I’m thrilled to announce I’ll be joining the political science department at @mcgillu. I’ve got some complicated feelings about returning to Canada after a decade in the US.
So I wrote this essay. https://t.co/uioRDrHWfP
— Debra Thompson (@debthompsonphd) June 5, 2020
The article referenced in the above tweet is written by a professor of political science who is Canadian born, has lived in the United States for the last ten years, currently has a Green card and is returning to Canada to teach at McGill. The article is a fascinating exposition of her perception of racism in North America. We are living in very troubled times and I believe her article has an important message for all. This sentiment was captured in the following comment to the article:
This is a disturbing, uncomfortable, thoughtful and very well written article. It made me think a great deal about what the author wrote, and starting to make changes about how I deal with others. Thank you.
Professor Thompson’s article is fascinating and thought provoking on many levels.
How is the article relevant to Brock, Accidental Americans and Americans abroad?
While many US citizens living outside the United States are considering renouncing US citizenship, she states that she is naturalizing as a US citizen (presumably before returning to Canada).
Her article includes (although peripheral to the main point and purpose) some interesting thoughts on what it means to live as a non-citizen in the United States and her reasons for naturalizing as a US citizen.
On living in the United States on a Green Card and not being a US citizen:
I have had my green card long enough to meet the temporal requirements to apply for American citizenship, which I was on track to get before the COVID-19 pandemic made bureaucratic processing timelines screech to a halt. The application asked me questions, such as whether I’d ever been a member of the Communist Party, or if I was a habitual drunkard. It cost about US$725 to file. Since the pandemic added an additional eight months to my application’s processing time, I also had to apply for a travel document that will allow me to leave the country without surrendering my green card. That cost an additional US$660, and the fate of my green card will be up to the discretion of border agents, travel document or not.
I will have an interview and have to pass a test. One would think I’d be exceptionally prepared to take what is essentially a basic-level American politics exam, but I’m not. The answers they want aren’t ones I am okay with giving. One of the questions asks about the causes of the Civil War. There are three acceptable responses, including states’ rights and economic reasons, even as the long-standing academic consensus is about the centrality of slavery.
I debated for a long time about whether to get American citizenship. At the end of the day, my reasons for seeking it are personal and political.
In personal terms, my partner and children are American. As a green card holder, I can be detained, indefinitely and without cause, for any reason. Citizenship offers protection. More important, if the unimaginable happens, I need to be put in the same pen as my children. I need to be able to go where they go, whether voluntary or forced. This might sound dramatic, but remember the legacy of slavery. It was cruel and inhumane in many ways, but especially because it ripped children away from parents, who were helpless to prevent it. Slavery isn’t just this country’s original sin, but is an abomination on the very meaning of humanity precisely because it was economically invested in and fundamentally predicated on our powerlessness to protect our children from harm. Citizenship gives me the ability to keep my children safe – at least, in some ways. For many Black parents, citizenship cannot even guarantee safe passage to the corner store. As a parent to white-presenting children, the onus is on my partner and I to ensure they understand the moral obligations that come with their racial privilege: To use their privilege to fight toward its destruction.
On what US citizenship means in terms of history and identity:
In political terms, this is my ancestors’ legacy. My kin were owed a debt for their centuries of forced labour. But as an immigrant, I have no legal claim to citizenship on these terms. The principles of family reunification in immigration policy – what Republicans sometimes call “chain migration” – do not have a clause that accounts for the blood debt of the nation. But Black folk know of debts and forced repayments. When Haitians revolted and won their freedom, France responded by demanding 150-million francs for “lost property” – the property being the formerly enslaved. It plummeted the first Black Republic into debt, the echoes of which reveal themselves in Haiti’s status as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. We know of debts, bad checks and promissory notes defaulted. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to the formerly enslaved, and I have come to collect.
Of course, on a more pragmatic level …
By becoming a US citizen, and living outside the United States, Professor Thompson will be a member of the world’s most exclusive “Tax, Form and Penalty Club”. I suspect that she has no idea that she is about to subjected to a new “form” (pun intended) of unjust treatment and discrimination.
Interesting read.
Hopefully someone does at some point inform her of the tax implications of taking US citizenship, should she decide to be compliant. Membership in the IRS tax, form and penalty club is purely voluntary, though; it’s in no way equivalent to systemic racial discrimination. (We discourage Holocaust analogies here, so let’s also discourage BLM analogies.)
That being said, given her family and professional situation, the decision makes a certain amount of sense. She will have a (sadly small) amount of retirement savings built up after a decade’s teaching in the US. More importantly, a scholar and critic of American racial issues might be well advised to acquire citizenship so that they are not denied entry in future – as has happened to academics since the unfortunate events of November 2016 – given the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of US immigration and law enforcement institutions.
US citizenship is extremely valuable if you want to live in the US. Although it doesn’t ultimately guarantee that one will be treated fairly by the government, the chances are far better compared to those who hold only a green card. We know that the US government hates all things foreign so joining the club should help.
As far as the taxation aspect goes, if she is made aware of the possible complications going in, the damage can be minimized by planning accordingly. Obviously she will be entering the Canadian tax system while probably still having US financial ties so she most likely already has a trans-border tax situation. Let’s just hope she doesn’t fall into the clutches of one of those condors who talks her into doing something really stupid.
She’s a green card holder ( US Person) for over 10 years which is equivalent to US citizenship for tax purposes. The worst part is that PR status can be revoked at any time if she crosses the border and states she works and lives in Canada.
There is also the inheritance to consider if her US husband dies before her.
“As a U.S. citizen, you cannot transfer property tax-free to your non-U.S. spouse. There have been numerous complaints about this made by affected individuals, but we see no chance that this rule will ever change. Transfers to a citizen-spouse are allowed tax-free because the U.S. considers that it will eventually get a chance to tax the assets (presumably, when the citizen-spouse sells the assets or dies). But transfers to a non-citizen spouse effectively put the assets permanently out of the reach of U.S. taxation, so the U.S. wants to tax them before they “escape”.
A marriage between a US citizen and non-citizen is treated punitively under the US tax laws. But, this doesn’t occur to people until it is too late. The best case for Ms.Thompson is that she and her partner seek out a competent advisor from the beginning.
Perhaps she could/should contact Professor Christians (of McGill law school fame) who is well versed on this topic. They are a (presumably) US tax compliant family who it appears are moving to Canada. They are likely well entrenched in the US tax system.
Most academics have a public email address. Send her a link to this page, and a warning.
My position as a candidate is on my campaign website, http://tomalciere.us/taxes.html
To find my Facebook page, click on my name on this post. The comment form allowed me to post that link.
Here is a fascinating documentary exploring the relationship between racism and incarceration in the United States. The documentary begins with the voice of President Obama commenting that although the United States has 5% of the world’s population it has 25% of the world’s prison population. Numerous sources confirm that the United States has by far the highest rate of incarceration in the world (there isn’t even a close second). In addition, the percentage of the US prison population that is black is shocking.
Here you go …
One more (apparently high profile) US born Canadian resident …
https://www.quora.com/Does-America-have-a-problem-with-police-brutality-or-do-people-just-need-to-stop-resisting-arrest/answer/Steven-Haddock
In case someone chooses to send the warning:
https://www.mcgill.ca/politicalscience/debra-thompson
debra.thompson@mcgill.ca
In the post, Ms Thompson brazenly culminates by asserting to the U.S., “I have come to collect.”
How ironic if agents of her adopted country turn those same brazen words back on her.
@Shovel
The only collecting they’d be doing would be from her US assets, since she’s Canadian from birth.
It’s not just the money; I thought you knewthey demand to collect private data.
Having her profile, she’d have to weigh carefully the risks of lying to any bank.
Right, I always forget about data collection. Because I don’t voluntarily allow my private data to be collected.
Given that her husband and children are american and given the following sentiment from her opinion piece.
” The kind of belonging I always wanted in Canada, I found in the U.S. “., it is very doubtful that fatca ,cbt will bear any weight in her citzenship and in the long run she might well end up there anyway. A matter of the heart , as they say., for now, anyway.
Great article in the Globe and Mail today by Marie Henein
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-state-is-kneeling-on-the-job/
Haven ‘ t read the aforementinned article but one thing is certain . It will take much more than taking a knee, shedding a tear, offering a national apology, preaching from the Sussex mount, or any other form of political theatrics to fix the problem.