Yesterday I had dinner with a very good friend of mine who has just had her first child.
She is Norwegian. Her partner is American. They are not married. The baby was born in London.
We got onto the subject of nationality. Currently the baby is stateless whilst the parents "discuss" various options. This whole process was fascinating to me - one thing I've recognised since being out of the UK is how very British I feel, and particularly the values I associate with Britishness.
British nationality is not a given, as neither parent is themselves British. They have to prove that they have "settled" in the UK for them to be able to apply for British citizenship for her. Should be no problem, and then she would have a very acceptable passport that would give her easy access globally (importantly particularly to former British colonies).
She could be Norwegian. This would give her a very valuable passport, easy travel to most states globally and no outstanding vendettas with other nations to worry about.
Finally, last but not least, she could apply to be American. Only the father thought this was a good option. He has a visceral desire for his daughter to be an American citizen. He tried to argue this from a logical perspective (she will never need to apply for a green card, visa application costs for US citizens are lower than for many other countries) but unfortunately for him any logical, positive reasons are more than outweighed by the fact that, if the poor girl becomes an American citizen she will then be liable to pay US tax wherever she works in the globe unless she buys herself out of this automatic penalty to the tune of US$500K.
OUCH! Imagine dealing with a stroppy teenage daughter when she realises the very special coming of age present that daddy has encumbered her with.
Needless to say the argument remains unresolved (straight into the Too Hard Box) and so poor baby Ingrid remains stateless for another day.....
Thursday, August 14, 2008
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7 comments:
Ah yes, nationality, identity - formation, strength of etc etc. Welcome to my PhD! I can bore for Britain on this one...
please do!! will form a welcome intellectual break before the next musings on boys/nonsense/random texts etc etc....
I have never had a real sense of national identity. I see it as a purely random thing that tied me to a particular land mass by virtue of birth. I feel no sense of Britishness at all, in fact I left the country pretty much for good at the tender age of 19 (there was a brief stint back to see whether I could live there again - I lasted 18 months).
MSH and I have often had the discussion about nationality and what we would do if we were to have children. MSH is a Dutch national, I am a British national and we live in New Zealand (at the moment!). I would like any children I have to have a European nationality as that opens up a lot of opportunities within the EU. However I can see a lot of value in being a Kiwi national as well. It is a tough call that I am happy to put off until such time as babies are on the agenda.
My cats are Kiwis :-)
im here because of few cents for you. just dropping by.
Katon, Goukakyu no jutsu.
am i being spammed?? who are these 2 posters???
When cheering for rowing crews at the Olympics The Boy and I cheered for GB, and HK (being our adopted home) and baby girl cheered for GB, HK and China. She was, after all, made in China.
On a serious note, although she had no choice about nationality (us both being Brits), we deliberately chose to give her a Chinese middle name so she would always feel a link back to the country of her birth. We both felt this was a really important part of her identity.
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