By Patrick Donges
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-982912.mp3
Pittsfield, MA – Dual or multiple citizenship, according to the U.S. Department of State, is the concept wherein a person bears allegiance to two or more countries at the same time, requiring them to obey the laws of each country they claim citizenship and often carry separate passports.
While exact statistics are almost impossible to gather, the number of people across the globe that claim citizenship in the United States and other countries has reportedly risen over the past few decades due to changes in the international dialogue on citizenship and increased migration across national borders.
Demetrious Papademetriou is president of the Migration Policy Institute, which published a report titled, "Dual Citizenship in the Age of Mobility," in 2008.
"The situation before was that countries saw themselves as primarily being in political 'camps,' whether it was the east-west conflict, and were particularly worried about issues of allegiance."
"Migration to the United States has always been large, (but) it certainly was not nearly as diverse as it has become in the last 10 or 20 years. So, the more countries engage the migration game,' the more issues that they never had to think about are coming to the forefront of the policy conversation."
According to Papademetriou, those issues are primarily economic.
As the threat of worldwide armed conflict lessened and cold war died down, the more citizens began to migrate across the globe to seek economic opportunities. Nations then began weighing the benefits of allowing their citizens to seek these opportunities as the global marketplace began to take shape, here's Papademetriou.
"You don't play out your political games in the military field; you play them in the economic field."
"'Country X' sees that 'Country Y' has allowed their citizens to become dual nationals, and they ask themselves, 'why shouldn't we do the same thing?' 'Maybe we can attract some of those people to invest in our country, maybe they can engage in political campaigns.'"
"Countries see from the people that were born in their countries but now live in another country an opportunity to maintain contact, the possibility of investments, and the possible promise that they can sort of project a bigger image on the international stage by having dual nationals that may be important economic actors in another country."
While some countries still have strict requirements to receive dual citizenship, one example being Germany, which reviews each request on a case-by-case basis, local immigration advocates agree that the prospect of becoming a dual citizen has become more attractive as more countries become tolerant of the practice; Brooke Mead is program director at the Berkshire Immigrant Center.
"There have been many countries that have done that for a number of years. I do think the numbers that are doing it is increasing, but at the same time it's something that just happens under the law."
What that means is that once you become a citizen of a county that country would not require you to relinquish your original nationality, as is the case with the United States, which does not officially encourage dual citizenship, but tolerates it, accepting those immigrants who seek and receive U.S. citizenship simply as U.S. citizens.
There are some that say the U.S. should discourage dual citizenship in order to encourage assimilation into American society and culture; Stanley Renshon is a psychoanalyst and professor of political science at the City University of New York.
"It's to our benefit and actually to the new immigrants' benefit to have policies that encourage attachment here."
"I don't mean them to be heavy handed; I don't think you can insist or demand it, but I do think you can have policies that guide people away from their previous attachments into a firmer attachment to the country presumably they've chosen to call home."
Renshon said one easy policy would be a requirement that immigrants relinquish their foreign passports upon becoming U.S. citizens, with the idea that anything which would detract from their attachment to the U.S. would benefit neither the country nor the individual.
Conversely, Mead said some dual and multiple citizens aspire to work in the U.S. while planning to invest and retire in their home countries, making dual nationalities a benefit for both nations and people.
"I think it's excellent for all of us. The ability to move around the globe and contribute to a global economy is very necessary in today's markets."