4 ms·

Everybody in the West seems to think that everywhere else is just like them when it comes to lack of racial and national solidarity.

• sandworm101 11y ago
  What lack? National solidarity is a big thing for Americans. I think they assume everyone is innately loyal to their birth country. This in turn causes them to distrust those many Americans born elsewhere. Ted Cruz (born in canada) was pushed into having the canadian government renounce his potential citizenship, something unheard of in immigration law.
  • refurb 11y ago
    I don't think the Ted Cruz case is that odd. Same thing happened in Canada with the Governor General. She had gotten married and gotten French Citizenship through her husband. She was asked to renounce it and she did.
    • sandworm101 11y ago
      She was to be the Queen's representative, effectively the head of state. That's a rather special circumstance. And another point: The entire concept of renouncing citizenship is strange. Citizenship isn't something you own, it's also a duty. Most countries do not allow their citizens to walk away. China and the US famously believe that everyone remains a citizen wherever they go in life. You cannot walk away from US citizenship (the draft, Vietnam etc) anymore than you can decide to move to canada and stop paying US taxes. That made Ted Cruz's request even more odd.
      • jacobolus 11y ago
        > You cannot walk away from US citizenship Sure you can: http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/renunciation-of-citizenship.html http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-conside...
        • sandworm101 11y ago
          Dude. Read the fine print: "Persons who wish to renounce U.S. citizenship should be aware of the fact that renunciation of U.S. citizenship may have no effect whatsoever on his or her U.S. tax or military service obligations (contact the Internal Revenue Service or U.S. Selective Service for more information)." You may give up the right to vote, but you are still subject to taxation rules and/or military service, both of which can change at any time. You sometimes hear of Canadian celebrities in the US (there are lots of them) debating whether or not they should become US citizens: short v long-term tax advantages. The really outside case is treason charges. A renounced US citizen can still be charged as a traitor for acts committed overseas, whereas a non-citizen would have to commit the acts within the US for treason to be an option.
          • jacobolus 11y ago
            The fine print is that the IRS and US military are not happy about people renouncing citizenship expressly for the purpose of dodging their current tax bill or avoiding the draft, for obvious reasons. If neither of those applies to you (that is, there wasn’t a military draft, and you properly paid your taxes including a possibly hefty final “exit tax” bill to expatriate yourself), then after renouncing your citizenship, the IRS or Selective Service isn’t going to hunt you down later. The people the IRS goes after are rich people who didn’t pay all their past taxes or otherwise failed to comply, and then renounce their citizenship and skip town.
            • deleted 11y ago
              [deleted]
            • wbl 11y ago
              No other first-world country charges an exit tax.
          • deleted 11y ago
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