13 thoughts on “Counting the Uncountable: Overseas Americans by Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, University of Kent at Brussels Joe Costanzo, George Mason University”

1. I remember both my husband and I participating in this survey, I think before I even discovered Brock. It seems so long ago.

2. I’m fairly sure I’d rather they didn’t count me..lol.

3. I find it interesting that Amanda has sent several emails to keep one updated on where her research is. I look forward to reading the book and actually enjoyed filling out that survey.

4. Thanks for the heads up! For those who want some preliminary reading, the 2001 Census Bureau report to Congress that she mentions is available online:
   https://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/hearings/107h/75727.pdf

   Carolyn Maloney made great efforts, but I’m much less impressed with the comments of the other Congresscritters.

5. I would have thought it was pretty easy for the US to come up with more accurate figures. Simply get the various embassies/consulates to tell them how many passports they issued during the year as most, if not all, will be to people residing in that country, whether temporarily or long term. Or is that too easy and logical for the US these days?

6. Didn’t the State Department have to provide some justification for imposing the 450 renunciation fee – up from no fee before? They must have had to provide some type of estimate of how many CLNs they would have to process for their operating budget – and now keep tabs due to the increased demand for renunciation and relinquishment appointments at consulates and embassies. This http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-02-02/html/2012-2075.htm refers to “…an explanation of the study that produced the
   fee amounts,…” and goes on to refer to “…the Cost of Service Model
   (“CoSM”), previously referred to as the Cost of Service Study or
   “CoSS,” which is the activity-based costing model that the Department
   used to determine the proposed fees for consular services…”

   I find it hard to believe that they don’t keep any kind of count, or that they couldn’t provide a working estimate. What would be the point in having a “CoSM” (Cost of Service Model) if they never checked back to see if their model and the actuality matched?

   See;
   “…Documentation for Renunciation of Citizenship

   The CoSS demonstrated that documenting a U.S. citizen’s
   renunciation of citizenship is extremely costly, requiring American
   consular officers overseas to spend substantial amounts of time to
   accept, process, and adjudicate cases. A new fee of $450 will be
   established to help defray a portion of the total cost to the U.S.
   Government of documenting the renunciation of citizenship. While the
   Department decided to set the fee at $450, this fee represents less
   than 25 percent of the cost to the U.S. Government. The Department has determined that it must recoup at least a portion of its costs of
   providing this very costly service but set the fee lower than the cost
   of service in order to lessen the impact on those who need this service
   and not discourage the utilization of the service, a development the
   Department feels would be detrimental to national interests. See 31
   U.S.C. 9701(b)(2)….”
   http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-06-28/html/2010-15622.htm

   This seems to be the basis of the estimates that the State Department says it used in order to come up with the rationale for the fees https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2010/03/24/2010-6490/schedule-of-fees-for-consular-services-department-of-state-and-overseas-embassies-and-consulates#h-15

   “…..To estimate how much time consular officers overseas spend on consular activities, the Department asked consular officers at 200 overseas posts to complete a 98-question survey. This survey asked Consular Affairs personnel to break out the time they spend on each consular activity they perform during a typical month…”

   In addition;
   There is also this from the Federal Register:
   https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2010/03/24/2010-6490/schedule-of-fees-for-consular-services-department-of-state-and-overseas-embassies-and-consulates#h-15

   “……To assign activity costs to the individual services, the Department extracted volume data by product type from its data systems. For example, to determine how to assign the costs of adjudicating nonimmigrant visas, the Department analyzed the volume of nonimmigrant visas issued by category (B, H, K, L, and so forth) for a given time period, which in turn became the activity driver for this data. For activities at embassies and consulates abroad, this volume data is collected from the “Consular Package” every consular section submits annually via the Internet-based Consular Workload Statistics System (CWSS). For more than 30 years, the Consular Package has been the single most important document consular managers use to report, plan, and budget for consular operations, and is the key document linking consular objectives to resource and personnel requirements. CWSS collects and evaluates data from 239 individual consular sections in consulates and embassies worldwide, and provides customizable reports of available data. CWSS is designed to provide the most comprehensive picture of each post’s consular operations and cumulatively of embassies and consulates by region and worldwide. It provides an overview of the volume and nature of the embassy’s or consulate’s consular workload; personnel and work hours devoted to it; the challenges faced; and the outlook for the future. These reports yield a wealth of data and are an exceptionally valuable management tool for determining consular resource needs. Volume data for all consular services the Department provides at its embassies and consulates overseas—passport and citizenship services, emergency services to American citizens, nonimmigrant and immigrant visa services, judicial services, etc.—is captured from the CWSS….”

   Sorry, but to me, given the full description from the webpage above, if the State Department really wanted to give us some numbers, I think it could. Read the whole description of how they did their analysis to justify the fees https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2010/03/24/2010-6490/schedule-of-fees-for-consular-services-department-of-state-and-overseas-embassies-and-consulates#h-15

   It is extremely detailed, and ends with this:
   “….the Department determined its proposed fees using a federally approved fee-setting model—activity-based costing—developed with the assistance of independent professional consultants experienced in activity-based cost modeling, and believes that these proposed fees will be self-sustaining when implemented. Moreover, the Department continues to refine and update the CoSS so it can regularly monitor its fees and make adjustments as required to continue to set fees commensurate with what it costs the Department to provide the service in question.”
   Dated: March 18, 2010.
   Patrick F. Kennedy,
   Under Secretary of State for Management, Department of State.

   So, I can’t see how it is possible that the State Department does not have any numbers available for how many actual renunciations and relinquishments it has performed worldwide.

7. Gee, so they reckon it costs over $1,800 to photocopy the forms I sent back, spend 15-20 minutes checking the details and making the payment and another 5-10 minutes to do the actual renunciation, send the forms to the State Department for rubber stamping and getting the CLN made up. No wonder their spending’s out of control!

8. In a Paperwork Reduction Act filing a couple of months ago State claimed the actual amount of money they spend on reviewing each Form DS-4079 is only about $67. I never was able to figure out what the other $1,733 is for.
   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/07/04/state-department-cuts-estimate-of-form-ds-4079-filers-by-25-since-2007/

9. Government inflation.

10. $1,733 is for time spent filling out 98-question surveys to find out where time is spent?

11. Zurich Financial Services, the large insurance company, commissioned a study to determine why people emigrate. Between 500 and 1,000 people were interviewed in twelve countries. The countries are in W. Europe but also Australia, Mexico, Morocco and Russia. The results were released yesterday. Possibly of interest:

    http://www.zurich.com/internet/main/sitecollectiondocuments/reports/emigration-study-2013-en.pdf

    The results are somewhat predictable. While citizens from economically better-off countries such as Austria, Germany or Switzerland emigrate primarily for adventure and love, citizens from economically unstable countries such as Italy, Spain, Mexico or Morocco, tend to emigrate for better job opportunities and to escape unemployment.

    As an unsupported comment, if this survey had been conducted in the US in 2006/2007, adventure and love might have been tops. However, I would expect that the ca. 50% increase in USCs living abroad since 2008, as reported by the DOS, might have more to do with the ongoing US recession than with adventure and love. Just an opinion.

12. Amanda has sent me here as I mentioned to her that I could not afford to buy the book right at this time: http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/socialsciences2014/browse/inside/chapter/9781137316301/9781137316301.0014.html?page=1&chapterDoi=9781137316301.0014

    Has anyone here gotten / read Dr. Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels’ recently published book, “Migrants or Expatriates?: Americans in Europe (Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship)”?

13. To gain a flavor of the book, the first chapter of “Migrants or Emigrants” is available at the palgrave.com “Northern Europe” website:

    http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=500005

    http://www.palgrave.com/PDFs/9780230296961_sample.pdf