What country has the most US expats?

Talking about a long time ago, up until the 1920s a woman would lose her US citizenship as a result of marriage to any non-citizen. For women marrying an Asian male, this extended up to the 1930s (through a bit of a technicality). Citizenship derived from the husband, you see.

What twelve Americans are stuck in Mogadishu? ::shudder:: Poor bastards.

American al-Qaeda?

I don’t think your cite says what you think it says. Skilled workers and professionals are a huge group of immigrants to Canada from the United States. Moving to Canada and becoming a landed immigrant and then a citizen is certainly NOT restricted to those who have Canadian family members. Far from it.

Regarding Somalia, that may be true. It may also be ethnic Somalians moving back after being US citizens? I’d imagine that would be most of Mexico’s ex-pats; people back with their Mexican families, not white guys living abroad.

Admittedly, I was looking for the most non-ethnic Western-looking expats living abroad. Code word for “white American folks in non-white countries”, not to mince words. No real racial motivation, just wondering what countries would have large communities of Westerners living among them.

Again, Thailand must be way up there. And the numbers are rising in Cambodia and Vietnam, but they have a ways to go before they even come close to us.

It’s actually not. Go check out the link in one of the previous posts, there is a chart that lists everyplace. Thailand is about 12th in Asia, and maybe in the top 50 for the world. It just seems like it because you notice others like you or frequent the same places. Sort of like when you buy a car and then suddenly see the same model on the road all of the time. And then of course most American (and other) expats are concentrated in Bangkok, Pattaya and Isaan.

No, that’s about what I would have figured. Depends on how you read “up there.” I think 12th in Asia and 50th in the world is up there to me, even if it’s not the top 5 or top 10.

Really? Because I know plenty of officers - including one Lt. Colonel - with U.S. citizenships. No-one has ever asked them to renounce it.

That’s my understanding, and it’s mentioned in Cecil’s column linked in Mike S’s post above. To whit:

“2) Serving in another country’s armed forces is not, in itself, illegal. You can’t aid the enemy, of course, but what with the fall of communism and all, ‘enemies’ is such an outmoded concept. Also, you can’t serve as a commissioned or noncommissioned officer.”

Are you certain about your friends’ citizenship? If so, they would probably do best to keep quiet about it.

Wait, noncomissioned officers too? Then maybe I should worry about *my * U.S. citizenship.

But really, I don’t see that happening.

My gut feeling – and that’s all it is, I really don’t know – is that in the case of Israel, the US is probably willing to look the other way. “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” in other words.

http://www.travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_778.html

In other words, you only lose your citizenship if you do any of the above acts with the intention of renouncing your citizenship.

No disagreement. However, if I’m retired (not looking to work in Canada, just want to live there), it would seem that most doors are closed.