=Can a Man have Double Citizenship?=—Is it possible for anyone to be a
citizen of two countries at once? Until recent years it was the practice
of some European countries to claim that when their citizens emigrated
and became naturalized elsewhere they still retained their original
allegiance. Germany, for example, maintained that German emigrants to
the United States did not lose their German citizenship by becoming
naturalized here. If they subsequently returned to Germany, even for a
short time, they were treated as German citizens, required to serve in
the army and to perform the other obligations of German citizenship.
This situation created a great deal of friction because the naturalized
citizens were in the habit of calling upon the United States to protect
them against their own original governments. All this has now been
straightened out by treaties between the United States and foreign
governments in which the latter have conceded the right of emigrants to
become naturalized in the United States and by so doing to renounce
their original citizenship. The United States, for its part, also
concedes the right of any American citizen to become naturalized in a
foreign country, thereby renouncing his allegiance as an American
citizen. These treaties sometimes provide, however, that if an
individual who has been naturalized in the United States goes back to
his native country and remains there a certain length of time, he shall
be deemed to have given up his American citizenship.
[Sidenote: The specific duties of citizens.]
=The Obligations of Citizenship.=—Many people seem to think that
citizenship involves only rights. They rarely place much emphasis upon
the _duties_ which citizenship involves. A government protects its
citizens both at home and abroad; it secures them all the benefits of
civil liberty. In return it lays on them the duty of obedience and the
obligation of service. It is the duty of every good citizen to know his
country’s history, to honor its flag, and to be true to its ideals. This
does not mean that he should despise or dislike people who are not of
his own race or allegiance. All men are brothers. Above all nations is
humanity. Yet no one can be a friend of mankind unless he is, first of
all, a friend of his own land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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