Ability to retain citizenship is a privilege
Getting new citizenship is difficult decision for many, as it requires pledging allegiance to a new country, which is different from where one grew up. It is especially true for country like India which does not allow dual citizenship and getting new citizenship giving up Indian citizenship. So does getting new citizenship mean one has severed ties with the country of birth and renounced it? I do not think so. Rather ability to keep citizenship, especially that of a country like India, is a privilege of the elites.
I wanted to write on this topic, but this recent blogpost by Vasant Dhar kind of triggered this post. I quite like his blog as well as podcast ‘Brave New World’ and highly recommend both. So in his latest blogpost, he writes the following about not getting US citizenship.
Friends often ask me why I’m not a US citizen. I’ve viewed renouncing my citizenship as an explicit rejection of the country that nurtured me, which hasn’t felt right, and seemed like a big and unnecessary step.
I have often heard similar claims from Amartya Sen and other prominent people. I feel that many common people (including me), may share these feelings, but they are not in a privileged position to implement this. They want to change the citizenship for 2 main reasons — stability and less visa hassle for travels.
For a common person staying abroad, stability depends on their status. Their ability to work and live depends on his/her status and for most of them this means getting citizenship. Without the assurance of citizenship, their lives can be disrupted because of simple event like losing job after which they could be deported. The situation is worse for kids who may have to leave schools mid year. Eminent professors or perhaps high-flying corporate executives do not have such risks and hence can take a high moral stand of ‘not rejecting their country of birth’.
Requirement to get Visa for any travel is a big problem for Indian and for that matter anyone from developing countries. There are many stories of students not being able to present paper at conferences due to visa issues. Even in a corporate set up, business travel for common people holding weak passports is often curtailed because of visa issues. This actually hinders their progress be in academic or corporate settings. Even in this case, the privilege comes in. The elites have enough connections to get their visas even in difficult situations. I remember an old blogpost from Pallavi Aiyer, who faced similar visa issues, but because of her reach she could get her visa. To quote from her blog -
In my case, various worthies in both Spain and New Delhi staged last minute interventions, so that my visa miraculously appeared a couple of days before I needed to travel. But it should not have needed this kind of high-level lobbying.
Unfortunately, for a common man such options are not available and hence, for they think it’s better to get a stronger passport than get impacted by such issues. They do not have a privilege to keep their Indian passport and continue facing visa issues.
I am all for those who want to keep their citizenship. But those who take a high moral stand should understand that they are able to take it because of privilege. Those who are changing the citizenship can also have such strong feelings about their own country, but there are compelling reasons for a common person to get a new citizenship.
PS: Apart from this utilitarian perspective on getting new citizenship, I have few more thoughts on motherland, citizenship, etc, which I hope to pen down soon.
