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16 Aug 2014, 12:37 pm

How do you feel about with regards to

Voting rules (different in different jurisdictions)
Political Office
Generally

?



trollcatman
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16 Aug 2014, 4:58 pm

I think that once someone has citizenship, that person should be treated exactly as all the other citizens. If you don't want that, just don't give that person citizenship. And having citizenship(s) in other countries should be irrelevant if you are a citizen.



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16 Aug 2014, 5:15 pm

trollcatman wrote:
I think that once someone has citizenship, that person should be treated exactly as all the other citizens. If you don't want that, just don't give that person citizenship. And having citizenship(s) in other countries should be irrelevant if you are a citizen.


Is it irrelevant if they are seeking political office?

Is it irrelevant it the vote in national elections in two different countries?

Generally I agree I see no reason why you can't be citizen of two countries, however in some matters it is perhaps not unreasonable to expect them to chose one or the other.

The US has some of the stricter conditions on dual citizenship, yet it has congress members with Dual Citizenship.

UK for historical reasons allows Irish Rep citizen can stand as an MP (not even as British citizen), if they can get the constituency votes they get in. For practical reasons it hasn't happened.



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16 Aug 2014, 5:41 pm

Many people with dual nationality vote in the elections of both countries they are citizens of. I don't see a problem. And I believe that every citizen should be able to attain any political office. If you don't want them to be able to become president just give them residence instead of citizenship. To me the idea of citizenship is that there is only one kind, no plebeians and patricians.
Recently many European Turks with dual nationality voted in the Turkish elections. I don't see how that is detrimental to me at all.
The mayor of Rotterdam has dual Dutch/Moroccan citizenship. The right wingers have been making a big deal out of it but they can't really explain why it is a problem for the citizens of Rotterdam. I think it is a great thing for this country that someone can be an immigrant and still become mayor of one of the largest cities. And I'm not a supporter of him or his Social Democratic party btw.

I do think people should be able to renounce citizenship even if their government doesn't want them to. I hear it's pretty much impossible to get rid of Moroccan citizenship even if you have never been there and you got your citizenship just because one of your parents is Moroccan.



DentArthurDent
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16 Aug 2014, 8:01 pm

I have never really thought about the ethics of dual citizenship, except that it is a very fortunate occurrence in my life. I was born in New Zealand to UK parents raised in the UK and I now live in Australia. I can move around much of the world without Visa's and I think I can get an Australian passport as well (there may be some requirement to renounce the UK or NZ, not sure?). Then I look at refugees and asylum seekers who, because of the circumstance of their birth, are stuck living in camps or attempting to travel illegally across many borders to seek out a better life for them and their families.

To me this state of affairs is far more important than people voting in more than one country. I am able to skit around the world and nobody raises an eyebrow, yet someone else who does not have the good fortune to have my particular paperwork gets stuck in limbo. The complete arbitrariness of this situation seems so inherently wrong. Often I here asylum seekers vilified as being "nothing more than economic refugees" to which I often reply "what about me, I came here for a better life, what makes me acceptable and not others?"


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16 Aug 2014, 10:12 pm

When my ancestors came to America, they had renounced their previous citizenship. I think if you're an American, you shouldn't have citizenship in any other nation.


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DentArthurDent
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17 Aug 2014, 7:28 am

^ why? I have to say that I have a very strong dislike for all manner of patriotism and nationalism.


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17 Aug 2014, 7:47 am

As a Brit living in France there is for and against getting dual citizenship. On the plus side it means I could vote here in the country I pay taxes to. The Americans have a saying "no taxation without representation"; well I don't have that here and can't vote in any national French elections. On the downside, if I do get dual citizenship it can make things very complicated regarding taxes and pensions and from what I've heard dual-citizenship is best avoided here due to those reasons unless you are super rich and can afford expensive accountants and keep Swiss bank accounts. Its all a bit of a mess really. As a resident of France I'm only partly into their bureaucratic system but also partly still in the UK system as a British citizen.


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17 Aug 2014, 10:11 am

DentArthurDent wrote:
^ why? I have to say that I have a very strong dislike for all manner of patriotism and nationalism.


It's a matter of loyalty and devotion to country. While nationalism can admittedly get ugly, there is a difference between patriotism and nationalism.


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17 Aug 2014, 11:26 am

Kraichgauer wrote:
DentArthurDent wrote:
^ why? I have to say that I have a very strong dislike for all manner of patriotism and nationalism.


It's a matter of loyalty and devotion to country. While nationalism can admittedly get ugly, there is a difference between patriotism and nationalism.


I believe it is very much possible to be a patriot of more than one country. If one parent has one nationality and the other parent a different nationality, do you expect the child to choose?
There are some towns on the Dutch-Belgian border where the border runs right through their town. It's hard to say that someone is Dutch but the person living across the street is Belgian. When your hometown is run by two different governments I think the people of that town should be able to vote in both national elections.



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17 Aug 2014, 11:39 am

I don't have a problem with dual citizenship generally, however regarding voting, I think you have to be domicile in the country the majority of time to vote. I think it is problematic where person is not really living there. For instance my mother is dual citizen, but she has not lived in that country for over 40 years, so I don't think it is fair someone voting in a country they don't reside in, and only visit for holidays even if they have family there.

Of course there are special exception such as military or diplomatic expats. In that case this is not dual citizenship, you remain a citizen, but are doing an official duty of that country, and in the case of embassies and military basic can technically vote in the jurisdiction, rather than postal.

In the UK registering to voting needs an address (I'm not sure how it works for homeless people). People in prison cannot vote, dispute the EU putting pressure to allow it.



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17 Aug 2014, 11:43 am

To me both patriotism and nationalism are subjective, I don't think they can be tied down.

However there can be a minimal requirement of citizen. However there is a valid argument that nationalization process teaches migrant more about the country than born citizens may know, or born citizen may not able to to pass a citizenship test, and it is not critical for them.



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17 Aug 2014, 11:44 am

^^ I did not know the UK disallowed prisoners from voting. I think that is pretty horrible.
In the Netherlands you don't need to register to vote. You just show up at the right time with a voting pass that everyone gets regardless of whether they intend to vote or not.



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17 Aug 2014, 11:49 am

IMO political office should bar you from any governmental positions or active membership political parties in another country, or anything that could interfere with you duty an ability to do your job.

In fact there is a valid argument which says you should give up dual citizenship as part of a national government.



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17 Aug 2014, 11:51 am

trollcatman wrote:
^^ I did not know the UK disallowed prisoners from voting. I think that is pretty horrible.
In the Netherlands you don't need to register to vote. You just show up at the right time with a voting pass that everyone gets regardless of whether they intend to vote or not.


In a country with over 60 million this would be unworkable. Though for most people they get sent something, at legal age. It is rare not to be promoted to join the electoral roll.

Then it get rather annoying, you basically consonantly promoted to confirm you details at every minor election. Technically you can get fined for not confirming. I suppose it is to prevent fraud, so...



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17 Aug 2014, 12:00 pm

TallyMan wrote:
Its all a bit of a mess really. As a resident of France I'm only partly into their bureaucratic system but also partly still in the UK system as a British citizen.


Hi tally, expats are ok, I'm a trade liberalist so I don't have a problem with it.

I wonder what you think of British expats living in places like Spain or Greece, claiming winter fuel allowance back home (becuase "it sometimes get a bit chilly"), and moaning about the UK being overrun with immigrants :lol: