Global Policy Forum

By Mark Fritz

* THE OATH: To become a U.S. citizen, qualified foreign applicants must recite an oath that begins "I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen. . . . "

* THE REALITY: The oath has become largely symbolic. A series of court rulings and rule changes have made it virtually impossible to lose American citizenship by acquiring a passport from somewhere else. According to a recent position paper from the State Department, "The United States does not favor dual nationality as a matter of policy but does recognize its existence in individual cases."

* HOW TO GET AN EXTRA CITIZENSHIP: Anybody born in the United States, regardless of their parents' nationality, automatically becomes a citizen. Americans born abroad, or to a parent from another country, sometimes automatically acquire a second citizenship. Some people seek a second citizenship to avoid high taxes on foreigners or to circumvent employment restrictions. There are no international rules or conventions regulating dual citizenship.

* HOW TO LOSE CITIZENSHIP: It's almost impossible to lose U.S. citizenship without renouncing it in writing, and even then Uncle Sam may refuse. Only 612 people either renounced their citizenship or had it taken away in 1996, according to the INS. The number of people who have lost their citizenship during the 1990s has been only about a third as large as the number during the Vietnam War, when many young men renounced their citizenship to avoid the draft.

Of the more than 1 million people naturalized as U.S. citizens in 1996, these are the top 10 nations of origin and their stand on citizenship.

Nation                 Naturalized in '96      Nation's Policy
 

Mexico                    217,418                   Recognizes dual citizenship but loses right to vote in Mexico

Cuba                        62,168                    Regards all as Cuban citizens

Vietnam                    47,625                    Informally allows dual citizenship

Philippines                 45,210                   Considers person no longer Filipino

Ex-Soviet Union        36,265                    Russia allows dual citizenship

El Salvador                33,240                    Recognizes dual citizenship

China                         30,656                   Considers no longer Chinese

India                           28,932                   Considers no longer Indian

Dominican Rep.          27,293                   Recognizes dual citizenship

Colombia                    26,115                   Recognizes dual citizenship

Source: Immigration and Naturalization Service, foreign embassies

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In 1994, a Queens couple traveled to Pasadena to watch the U.S. soccer team compete in the World Cup. And hopefully get beat. Effie Giraldo was a new U.S. citizen but a native-born Colombian, and she couldn't deny her allegiance. She and her husband, Hector, had good jobs and deep affection for their new country, but they cheered loudly for the visitors.

Imagine their surprise when they heard a pipsqueak voice root for the home team. "My son was like 'USA! USA!' but we were like 'No, Colombia!' said Giraldo, 51, laughing as she remembered the historic match, when the Americans beat the Colombians, 2-1.

Giraldo is a dual citizen. She voted for President Clinton in 1996, casting her ballot at a precinct station in Flushing. She plans to vote in the Colombian presidential election in May. She only has to travel to the Colombian consulate in Manhattan.

Colombia in 1991 approved a constitution that gave immigrants abroad the right to retain their nationality even if they acquired citizenship elsewhere. In the three years that followed, the number of Colombians who became U.S. citizens doubled.

Giraldo was part of that surge. She and her husband had lived in this country for more than a decade, but they didn't apply for U.S. citizenship until their government said they wouldn't lose their native status. "My husband and myself, we have our families there," said Giraldo, a registered nurse. "It's good to have some kind of control over the politics there. Because you never know when you have to go back."

Some people find dual citizenship troubling because it represents, they say, only a halfhearted commitment to this country. The fact that Mexico has followed suit is certain to intensify the debate. Yet leaders from two of the fastest-growing Latino groups in the New York area -- Dominicans and Colombians -- say dual citizenship gives them a political voice that they don't yet have in the U.S.

"Fifteen years ago, Colombia had a practice of encouraging people to come back. Now, the Colombians say it would behoove them to naturalize," said Arturo Sanchez, a Colombian American who teaches a course on immigration sociology at Hunter College. "The state is saying, 'You can become a political agent by naturalizing and you do not lose your Colombian nationality. The model that was mentioned over and over again was the Jewish model in New York and the Cuban model. These were seen as effective ways to remain engaged at home and affect political policy in this country."

Yet most Colombians in the United States didn't vote in the Colombia's Senate elections held two weeks ago. Only 10,000 were registered, and estimates of the number who voted ranged from 800 to 1,800. One who refused to cast a ballot was Dr. Daniel Jimenez, a 60-year-old Queens neurologist. He left Colombia when he was 27 because of the drug cartels and government corruption. He refused to vote in this year's elections for the same reason. He expresses nothing but contempt for the government there. But he didn't get his U.S. citizenship until after Colombia made dual citizenship legal. And he still helps organize fund-raisers to provide health care for Colombian children. "I am American, but my chromosomes are there," he said.

Supporters of dual nationality say there is too much hand-wringing, that the Latino immigrants are still in the first phase of their immigration to the United States. New York City Councilman Guillermo Linares, the first Dominican American elected to political office in the United States, said dual citizenship affords new immigrant groups protection in case they decide to go back home, a phenomenon "which is very much present in the first phase of any migration." But he also said the demand for it reflects a universal blurring of boundaries that is new and unique to this era, a prelude to a world of regions as well as nations, "a transition to something else that we can't begin to define."

The first generation of any immigrant group has always had the toughest time cutting ties to the homeland, said T. Alexander Aleinikoff, former general counsel to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and an expert on citizenship. Perhaps half of the first Italian immigrants to the United States went back to Italy to stay, he said. The rise in the demand for dual citizenship among new immigrants is 'likely to be just a one-generation problem,' he said. "The real issue here is the second generation."

Giraldo agrees. She and her husband speak Spanish to her 9-year-old son, but he answers in English. They feed him Colombian food, but the boy wants burgers. "We try to integrate both cultures, but he is more influenced by the American culture," she said. "I'd say he is, oh, 99% American. At least."

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By day, Jeffrey Burns works in marketing for a Denver software firm. On the side, he sells citizenship. "There's a demand, or I wouldn't be doing it," he says. "I think citizenship is moving away from patriotism and more toward a general marketplace -- who can offer what out there." Well, St. Kitts and Nevis will grant dual citizenship if you buy $150,000 worth of real estate. Costa Rica will give you a passport if you invest $50,000 in reforestation.

Burns, 32, has carved out a highly specialized niche: selling passports from the Central American country of Belize to people in Russia. The government charges $50,000 for a passport and related paperwork, while Burns adds a brokerage fee of $14,000 to cover his commission, not to mention shipping and handling.

Burns, an American who speaks Russian, traveled to the former Soviet Union as communism began vanishing to scout entrepreneurial opportunities. He made a couple of side trips to the civil war in Angola ("Deals with Russians, let's leave it at that") but found a real calling when he got into the auxiliary-passport business. "Russians still are very restricted in terms of where they can go without a visa," he said. "Belize being a British commonwealth, they can travel to 80 or 85 countries without a visa."

Most of his business comes from an elaborate World Wide Web site on the Internet, he said. Belize Passport Consultants Ltd. lists brokers around the world, along with "six reasons why you should consider a second passport." These include litigation by a former spouse, tenacious creditors, political instability in your particular country and basic lack of travel freedoms. Other Web sites hawk dual citizenships from other places, sometimes bundled with such things as offshore bank accounts, Caribbean college degrees, even diplomatic appointments.

Burns figures he's sold 18 or 20 Belizean passports in the last two years, which comes out to about $1.2 million in business. He typically refers potential customers to a contact in Moscow and arranges the paperwork with authorities in Belize. He's just a cog in the machine. "I'm a paper pusher in the whole process. I make sure the paper goes where it's supposed to. The money arrives. And I [ship] the package to the people and they're happy."

He said he would never knowingly sell a Belizean passport to, say, a member of the Russian Mafia, but, "Who knows? If it's someone who we feel is not on the up and up, we don't deal with them. I turn copies of the passports over to the people in Belize, and they do what they have to do." Very few of his clients ever have a chance to get misty-eyed when they see a Belizean flag flapping in the little country's Caribbean breezes. "They do not go and live there and sing the anthem and stuff," he said. "There's only one that I know of who's even visited the country."

Some of his clients just like to flash their passports. Like a new Rolex, a supplemental citizenship can be more status symbol than practical possession. "In Russia, there is no such thing as a savings account," Burns said. "When you have money, you spend money. You want to collect as many status items as you can. Mercedes. A dacha in the country. And a second passport. It's definitely a status thing. I've seen them do it. They pull it out and flash it around."

But business isn't very stable, Burns said. The program is reviewed every April, and at any time the government could call a halt. Or, he said, Belize could get taken over. It's had a border dispute with Guatemala for more than a century. Sometimes, Burns has his doubts about the business. He's been to Belize several times and says there's not much there. "My question to Belize is: 'How much of this is going into the economy?' I heard they [sold passports to] about 250 families a year How much of that do they put back into the economy, into roads and schools?"

He said selling passports is extremely competitive. One Russian company had the nerve to charge $100,000 for a Belizean citizenship -- a 100% markup. "What scares me about this thing is the type of countries that are jumping on this bandwagon," Burns said. "There's an island off New Zealand charging $40,000 for citizenship. It's 100 square miles. I asked them what the benefits are, and the benefits are ridiculous. Visa privileges to, like, eight countries. "You got places like this advertising now, that's going to dilute it and give this kind of thing a bad name."

Burns grew up in Lansing, Mich., and stayed in Colorado, where he attended college. He didn't want to identify his day job, saying that his employers might not be pleased with the publicity. Asked if he could suggest a few satisfied citizenship customers, Burns said he'd already tried to line up testimonials for marketing purposes. "Not one has agreed," he said.