to accept that the person had forsaken them.
Additionally, there is the very real element that there are such a thing as people who by birth are eligible for multiple citizenships under the laws of other nations, e.g. the parents are legal immigrants but still not naturalized themselves, so the kid gets US citizenship *Jus Soli *and citizenship of Karjakistan Jus Sanguinis 'cause Karjakistan says their citizenship is transmitted to legitimate children of Karjakis everywhere whether they want it or not.
So dual citizenship is a fact of legal life for some individuals whether the US likes it or not, even whether THEY like it or not. This could and had consequences to the point of US citizens, sometimes* even who emigrated as minors*, being hauled in for draft dodging when visiting the old country.
So IIRC the current policy, and I’ll ask Eva Luna to corect me if I get it wrong, is that for naturalization you do swear sole loyalty to the USA and rejection of other allegiances, but whether you’re naturalized or natural-born American, once you’re one of us the USA *does not really care *if you’re nominally considered a citizen of another country by mere accident of birth, what counts for us is that you are an American and follow our laws. Conversely, except for some very specific instances, the preferred way to renounce US citizenship is for you to explicitly do so before an American consular official.
An obvious one is the potential conflict when the two nations you owe allegiance to come are at odds with oneanothr.
Absolutely! I don’t know how you can swear allegiance to another country and still call youself an American.
IIRC, isn’t it extremely difficult to renounce one’s U.S. citizenship? At least formally.
Interestingly, I have no problem with it.
I live in Australia, I vote here and pay taxes, and I’m a citizen. I’m an American by birth, where, incidentally, I’m still required to pay taxes, even though I don’t live there. I have a deep and abiding interest in how America does, as a result, and thus I retain my citizenship and I vote there.
It’s not hard, I’m a bit of both. Sorry it bothers you.
I doubt it’s ever an issue for the vast majority of people with dual citizenship even as a theoretical matter, and as a practical matter, how would it ever matter unless you were called for military service by more than one country at the same time?
All very much correct, last I checked.
My analogy:
Do you love your mom? How about your dad? Siblings? Spouse? Are they never in conflict? Wouldn’t supporting two, or more, despite their differences be a conflict of interest?
FTR, I moved to Australia six and a half years ago, after marrying an Australian woman. I acquired permanent residency, then Australian citizenship. It never crossed my mind to renounce my US citizenship - leaving aside the practical considerations, I AM AN AMERICAN. Born and bred.
I also am an Australian - I’ve adopted this country, its people, and they’ve adopted me. I’ll be here, probably, for the rest of my life.
These two countries, to continue my analogy, are my parents; they shelter me, and punish me if/when necessary. Why should I choose between them?
Now, granted, the possibility of any serious conflict between my two countries is…slim, to put it mildly. Possibly over beer… 
Anyway, I’ll continue to honor my duties to the US (filing taxes, voting, etc) and to Australia. And I feel comfortable with that state of affairs.
(There are some things I can’t do without renouncing one or the other, but none of them are an issue)
I suspect some countries don’t even have way of renouncing citizenship. For those that do, it’s probably so rarely used that it’s a hassle to do. If you wondered into an embassy or something they probably wouldn’t have the right form to fill in or whatever.
You are alone. Several SCOTUS decisions and laws are not in your favor.
This has been discussed many times around here but…
As far I know, the court decisions were all about what happens to a US citizen if they become a citizen of another country. I think the courts generally decided that it does not endanger their US citizenship.
The original question was about someone from another country becoming a US citizen. I don’t think there has been any court decisions about that. It’s just a matter of practicality. I don’t think it’s anything new.
I’m just guessing but in the past it may have been more common for people to lose their original citizenship if they gained US citizenship because their original country did not allow dual citizenship. That’s nothing to do with the US. A country has a right to say “if you become someone else then you’re no longer one of us”. I think there are less countries doing that these days. Australia was like that until about ten years ago. I believe Rupert Murdoch lost his Australian citizenship (as per Australian laws) when he became a US citizen to satisfy FCC requirements for owning a TV station. He could probably get it back now if he wanted it.
Multinational identity has always been a possibility for the rich- look at how complex the national identities of Europe’s royalty can be. Now the middle-class and even the poor can maintain families, friendships and business contacts around the world.
I have a friend who was born with three separate citizenships (parents from two different countries had her and raised her mostly in the US, but she’s split a lot of time between the three countries and has close family in all of them.) She tells me that she can keep those citizenships, but if it ever matters (like she needs consular services, is in a hostage crisis, or a war situation) she has to identify herself as primarily American or risk losing her citizenship. Seems fair to me.
I suspect you are not completely alone, even the lamest of ideas enjoy at least some support, but count me out. It isn’t clear what you intend to change here: foreign citizenship is a matter between the foreign government and the citizen. There isn’t a United States form I could fill in to renounce my South African citizenship. I bet some countries don’t even have a well defined mechanism to relinquish citizenship. So what United States policy are you going to implement that enforces this?
This wouldn’t have been different in the past. As tetranz states, perhaps in the past other countries more often would require you to relinquish their citizenship before taking on United States citizenship, but that is a matter between the other country and the citizen.
For my part, I am in the process of applying for United States citizenship. Once I have it I will be a citizen of both the United States and South Africa. It would never cross my mind to not “approve” of this. The practical concerns over this are almost nonexistent.
I thought South Africa was one of the ones where you do have to renounce their citizenship if you take another? (unless maybe they’ve changed it since) Pretty sure that’s what happened with my mother-in-law on taking Australian citizenship (and that my wife only got to keep her SA citizenship because she was underage at the time, so technically wasn’t able to consent to giving up the citizenship)
I knew before I opened this thread it would be by a US American fretting about immigrants to the US. I just don’t understand what the anxiety about dual citizenship, or someone being in any kind of liminal state of national identity, is.
Cause…er…'Merika, Fuck Yeah? That’s all I got.