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Of citizenship and loyalty
Keeble McFarlane
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Can a person who is a citizen of another country become prime minister? This question has been bubbling away for the past little while, after surfacing as an issue in the recent election campaign. It's not a trivial matter, but the answer isn't quite so simple - it's "Yes, depending on what kind of foreigner you are."
Keeble McFarlane
According to the constitution, you cannot become a member of the Senate or House of Representatives if you willingly are "under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a Foreign Power or State".
That seems clear enough, except that the document states earlier that a Commonwealth citizen, who has lived in Jamaica for at least a year at the time of registering for candidacy, may run for election to the House of Representatives. And since the prime minister has to be a member of that house, it follows that someone who is a citizen of another country can become head of the Jamaican government.
The constitution spells out quite clearly the meaning of the term "Commonwealth citizen" as someone from any of the members of the former British Empire which now form the Commonwealth. This includes, by the way, citizens of the Irish Republic, which at one time was attached - however unwittingly - to the British wagon.
Because of our location in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the enormous realignment engendered by the Second World War, the United States had begun to supplant Britain as the chief source of power and influence in the world.
There was nothing new about the connection of course - for many years before the huge global conflict, Jamaicans had been settling in the US, going to school there, or engaging in seasonal work on the sugar, tobacco and vegetable farms of the eastern states. The connection has accelerated in recent years, and the ties between Jamaica and the US have become stronger, with a considerable increase in migration to that economic magnet.
It is, therefore, not surprising that there has been a vast increase in the number of people who have chosen to become citizens of the US. In doing so, they don't cease to be citizens of Jamaica. Alongside the expansion of the American connection is that with Canada. Many of our people now reside in the Great White North (which, with global warming, is becoming less white at a frightening pace with the rapid melting of the polar ice cap). They, too, take out citizenship as their stay becomes extended.
There was a time when, if you became a citizen of another country, you had to renounce the ties to your homeland and were now firmly attached to the new country. With the vast increase in immigration, those rules have been either relaxed or overlooked.
European countries, which, unlike the new nations such as Australia, the US or Canada, were not built on immigration, have in the closing years of the 20th century become prime destinations for immigrants. Thus, places like Sweden, Germany, France, Spain and Italy have had to retool their settlement policies to deal with the
new realities.
It is possible to run for office in many of these places if you have dual citizenship. In Canada we have seen an increase in the number of members of parliament and of provincial legislators who were born elsewhere. All the Canadian rules require is that you are a Canadian citizen and have a clean criminal record.
Thus, we have had a premier of British Columbia who was born in India, a minister of the province of Ontario who was from Jamaica, and the current governor-general, Michaëlle Jean, was born in Haiti. There is an interesting twist here - she is married to an immigrant from France, and by virtue of this was also a French citizen, which she had to renounce before she took office as the de facto head of state.
The US constitution requires that a president has to be at least 35 years old, must have lived in the US for at least 14 years at the time of inauguration and, most important - must be a natural-born citizen.
The people who had fought the British for independence were apprehensive about the possible allegiance of people to the still very powerful colonial powers of Europe from which many settlers came, and thus it is entirely understandable that the framers of the constitution would include such a provision.
The order of succession, should the president become incapacitated, goes through the vice-president, the heads of the Senate and House of Representatives, and the Cabinet. In recent years the US has had two secretaries of state who, although because of their office would be high on that list, would not be able to serve as president.
Henry Kissinger, who served presidents Nixon and Ford, and Madeleine Albright, who worked for Bill Clinton, were born respectively in Germany and Czechoslovakia, and although having spent most of their life in the US, would therefore be ineligible to hold their adopted country's highest office.
Closer to home, there is the case of a long-time friend who represented the Jamaican government overseas in a number of non-diplomatic postings and had taken out citizenship in another country, but had to renounce that citizenship when promoted to the diplomatic service. International conventions require that you cannot represent your original nation in a country of which you had become a citizen.
Two decades ago, when Brian Mulroney was prime minister of Canada, his government eased the immigration rules to fast-track immigrants who were willing to invest more than a certain minimum sum of money in the country.
The immigration office in Hong Kong became inundated with applications, as many business people with large sums of money jumped at the chance of gaining a Canadian passport as a kind of insurance policy in advance of the handover of the British colony to China. As it turns out, the ground didn't open, and many of those people remained residents of Hong Kong, visiting Canada only for the minimum qualifying periods. We all know someone who has a green card or a Canadian passport as an escape hatch if the country blows up in flames once again.
Legalities aside, as a matter of principle people who want to run for office in this country should examine carefully where their loyalties lie and then disencumber themselves of the burden that the second citizenship imposes. If they are serious about running for office to help their compatriots, their minds would be more focused on the job if they were fully committed to the country and didn't have the crutch of an escape hatch.
keeble.mack@sympatico.ca
Keeble McFarlane
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Can a person who is a citizen of another country become prime minister? This question has been bubbling away for the past little while, after surfacing as an issue in the recent election campaign. It's not a trivial matter, but the answer isn't quite so simple - it's "Yes, depending on what kind of foreigner you are."
Keeble McFarlane
According to the constitution, you cannot become a member of the Senate or House of Representatives if you willingly are "under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a Foreign Power or State".
That seems clear enough, except that the document states earlier that a Commonwealth citizen, who has lived in Jamaica for at least a year at the time of registering for candidacy, may run for election to the House of Representatives. And since the prime minister has to be a member of that house, it follows that someone who is a citizen of another country can become head of the Jamaican government.
The constitution spells out quite clearly the meaning of the term "Commonwealth citizen" as someone from any of the members of the former British Empire which now form the Commonwealth. This includes, by the way, citizens of the Irish Republic, which at one time was attached - however unwittingly - to the British wagon.
Because of our location in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the enormous realignment engendered by the Second World War, the United States had begun to supplant Britain as the chief source of power and influence in the world.
There was nothing new about the connection of course - for many years before the huge global conflict, Jamaicans had been settling in the US, going to school there, or engaging in seasonal work on the sugar, tobacco and vegetable farms of the eastern states. The connection has accelerated in recent years, and the ties between Jamaica and the US have become stronger, with a considerable increase in migration to that economic magnet.
It is, therefore, not surprising that there has been a vast increase in the number of people who have chosen to become citizens of the US. In doing so, they don't cease to be citizens of Jamaica. Alongside the expansion of the American connection is that with Canada. Many of our people now reside in the Great White North (which, with global warming, is becoming less white at a frightening pace with the rapid melting of the polar ice cap). They, too, take out citizenship as their stay becomes extended.
There was a time when, if you became a citizen of another country, you had to renounce the ties to your homeland and were now firmly attached to the new country. With the vast increase in immigration, those rules have been either relaxed or overlooked.
European countries, which, unlike the new nations such as Australia, the US or Canada, were not built on immigration, have in the closing years of the 20th century become prime destinations for immigrants. Thus, places like Sweden, Germany, France, Spain and Italy have had to retool their settlement policies to deal with the
new realities.
It is possible to run for office in many of these places if you have dual citizenship. In Canada we have seen an increase in the number of members of parliament and of provincial legislators who were born elsewhere. All the Canadian rules require is that you are a Canadian citizen and have a clean criminal record.
Thus, we have had a premier of British Columbia who was born in India, a minister of the province of Ontario who was from Jamaica, and the current governor-general, Michaëlle Jean, was born in Haiti. There is an interesting twist here - she is married to an immigrant from France, and by virtue of this was also a French citizen, which she had to renounce before she took office as the de facto head of state.
The US constitution requires that a president has to be at least 35 years old, must have lived in the US for at least 14 years at the time of inauguration and, most important - must be a natural-born citizen.
The people who had fought the British for independence were apprehensive about the possible allegiance of people to the still very powerful colonial powers of Europe from which many settlers came, and thus it is entirely understandable that the framers of the constitution would include such a provision.
The order of succession, should the president become incapacitated, goes through the vice-president, the heads of the Senate and House of Representatives, and the Cabinet. In recent years the US has had two secretaries of state who, although because of their office would be high on that list, would not be able to serve as president.
Henry Kissinger, who served presidents Nixon and Ford, and Madeleine Albright, who worked for Bill Clinton, were born respectively in Germany and Czechoslovakia, and although having spent most of their life in the US, would therefore be ineligible to hold their adopted country's highest office.
Closer to home, there is the case of a long-time friend who represented the Jamaican government overseas in a number of non-diplomatic postings and had taken out citizenship in another country, but had to renounce that citizenship when promoted to the diplomatic service. International conventions require that you cannot represent your original nation in a country of which you had become a citizen.
Two decades ago, when Brian Mulroney was prime minister of Canada, his government eased the immigration rules to fast-track immigrants who were willing to invest more than a certain minimum sum of money in the country.
The immigration office in Hong Kong became inundated with applications, as many business people with large sums of money jumped at the chance of gaining a Canadian passport as a kind of insurance policy in advance of the handover of the British colony to China. As it turns out, the ground didn't open, and many of those people remained residents of Hong Kong, visiting Canada only for the minimum qualifying periods. We all know someone who has a green card or a Canadian passport as an escape hatch if the country blows up in flames once again.
Legalities aside, as a matter of principle people who want to run for office in this country should examine carefully where their loyalties lie and then disencumber themselves of the burden that the second citizenship imposes. If they are serious about running for office to help their compatriots, their minds would be more focused on the job if they were fully committed to the country and didn't have the crutch of an escape hatch.
keeble.mack@sympatico.ca