It’s been discussed here at Isaac Brock in various comment threads, but last evening as I was listening to the CBC’s Ideas program, it occurred to me again that the US notion of citizenship and national identity is very much in opposition to how a person’s view of who they are, where they are from and where they belong are formed.
Hisham Matar is a Libyan writer currently living in London. His 2006 novel In the Country of Men was short-listed for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, and his essays have appeared in publications like Asharq Alawsat, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times and The New York Times.
Matar was born in New York City while his father was working with the Libyan delegation to the UN. The family returned to Libya when he was three years old but fled to Cario when he was still quite young and his father was accused of being a being a reactionary to the Libyan revolutionary regime. He moved to the U.K. in 1986, and it appears he has lived there ever since.
What made the interview with Matar interesting to me is that in spite of the fact that he’s lived most of his life outside of Libya, he self-identifies as Libyan, and I wondered, does the US government see him the same way? Or does it view him as it appears to view all those who acquire US citizenship through birth or naturalization as Americans first and foremost?
I would guess the latter although it’s completely illogical. The act of birth does not make you a citizen of anywhere except on paper. It’s your upbringing and influences that align you and strengthen the ties that we call allegiance.
And this can change as many of us who’ve emigrated know.
I have only been away from the US for six years. I emigrated to Canada with my daughter, who was four, when I met and married my Canadian husband. Until then, I had never ventured too far or for too long away from the Midwestern state where I was born. I was typical of many Americans in that respect. We simply live and die within a small radius of where we are hatched. Americans, by and large, are a somewhat insular people.
But even so, I wasn’t typical in that I knew more about the world at large and was less blindly trusting or invested in the American paradigm than most people I knew. It should surprise no one that moving outside the country and settling down in Canada that I quickly shed much of what some might call my American identity. So much so that I regularly irritate my American friends and relatives with my take on what goes on down south anymore.
Much of the time now, I refer to myself as Canadian even though I am not yet completely a “full Canadian” as my hair stylist puts it.
It’s cute but scary the way some Canadians refer to those of us who are Permanent Residents as only half in. The implication being that we are still tied to the “old countries” and our loyalty is therefore suspect. But I understand the driving force behind it. Living permanently in another country but not taking citizenship is akin to the idea that you haven’t quite decided who you are going to be when you grow up.
My daughter has no lingering Americanism. She not only doesn’t identity with the land of her birth but is embarrassed to let anyone know that she isn’t a Canadian citizen. Frequently she queries about the status of our application,
“Aren’t we Canadians yet?” or “You’d better study for that test, Mom. I can’t be a Canadian for real if you fail the test.”
Although the US government believes it has the greater claim on her due to her birth on their soil, Canada has beat them to her loyalty by educating her and her love of her Canadian father, sisters and friends has tied her to this country in such a tangible way that her American citizenship can only ever hope to be an afterthought if that. I don’t know whether to be amused or horrified by her take on US history as taught through Canadian Social Studies and those she knows. As many misconceptions as Americans have about their own history and Canada’s history (and they are legion), Canadians have their own slightly distorted take on America.
But this brings me round again to “identity”, Hisham Matar believes himself to be Libyan because that is what he was taught, steeped in and lives today. His physical location on the planet has little to do with who he knows himself to be. Does he know that the US believes he is a US citizen first and foremost? Hard to say. It’s amazing that a country with such arrogant overreach has failed so utterly to overtly convey this to its diaspora. It wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t know his “obligations” in Uncle Sam’s eyes, but it doesn’t alter the fact that the reality is Matar isn’t an American. There is far more to national identity than just being born somewhere or to a certain set of parents.
It’s how you were raised and where you were raised. It’s your education and values. And for those of us who’ve traveled away and set down roots in countries where we were not born and raised – it’s a choice. You can choose to belong or not wherever you are. Countries have certainly discovered that annoying little fact of life when confronting immigrants who have no interest in assimilating and taking on a new identity and allegiance.
And so it comes down to this, we are sometimes products of our upbringing and environments, but we are not necessarily bound by the imaginary lines that governments draw on maps. Whether through inaction, circumstance or choice, our identities are our own and cannot be dictated to us by governments no matter how much they would like to think they can be.
Well, you can tell your daughter that bubblebustin says that from what she knows about her mother, she ain’t failin no Canadian citizenship test. When I told my 13 year old granddaughter who’s lived on Canada since she was 5 that she would have to pay US taxes, she was mad. It’s reassuring as a grandmother to know that her granddaughter has a healthy emotional response to this incursion, unlike her parent’s 🙁
Very interesting read here, but when I got to this part; ‘It’s amazing that a country with such arrogant overreach has failed so utterly to overtly convey this to its diaspora.’ well, to say it’s amazing wouldn’t have been a word that I would’ve picked. I personally think it’s sad.
Think about it for a second….
In spite of all of it’s boisterous pride, as well as arrogant overreach, the feelings of being an American simply don’t hold a candle to a lot of other countries once you take off the blinders, and realize that American citizenship and allegiance is basically a one-sided ‘agreement’ written in favour of the government. That’s really all it is. There is no real sense of unity or community or anything. Not in a self absorbed climate of ‘I got mine, fuck you!’ Meanwhile, the other ‘partner’ in this citizenship ‘relationship’ is narcissistic, bat shit crazy, and treats you like property. Therefore, if you’re just property to the government, and the attitudes of its own citizenry is all about ‘I got mine and —- you’, well, how can anyone feel any loyalty to such a place? Why would you even want to?
What is my National Identity? In spite of holding a US passport, I consider myself Canadian. I don’t even hear much about being halfway in, especially when they understand I’m going to apply for citizenship and relinquish/renounce the US one. I was starting to feel Canadian before I even landed here, and my mind left America before my body did.
Where you belong is not dictated by papers written by governments, although it’s still important to understand those documents along with their implications towards you. Instead where you belong is what you feel in your heart.
@Bubblebustin
Healthy emotional response – another thing that Americans like to medicate, suppress, and pretend as not normal.
mjh, by amazing I just meant that considering the high opinion America holds of its standing in the world as “the place to be” it never occurred to anyone in charge that outreach would be necessary b/c American law is so “unique” in terms of citizenship and obligations.
Stupidity, even when it’s rooted in arrogance, amazes me. I just don’t expect stupid. Which is silly b/c I taught in the public school system down there for 20 years and I know up close and personal that stupid is more common than not.
The continuing false narrative that the US is the only democratic and civilized nation on the planet is sad for Americans. It keeps them in their increasingly less gilded cage and ignorant of a world of equally or better places to live and put down roots.
This is a very well-written view on a highly complex and controversial issue which is difficult to describe in words. 🙂
Thanks, Swiss. I thought about it all last night and I have been wanting to write about it. It’s not strictly about taxes, FATCA and the like but I think it does influence people. Who you think you are and where you believe you belong are not little matters to be tossed aside lightly by governments.
A lot of war and strife has resulted from forcing peoples to abandon their identities because it is an assault of sorts to say to someone that you are not who you know you are or that regional and familial ties are of little interest or import when larger political issues and machinations are in play. jmo
Thank you, Yoga Girl. That was indeed a good read you put together!
I thought this a well thought-out The Atlantic article and the reason so many of us make our homes in countries by our individual choices, not a mass obligation in the name of allegiance to and blind-patriotism for the US. Is there real “democracy” when we are tethered to the homeland by citizenship-based taxation, using patriotic / traitor diatribe, guilt cast for ‘not paying our fair share’ when the US has given us everything we are (how about those Accidentals?)? To me, entrapment does not illustrate “the democracy” ideals the US ascribes to. If we are not given real choice to leave for whatever reason vs. staying put because of our accidental place of birth, is this real US democracy?
To Make America Great Again, We Need to Leave the Country.
That’s what we left — the gilded cage of exceptional America. We wanted to fly free. ‘The Animal’ expressed it this way with his, to me, meaningful graphic:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/01/12/jamie-golombek-of-the-financial-post-continues-to-carry-obamas-water/comment-page-1/#comment-138741
Exactly, Calagary411. Choice seems to be a one way street into the US. It doesn’t work for them to have outflow or people who reject citizenship b/c they live in and prefer to be citizens of other countries.
When looked at objectively, the America claim to be the only “democracy” is a rather short tenure anyway and in terms of material standard of living, it can hardly claim any fame these days when in 11 states more people receive food and other govt assistance than have paying jobs. 1 in 6 Americans is on food stamps. Child poverty rates make them look like a 3rd world country and their incarceration rates exceeds every other country – even dictatorships.
It’s the narrative that irritates because it’s so bought into and it’s so limiting and it’s not the tiniest bit about freedom when you get down to it.
Thanks for the Atlantic link!
@Yoga Girl
Indeed. It is amazing how stupid people can be sometimes. Just when I thought I’ve seen it all, up comes yet another surprising example. It’s easy to be cynical, and for a while, I’ve been so. I would like to think I’m improving in that regard, though. Perhaps not as much as I thought, as it’s easier for me to look at the USA as a sad place, even though it is indeed quite amazing in it’s arrogance and stupidity. So amazing, that I just couldn’t stand it anymore.
Anyways, excellent story. It pretty much sums it up to how I’ve feeling for some time now.
Man, there is a lot of people contributing to this site who own magic pens.
Personally, up until this happened, although being “aware”, I had been quite singular in identity. THe identity remains, primarily based upon a tie to mother language and dialect and culture. But it has been proven that there should never be an allegiance to any country and especially not to any gubbermint.
Mark, you flatter me but thank you. And I agree about the allegiance thing. It can be dangerous. Boundaries shift and govts collapse and disappoint, but I don’t know that there is an escape from the need to belong to something larger than ourselves. Community – even though we often do it badly – seem to be a human need for many of us.
As I was hiking today, I was trying to count up the research and literarily-or-verbally eloquent contributions of the various actors such as Just Me, Eric, Roger Conklin, Mary Louise Serrato, Victoria, ‘not that Lisa, Anne Hornung Soukup, Shadow Raider, Nina Olsen, Petros, och så vidare. Within the next few years I might be broke and stateless, but I sure will have learned my grammar.
LOL!
An excellent series of comments. I am a Canadian by birth but married to an American by birth. It has never ceased to amaze me the extent to which the American culture is characterized by the need to be the best and at the Center of everything. The self professed status as the shining light on the hill flies in the face of so much that is to the contrary. Crime rates, violence, incarceration, always at war, poverty, food stamps, bankruptcies from excessive health care costs, a ridiculous minimum wage, no true democracy with decisions based on money and influence, no punishment for the Wall Street bankers who destroyed the economy (but don’t you dare steal a loaf of bread), incompetent political processes, extreme insularity, inability to deal with major crises effectively or in a timely manner. One could go on. It is also as if nothing ever happens anywhere else in the world. When I was head of Canada’s largest cancer hospital in Toronto, Paul Tsongas was running for,political office in the US. In a comment about the health care system in Canada compared to the US he said that if he had lived in Canada when he got Leukemia for which he needed a BMT he would have died. He said that our poor health system would not allow the research that enabled him to be cured. This could only happen in the US. He was not only wrong but he was ignorant. The discovery of stem cells, the fundamental basis for BMT, occurred in Canada at the Ontario Cancer Institute/ Princess Margaret Hospital in the late 50s/ early 60s. There are many, many similar stories. Things are discovered elsewhere. Yes there is good science in the US but there is also good science elsewhere. Even basketball was invented by a Canadian! Recently when it was reported that the RCMP had thwarted a train terror attempt on Ontario a CNN broadcaster just assumed it must,have been due to the efforts of the FBI. To his credit the FBI agent on camera contradicted her and clarified that it was primarily an RCMP achievement. Then of course there is the Iran hostage rescue grossly misrepresented by Ben Affleck in the movie Argo. Despite the fact that the movie grossly distorted the truth claiming credit for the CIA, as Jimmy Carter correctly said it was 90% Canadian. On many blogs people said the movie made them proud to be Americans. As so many have pointed out in this thread, there is another world out there, but American children are being taught otherwise. It is sad that America’s national ego requires such bolstering by the perpetuation of many falsehoods. Hopefully one day it will fully mature as a nation and be the example of democracy that it claims to be. But I won’t hold my breath.
My national identity is Canadian. I appreciate my American ancestors (one ancestor that I never met as she died in 1869 has been my role model since I was a teen to this day), I love the ancestors that I have known, and I appreciate my childhood in the US. Personally, I liked living in the US in the 1950s and 60s. But I haven’t been an American for most of my life – and I find the 21st century US very different than the US I left.
As a teen I’d been to Canada, knew a fair bit about it, and I liked it a lot, even though I liked the US a lot at the time, too. So as a teen, I thought about moving to Canada after high school, which I did (maybe not much different from a kid in Minnesota deciding they’d like to live in Los Angeles.) Consequently, I left the US on good terms, and several years later terminated my citizenship contract on good terms. This was long before a desperate 21st century US was trying to trap people into US citizenship.
Something just pulled me into Canada. I felt comfortable being part of the US in 1970, but Canada felt even more comfortable. Certainly once living here as a permanent resident, it was home. Even in the 5 years between PR status and citizen status, I was Canadian.
The only thing I couldn’t do in those years between PR and citizen was vote. As a kid in the US, I’d volunteered in political campaigns. I loved politics. But frustratingly, I only got to vote in one election until I was 25. That’s because once I got my Canadian PR status at age 19, I knew I would never again live in the US. I knew that although I had the right to vote in a US election, being a USC until I got my Canadian citizenship, I felt the US wasn’t my community anymore, I had no stake in its future, so I felt it wasn’t right/fair for me to put my 2c into its future.
Following my citizenship ceremony, the first thing I did as a Canadian citizen was walk across the street to the bus stop, buy a slice of pizza, get on the bus and go back to work. Whilst it was very meaningful for me to be a citizen of my country, it was really only ratifying my membership in a club that in my mind I already belonged to. (The only difference it made in my life was, finally, now I could vote. Within a week, I’d joined a political party and have remained active in it to this day.)
Ironically since the US tried to reclaim me (along with the 100,000+ other persons who relinquished years ago but didn’t have CLNs because we were never told about them, only that our loss of US citizenship was automatic), the US has been more a part of my life in one week than it was in the past 40 years.
I have a real admiration for those who write so effortlessly. Words don’t come so easily for me, but I don’t let it stop me.
I used to hide and play American board games with a kid who’s dad was an American-hating ex-Nazi. We even invented our own secret language and I had a crush on his daughter. Later, I learned that my best friend at the time, a German, was Nazi-leaning. I didn’t know such when we played war with those German plastic soldiers. It was not uncommon to chat with pro-communist, anti-American interests. Another friend of mine wanted to take me to the DDR,but his parents prohibited such, fearing for my safety. Now, a good friend of mine grew up in the DDR and absolutely refuses to go to America, fearing that he’d then be “in their system”. When I went hitchhiking to Greece, I became friends with the Macedonian resistance who showed me a few (prohibited?) films of controversial US activities in Central America. They mentioned that they had considered using terrorism against Serbia but decided instead to seek US support instead. In the US, I wore a flag shirt with the US flag crossed out to protest the war in Iraq, but also wore the same shirt when I got recruited into the US military from which i was honorably discharged. Afterwards, I chatted with muslim extremists and one suggested that I could become and advisor in a Khilafah.
I guess what this means is that my 700+ years of Swiss ancestry are in my genes. I enjoy listening to the different sides without leaning to heavily in any direction.
I enjoyed reading your thoughts here Yoga Girl. Thanks.
And Victoria too has produced some very elegant musings on this theme http://thefranco-americanflophouse.blogspot.ca/p/pledging-allegiance-thoughts-about.html
Having been born, raised, educated and employed in Canada and having lived here over 80% of my life I didn’t think there could be any doubt whatsoever about my national identity. That the USA can possibly think that I am a “US person” is beyond belief. And it turns out this US personhood is not because they really appreciated my sojourn in their country many years ago. No, the one and only reason for being tagged with US personhood is “for tax purposes”. Those years in the USA spent building a home (with our own hands), operating a small business and contributing to the community got me nothing but a slap upside the head many, many years later. The US immigration service gave me what turned out to be a kryptonite card and called me a “resident alien” back then, although my Canadian nationality, my non-American status, was never a negative amongst our wonderful family, friends and customers in the USA. Once I learned to say “zee” instead of “zed” I blended in quite nicely. I have mostly warm, fuzzy memories of that small portion of my life spent in America and I refuse to let my current disdain and dislike of the US government and my outrage at the insane IRS regulations take them away from me. So, USA, I was, am and always will be Canadian and you can take your unsought, unwanted, US personhood and shove it!
Thanks, Yoga Girl, for giving me yet another chance to rant. Your post was an inspiration. Like Bubblebustin claims (but it ain’t so) I have trouble spitting the words out and when they do come they come out kind of funny-like but at least here at Brock I don’t get labeled “comrade” (communist implied) or “fear monger”. Everybody here understands the problem. Everybody here understands the anger.
Yes! I am a Canadian and have identified myself my entire life as only a Canadian. I was born in the US to Canadian parents who registered my birth in Canada. Moved back to Canada as a child. Last year I saw some school records from the US & saw that they found it important to identify me as being Canadian. You can count on it that nobody where we lived in the US thought of me as being American. The evidence of my true identity should speak for itself. Never tried to get a US passport, never got a SSN, haven’t even been to the US for almost 30 years. I kept wondering how my parents could have spent those years living in the US working for a large organization with Canadian connections & never heard about US citizen based taxation. My theory is this: The US government, nor the good people that we knew and worked for in the US ever intended to deliberately deceive us. I believe that most people in the US are still totally unaware of these laws let alone how many knew 40 – 50 years ago. Also no efforts were made by US government because they did not intend to enforce it, particularly with people who obviously emigrated out of the States on a permanent basis. Too bad the US had to suddenly go wild & do their educating by advertising threats & huge penalties.
I am so enjoying everyone’s stories. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I’ve never felt so American since I left the US at the age of 12. It’s not a particularly good feeling and I wish that this horror hadn’t conjured up that which layed dormant, and could have remained dormant for the rest of my life. But now that it’s been summoned I will use the power that it bestows me to try to effect as much change as I can. As crazy as it sounds, I feel like I have been preparing my whole life for this. Does anyone else feel the same way?
@em
As active as I am here and other places, I am terrified every time I post something here or anywhere.
I know what you’re talking about, bubblebustin. I feel I / we were lulled into complacency, becoming full members of the societies in the countries where we live, thinking we never had to go dig up US tax law that didn’t apply to us. We were told that by accountants; we were told that by the US turning a blind eye regarding income tax returns and that law about crossing the border ONLY with a US passport. (The law is the law, said Mopsick.) Then the US actually changed their law — those that were decades ago “punished” for moving abroad by being told/warned they would be relinquishing their US citizenship by becoming citizens of other countries (for me, Canada), now reinstated and brought back into the ‘US family,’ without our buying into it, without a choice. (And then my mistakes, which took away any chance of me claiming that 1975 relinquishment.)
Now that I know, there is no way I can turn my back on and ignore what is happening to US Persons Abroad, especially that segment I’ve been discussing. I learned something of the importance of protest in the late 60’s and 70’s; I’m now putting some of that into practice decades later. It feels the same as then within this community now.
I know the above sounds kind of goofy, but if I didn’t feel like I had some kind of purpose, I would probably kill myself.