Posted on 06/08/2008 3:25:27 PM PDT by null and void
For millions of Europeans who braved the Atlantic Ocean for a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and dreams of a lavish life, there was little thought of ever emigrating back.
Yet for a new generation of Americans of European descent, the Old Country is becoming a new country full of promise and opportunity.
The creation of the European Union and its thriving economy is very appealing for Americans in a global economy.
"With an EU passport, I can live and work in 27 countries," said Suzanne Mulvehill of Lake Worth. "With a U.S. passport, I can live and work in one."
Americans can claim citizenship in any of the 27 European countries that are in the EU based on the nationality of their parents, or in some cases, grandparents and great-grandparents. Citizenship in one of those countries allows you to live and work in any EU nation.
Since the United States doesn't keep statistics on dual citizens, it's impossible to know exactly how many people have applied for citizenship in Europe. But it's estimated that more than 40 million Americans are eligible for dual citizenship, and a growing number of Americans want to try their luck elsewhere.
"I have to say that over the past few years, calls I never would have received before have been made to the office," said Sam Levine, an immigration attorney in Palm Beach Gardens. "It's not like a tidal wave, but it's certainly more substantial, and it's remarkable."
He's receiving calls from people like Mulvehill, executive director of the Emotional Institute, a Lake Worth-based company that trains entrepreneurs.
Mulvehill's mother was born in Romania, which became a member of the European Union last year.
She's obtaining Romanian citizenship, which she estimates will have taken about three years, a ton of paperwork, $750 in fees and a trip to the Romanian consulate in Washington.
But once she receives the passport, probably early next year, she'll be able settle anywhere in the EU.
"I recognized for the first time in my life that being American had limits," Mulvehill said, "and that if I really wanted to become what I call a global citizen, then I needed to tap into all my resources to expand my ability to serve entrepreneurs not just in Lake Worth, which is one town, and not just in Florida or in America or North America, but on the globe."
Globalization is a word on the mind of Lauren Berg, a recent college graduate from Michigan who is obtaining Greek citizenship based on her grandfather. She plans to move to Paris, brush up on her French and engross herself in the European business world.
"It's definitely a really good thing to have on your résumé with business going so global," Berg said. "I probably never would have done it if it wasn't for the EU, but at the same time I've always been extremely proud of my Greek heritage."
Dual citizenship once viewed as unpatriotic
But not everyone is so excited about this increasing trend.
"I understand the impulse: You can get a better deal over there," said Stanley Renshon, a professor at the City University of New York and former president of the International Society of Political Psychology. "Whether it's good for the American national community is quite a different question."
Renshon belongs to a faction of immigration experts that believes dual citizenship diminishes the American identity.
"The devaluation of American citizenship for the sake of comparative advantage strikes me as fairly self-centered," Renshon said.
Dual citizenship became a major issue during the War of 1812, when the British military tried recruiting, and in some cases forcing, British-born American citizens to fight on Britain's side.
For years, being a dual citizen was seen as unpatriotic, and until 1967 it was possible for the United States to revoke American citizenship for people who voted in foreign elections.
But in the 1967 Afroyim vs. Rusk decision, Supreme Court justices ruled 5-4 that it was unconstitutional to bar dual citizenship.
"It was the high point of the 1960s and individual rights," said Noah Pickus, the associate director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. "So the notion that you could take a citizenship away from somebody would seem to violate the basic notion of individual choice."
Today, immigrants who become American citizens have to swear that they renounce their previous citizenship, but it's more of a symbolic gesture, and Renshon said it's actually difficult to renounce a citizenship.
One of the biggest advocates of dual citizenship is Temple University professor and author Peter Spiro, who believes that defining one's identity by his citizenship is a thing of the past.
"There are really no harms caused by individuals having additional citizenship these days," Spiro said. "It's the wave of the future, because more and more people are going to have it. It's going to multiply on an exponential basis going forward."
And as the value of the euro - the currency shared by 15 EU countries - rises and America's economy slumps, it's an attractive alternative for Amber Alfano, a recent University of Florida graduate who is becoming an Italian citizen like her father.
"I'm doing it as an exit strategy of sorts," Alfano said. "I like knowing that I have another place to go if things get even worse here, or if I just get tired of running on the American mouse wheel.
"My dad was actually the one who put a bug in my ear about the whole citizenship thing. He said that Europeans are more interested in the quality of life than the quantity, and that it was a good place to have and raise children because of the way their social systems work. I don't care much about the child-rearing part, but I would gladly trade in some of my material possessions for a little flat, a scooter and more vacation."
The grass might be greener ... for now
Levine, the Palm Beach Gardens immigration attorney, was born in Canada and has received calls from people also interested in obtaining Canadian citizenship. He also understands the European appeal. He said he's proud to be an American and proud of what the U.S. has accomplished on a global scale in the last century but that there are some advantages to living elsewhere.
"You have to look at things like how hard people work here and how little vacation time people get here," Levine said. "A lot of people who live in Europe might not make same amount of money as Americans, but in some senses it's a kinder, more gentle lifestyle."
When Alfano went to fill out her paperwork at the Italian consulate in Coral Gables, she said "the waiting room was full of second- and third-generation Americans (of Italian descent) picking up passports."
Pickus said he's heard stories of parents getting their children European citizenship as an 18th birthday present - "We didn't get you a car, but we got you an Italian citizenship."
Some, like seasonal Vero Beach resident Tony Monaco, who has been trying to get Italian citizenship based on his grandfather, bought property in Italy and learned that taxes would be much lower if he was a citizen.
For those who are moving for the EU economic boom, Hudson Institute senior fellow John Fonte - one of the nation's leading immigration experts and critics of dual citizenship - warns that it might not last.
"I think it's a short-term phenomenon," Fonte said. "I don't think the European economy in the long run will do that well because it's a heavy socialist welfare state in most of the countries."
Mulvehill, the Lake Worth entrepreneur trainer, taught a course at Lynn University and encouraged her students to obtain dual citizenship if they were eligible.
"Expand your possibilities. If you can get citizenship, why not?" she said. "The world is a bigger place than America. Look at what technology has done, creating a global economy. That, in my opinion, is what has created this phenomenon."
Every country has its own process for obtaining citizenship.
Ireland, Italy and Greece are among the most lenient in terms of letting an individual claim citizenship not just from a parent but from a grandparent or possibly a great-grandparent.
Even in countries that allow an individual only to claim descent based on a parent, in many cases the new citizen can pass the citizenship on to his child.
Eric Hammerle, a Vero Beach resident whose father was born in Germany, said it was easy for him and his 16-year-old son Nick to become German citizens.
They acquired the necessary documents - birth, marriage and death certificates - and took them to the German consulate in Miami.
"The whole process took about 20 minutes," Hammerle said. "They read over the documents, came back and said, 'Congratulations, Germany has two new citizens.' It was a fee of $85."
No idea.
It’s probably highly classified...
“This one’s so “extremely proud” of her GREEK heritage that she wants to go live in...... PARIS.”
I’ve found myself agreeing with you on a regular basis, lately. :) That’s the first thing that caught my eye, as well.
GMTA....... “great minds think alike” :^)
“For example, at different times I have worked legally in France and in the UK.”
I have, as well, with a visa.
And I actually looked long and hard at dual-citizenship and couldn’t pull it off. I see a lot of scorn coming from those on this forum, but when you date a French girl for 2.5 years who is finishing up school in the UK and working for her dad’s company...
A rare case? Sure! And you may disagree with me, but I say if you can pull it off, why not? More options in life never seemed a bad thing to me. And it sure would have given me more options and better pay than my visa did.
I think a lot of these kids will be back before long, anyway. But I wouldn’t have traded living and working in London for the world. Every Wednesday night the Victoria & Albert museum would be open late, and a jazz quartet would be playing...and there I’d be. Or reading in Brompton Oratory... I saw more history in that time in England than perhaps I’ve seen since.
Ah, the relaxed, peaceful, more civilized life of a continent that enjoyed near-constant war and violence until the United States, at its own expense, began securing it.
The Supreme Court has basically set the standard here. The US Constitution enumerates who is an American. Other countries have their own criteria. So, being a “dual national” is for most people an accident of birth. I am American, born in the USA to an American born mother (who’s father was a career Air Force officer). But my mom married a French man, and French law states that the children of a French father are French. Shortly after my birth my father, who has since naturalized American, filed my birth certificate at the French Consulate.
Anyone who has a nationality in addition to their American can file the birth certificates of their children at the Consular’s office and it will make obtaining passports and proving citizenship much easier. If my father had not filed the records when I was born, then I would have had to prove his citizenship, his marriage to my mother and my birth to them both during their marriage.
For the record I have had my French passport for over 15 years now, renewed it once, but I have never in my life ever used it. And I can’t imagine going to Europe at this point, trying to exchange dollars to Euros. Unless they were paying me in Euros to go there, I don’t think I would be willing to “try my luck” in the job market over there right now. And starting a business - fuhgettaboutit! Too many regulations and they are almost all in a foreign language!
OK, so one of my grandmothers was born in Ireland, came here around age 3 or 4. We’ve always considered ourselves Americans period. Well, ‘cept on Paddy’s Day.
I have NO interest in becoming an Irish citizen, but because of that one grandparent, if I were so inclined, I could take up dual citizenship ? And, if I were to become a dual citizen, then as an Irish citizen myself, my kids would then be eligible dual citizenship if they chose? But if I chose not to, my kids could never take on Irish citizenship ? Is my understanding correct ?
It really helps with the quality of life thing if your country has little or no outlays for national defense but instead has it guaranteed by the taxpayers of another country 3000 miles away.
, and that it was a good place to have and raise children because of the way their social systems work.
Good for a welfare queen, maybe. If you actually work for a living in Europe, you are taxed through the nose. If Europe is such a wonderful place to have children, then why aren't they having any? In fact, the tax burden is one of the primary reasons that a majority or close to it of children born in European cities are immigrants, often Muslim. For the social consequences of that situation, I refer you to Mark Steyn's America Alone.
...I would gladly trade in some of my material possessions for a little flat, a scooter and more vacation.
Emphasis on the "little." I've actually lived in Europe and I know how tiny the average European apartment is.
America peaked long ago. As the next generations of uneducated dolts come of age, the country will be truly lost.
Entirely possible. But, again, for all America's pathologies, I don't see an equivalent to the nightly car-burning festivals in Paris. America's inner cities are horrifically violent, but by and large it is an intra-underclass violence without a political component that European inner-city violence has.
I wonder what Kenya's criteria are.
When I was a kid Americans could count on our government to protect them when abroad.
*sigh* Not any more.
Volunteering to be French is wrong.
It's my understanding that you have to maintain a US residence in order to vote. That is, you vote in a state, not in the United States. E.g., a natural born Puerto Rican over the age of 35 is eligible to run for president, but can't vote for himself unless he moves to the mainland first.
I personally ascribe huge quality-of-life points to Europe’s historic cities. I’d never consider living in Europe’s suburbs...as they are the same soulless wastelands as they are here, IMO. So, when the U.S. gets almost as bad or as bad as Europe, then it’s time to consider moving.
LOL, well I prefer to think of the French side of me as the French who helped us defeat the British to attain independence, who gave us the Statue of Liberty as a token of appreciation for awakening their people to Liberty.
And most importantly I take with me the fact that my father LEFT FRANCE to LIVE AND WORK AND RAISE A FAMILY in the United States. People who think they can move and work in France or UK may find that its not much better and possibly worse than the USA if all you want is a modest life. But if you strive to achieve you will find glass ceilings in Europe such as regressive taxation and stifling regulation that discourage entrepreneurship and in some cases individual achievement. Only a few will find a better life over there - those who are truly being paid more for their abilities. Most people would be better off in the USA.
But anyway, French I am according to the French, and I still have a lot of family in France - aunts, uncles, first cousins and more extended family. But my roots are firmly American. I chose to take possession of a passport that I am legally entitled to... that’s about as far as I’ve taken the matter in the 15 odd years since I obtained it.
Exactly. I wouldn’t want to travel on a Foreign passport because I am American. Anyway if I ever got in some kind of jam or medical problem I would want to call on the American embassy for help. I suppose in a 3rd country I could call on 2 embassies but really I am American I live in America I work in America I speak English... etc. So its only natural I would want American help. If some French dude showed up to help airlift me out of a disaster area I would have problems communicating.
Also I imagine that if one tried to enter Europe with an EU passport but leave with an American one, they would wonder how you ever got into the EU and probably hold you up. Then you would have to show them your 2 passports and suddenly you have to explain why you are carrying 2 passports.
And coming into the US with a foreign passport? Madness! Nope there are many reasons why I never used my French passport not even to check into a hotel, as ID, to rent a car or anything.
I’m not sure the State Department is the “controlling legal authority”, but just out of curiosity in what way do they ‘recognize’ Israeli dual citizenship that they don’t recognize others?
I’m not sure the State Department is the “controlling legal authority”, but just out of curiosity in what way do they ‘recognize’ Israeli dual citizenship that they don’t recognize others?
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