The BBC posted an article recently on the exodus of U.S. Citizens and asked readers to share their stories. A couple of different Brockers posted the link to the follow up on comment threads and one asked if it couldn’t be shared in a post, an excellent idea, so here it is.
The article contains the stories of those who came to the conclusion that being a dual citizen with the United States as one of those nationalities wasn’t workable.
Some specifically cite the burden and expense of tax compliance, but not everyone. And for most, the reasoning was far more complex.
I haven’t yet relinquished my citizenship but have plans to do so at the earliest opportunity and like most of the stories you will read at the BBC, my main reasons have nothing to do with “evading” taxes because I don’t owe any and being a relatively new ex-patriot, I don’t have much in my new home of Canada to report anyway. I was lucky enough to discover the pension and savings traps set by United States for its “off-shore” citizens and so have avoided them.
Of course, avoidance means that I am not going to be as set for retirement some day as I would have liked to be, nor will I have saved as adequately for my child’s university education, but some things can’t be helped.
I didn’t set out to be a former American and I don’t know if it is truly possible for me to shed my early training (some might call it indoctrination) fully, but as I have journeyed, I’ve come to discover that I really should have been born a Canadian and coming here has set right the wrong of my birth on American soil.
Like many others, who find themselves living out their lives far away from their birth land, I left for love.
I met a Canadian on the Internet and moved here to be with him. Nothing sinister or” tax evadey” about it. Although I am sure that Uncle Sam would beg to differ, I really gave little thought to anything other than beginning life anew with the exotic Canadian of my dreams.
I will be here seven years come the new year and am months – with luck – away from full citizenship, and though once I thought nothing of being a dual, I now realize that citizenship is really an “all in” or “all out” state of being and that I am not alone in that particular way of thinking. I can’t tell you how many Canadians are pleased to learn that I plan to be Canadian only and that it is important to them that newcomers “buy in” and assimilate. I am not sure if this is a validating experience for them or stems from some latent nationalism, but it’s only my American family and friends who are shocked by my choice.
Why?
Partly because of the indoctrination that is inevitable regardless of where you are born, but also there is a fear that I will be lost to the physically at some future date when the U.S. government bars me, which is ironic because for a land of supposedly free people who pride themselves on being the model of democracy, banishment looms large and seems ever-present.
Finally, however, I don’t believe – in my heart of hearts – that the Canadian government has the strength of will or the actual political clout to protect me should I stay a dual.
Justin Trudeau, in an email reply to a Brocker, even points out that as Americans, the U.S, government has the right to impose whatever rules they like on citizens no matter where they are and that other governments cannot interfere – even when the citizens in question are duals.
If Mr. Hope and Hard Work isn’t brave enough to stand up for Canadian/American duals, what’s a girl to do?
Sad. But a reality that has to be faced.
To be a Canadian, who is fully recognized and protected as such, I must be only a Canadian.
And really, is that so bad? I don’t think so. More and more I find myself taking a Canadian stance or point of view that puts me even more at odds with my heritage than when I was a square peg living in that round hole down south.
Animal, it’s a joke. Sort of. And maybe a reflection of my “unamerican-ness”. I saw Canada as another country, different and distinctly separate and unique and people who are Canadian as semi-mysteries. Certainly, I’d never dreamed of meeting a man from another country and ending up his wife. Hence … exotic. But I am sure your wife finds something equally compelling about you – even if you cannot cook.
@Yoga Girl
That you see any Canadian as “exotic” shows that you have an appreciation and respect for our differences, unlike many Americans who if they think about Canada at all either dismiss it as not being culturally or geographically different enough to be exotic (unlike the British who they cut ties with and are perversely fixated on). At the same time, I believe Canada is somewhat of an enigma for Americans, in that we definitely do things differently and with different outcomes. Canada’s like the studious little sibling who stayed at the table with the British parents, while the US rebelled and ran away from home to pursue much grander things, but still looks through the window longingly, wishing it too could join in their family gatherings.
What I think I see in you (and correct me if I’m wrong) is someone who’s probably never been a homelander, unlike myself who was a full-on one when I left the US at 12. I probably still have remnants of this today and it may explain why at this stage I’m reticent to give up my US citizenship without a fight. Whether this is a curse or a blessing is TBD.
bubblebustin, no, you are not wrong. I never fit in there.
Leading up to the First Gulf War, everyone around me was rah-rah USA. I was dating a guy at the time who was in the Army Reserve and I recall watching Bush Sr.’s speech to the nation on why the war was necessary. I mocked him and his reasons and my boyfriend of the time really couldn’t understand my objections or see that the whole thing was just a charade with hidden motives. He was hardly the only one to note my lack of patriotism.
But I think patriotism, like loyalty, should be earned. I don’t owe that to any country simply because I was born there – or even just live there.
I choose to be Canadian, knowing that it’s not a perfect system or country, because the cultural, values and people feel like kin in a way that the USA and Americans never have. In fact, in coming to Canada, I believe I have righted the wrongness of my birth in the USA.
I am like you in the I’ve found my roots in Canada. The child of immigrants to the US, and a father who had to move us a lot because of work, I never had a connection to where I lived until my parents divorced and my mom moved us to where she gave me a huge family and some history- in Canada.
This is what many homelanders don’t understand, that there are many people who don’t blossom until their seeds meet fertile soil. To tax us is to deny us the nutrients we need to thrive.