I'd like to take up Cristina's proposition that "it is precisely the thinness of American citizenship that makes it so valuable to its members." This is an intriguing possibility but in the end I'm not sure I'm on board. The characterization is consonant with the traditional understanding of American citizenship as being an open affair, and not amounting to much...
Alex Alenikoff and John Fonte pose contrasting challenges about where citizenship goes beyond the nation-state. Alex argues in effect that citizenship will move up the territorial chain: [W]hile it is perhaps true that the nation-state form is evolving (even declining), what is ascendant is not a set of other non-political associations; we are not witnessing the rise of world anarchy...
It's true, as Alex and Jon point out: the number of immigrants seeking naturalization have in effect gone through the roof. The statistics look dramatic: the volume of applications from the mid-90s onward dwarf figures from earlier decades. More than 1.3 million individuals applied for citizenship in FY 2007. That's more in one year than the...
Cristina asks this question, and she has a good point in arguing, not necessarily. I agree that community affiliation is not a zero-sum proposition and that it is possible to be a fully engaged member of more than one polity. I have argued that plural citizenship should be not merely tolerated but embraced (here, for example). Autonomy...
Thanks to Jon for his richly detailed post. It's true that the last great wave of immigration, at the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth centuries, witnessed some of the same phenomenon, including circular migration and the flowering of immigrant enclaves. But there are at least two developments which make the current picture a very different one. 1. ...
Thanks to my fellow co-bloggers here at Opinio Juris for the chance to discuss my book Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization. It's been an honor (and a lot of fun) to be a part of this project with all of them in this ever-changing young medium. Thanks also to Julian for introducing the discussion on Thursday. I'll...
It's true. She was born a Canadian (and presumably remains one, joining the legions of dual citizens). Said Anderson of the development: "Being a citizen excites me not just because I can vote, but because I can crack the whip on Capitol Hill to defend animals." But surely that's a whip that could have been receptively cracked...
Story here and here. On the one hand, it nicely demonstrates of the dangers of local foreign policy. Local pols decide to do some showboating, out of their depth and unlikely to shoulder the consequnces, and next thing you know, you're looking at World War III. On the other hand, this may just be a hangover from the old...
That would be the Financial Times, under the fairly emphatic headline "Democrats Must Choose Obama." As far as I can tell, it's the only foreign newspaper to make an endorsement. (Some might consider it not really all that foreign, given its large daily US circulation — so it's not like Le Monde putting down a marker — but the...
From Convictions, his argument that a Democrat president won't show any more respect for IL than Bush has, paired with an engaging episode of bloggingheads.tv with Heather Hurlbut (for those of you with busy lives, you can listen to Eric and Heather talk really fast with the new 1.4x function!). Eric takes his usual skeptical view of international law,...
Last night, here. Jack mostly plays straight guy to Jon "Squeezing Their Balls" Stewart. Don't miss the hilarious set-up piece while you're there. ...
The checks and refund requests won't only be coming in by domestic mail. The US is one of only a handful of states that subject nonresident citizens to income tax. All nonresident citizens abroad have to file; and those earning more than $85,700 may have to pony up. It can complicate pay packages, as detailed in this...
