Citizenship by jus sanguinis? Not So Simple....

Over 2000 years ago Aristotle wrote that neither blood or place of birth should make one a citizen.  It was the act of ruling and judging or being ruled as a member of a political community that made citizens, not an accident of birth.

Clearly Aristotle's argument did not have much influence because today almost every nation on this planet allows for the automatic acquisition of citizenship by blood (jus sanguinis).  However, this right is interpreted differently by different countries and depends on a number of factors of which the most important seems to be the gender of the citizen-parent.

It may be a surprise to Americans and French but historically acquisition of citizenship by jus sanguinis was limited to children whose fathers were citizens.  Women who married foreign men were stripped of their citizenship and disqualified from transmitting that citizenship to their children even if they remained on French or U.S. soil.

Jus Sangunis in France:  A Long Road to Equality

The Civil Code of 1803 which instituted jus sanguinis in France was restricted to children of French fathers.  The man was considered the head of the house and so citizenship, like the family name, followed the father's line, not the mother's.   This led to a rather disagreeable situation:  most people born of foreign fathers in France were not French citizens and so could not be drafted into the army.  Given the events of late 19th century Europe, this was a terrible state of affairs from the point of view of the French State. This was rectified by a law passed in 1889 which allowed for double jus soli - a child born in France of a French-born non-citizen parent became a French citizen automatically.

Nevertheless, it was not until 1927 that the laws were changed to allow Frenchwomen to keep French citizenship if they married a foreigner and to pass their citizenship along to their children.  Again, this was a question of state interest.  Between 1914 and 1927, 120,000 Frenchwomen became foreigners because of marriage to foreign men.  During that time only 60,000 foreign women became French due to marriage with French men.  This meant a net loss of 60,000 citizens in a little over a decade.

Post World War II saw new restrictions limiting the right of Frenchwomen marrying foreigners but in 1973 a law was passed eliminating all discrimination against Frenchwomen.  And that is where the situation stands today.

The United States:  Not Quite There....

In the U.S. the situation was less clear but it appears that principle of "dependent nationality" was also enforced.  In 1897, Secretary Sherman wrote “By our statute an alien wife of an American citizen shares his citizenship.  By the usual rules of Continental private international law, a woman marrying an alien shares his status...”

In 1907 it was made official when Congress passed the Expatriation Act which clearly stated that a female U.S. citizen automatically lost her citizenship upon marriage to an alien.

Some relief was provided in the 1922 Cable Act.  Loss of citizenship was no longer automatic but a woman still lost her United States citizenship if she married an alien ineligible for citizenship.  In addition, it was assumed that she renounced her American citizenship if she lived in her husband's country for two years or if she lived abroad for five years.  A woman who became a naturalized citizen of another state could not transmit her citizenship to her children.  Given that naturalization was often automatic in the husband's country, the end result was that the woman lost her American citizenship and could not transmit American citizenship to her children. (If this were still true I would have lost my American citizenship years ago!)

A number of acts between the 1930's and the 1990's gradually eliminated the automatic loss of citizenship for women married to foreign citizens.  American women acquired the right to transmit U.S. nationality to their children born abroad in 1934.

The law is still unclear about American women who marry foreign men and choose to become naturalized citizens of their husband's country.  Since 1990 the State Department answers such queries with this note which says that being naturalized in a foreign country is grounds for losing citizenship if it is done with the specific intention of renouncing U.S. citizenship.  So theoretically one can become a dual citizen as long as the intention is to keep U.S. citizenship and the U.S. State Department acts under the assumption that a U.S. citizen acquiring citizenship in another state wishes to keep his/her U.S. nationality.  For those of us who are U.S. citizens contemplating naturalization in our countries of residence this is an awfully shaky post upon which to hang our hats.  (May I state for the record here that I have absolutely no intention, now or in the future, of renouncing my U.S. citizenship?)

Interestingly enough, the transmission of U.S. citizenship by jus sanguinis is not gender-neutral and is unfavorable to American fathers of children born abroad.  In 1790 American law was clear:  children born outside the U.S. to American fathers were automatically U.S. citizens.  Today, the situation is not so simple.  In 2011 the American father of a child born out of wedlock must prove that the child is his and agree to support the child until age 18.  In addition he must have resided in the U.S. for at least 5 years and two of those years of residency must be after age 14.  The only requirement for an American woman in the same situation is that she must have lived continuously in the U.S. for one year at some point in her life.

I have no explanation for this.  Contemplating the legal history of citizenship transmission by blood in both countries, I am struck by how often these law have been changed or re-interpreted depending on the times and, quite frankly, the requirements of the state.  It does make you wonder what might happen in the years to come depending on which way the political winds blow.  Transmission of citizenship by jus sanguinis is not a given - it is a hard won right which none of us should take for granted.


In writing the above essay, I have relied heavily on two very good books:
 Citizenship Today:  Global Perspectives and Practices edited by T. Alexander Aleinkoff and Douglas Klusmeyer (2001)  and The Politics of Citizenship in Europe by Marc Morje Howard.  For the latter I have written a review for Amazon which can be found here.

The Sakura - 品川区 Shinagawa City, Tokyo

And Nature shows her gentler side.  The Sakura (Cherry Blossom Time) has arrived in Tokyo.

These photos were taken by Koichiro Yamamoto, a former colleague.  He has kindly agreed to let me share them with you.

 

 

Synchrony - Culture through Rhythm

Before the Renaissance, God was conceived of as sound or vibration. This is understandable because the rhythm of a people may yet prove to be the most binding of all the forces that hold human beings together. As a matter of fact, I have come to the conclusion that the human species lives in a sea of rhythm, ineffable to some, but quite tangible to others. This explains why some composers really do seem to be able to tap into that sea and express for the people the rhythms that are felt but not yet expressed as music.
Edward T. Hall, The Dance of Life

Right after Clifford Geertz, the anthropologist Edward Hall has had the most influence on me and my understanding of culture - not just cultural differences but culture in its own context.

Some of his most intriguing ideas were revealed by his research in proxemics - how a culture handles space between individuals, and synchrony - how we use space to communicate and sync with each other.  Our bodies move in harmony with others according to codes we learn through our culture.  "Rhythm," said Hall, "is basic to synchrony."

And I can think of no better illustration of synchrony than this remarkable video about the people of Baro produced by Thomas Roebers:

Citation du jour/Quote of the day

In addition to being a co-author of this blog, Jean-Jacques Auffret has a personal project he calls "Citation du jour/Quote of the day."  In his words:

It consists in sending a quote every day to interested people through a free-subscribe mailing list (a Google Groups list or email me). If you like this, please make the community grow by forwarding your favorites quotes to whom you think they might inspire. Quotes in italic are a best-effort translation

The quotations are wonderfully diverse, come from many sources and are usually translated personally by Jean-Jacques from French to English or vice versa. I say "usually" because today Jean-Jacques pulled a fast one.  Here is what he sent this morning:

Marie, levez-vous ma jeune paresseuse:

Ja la gaie alouette au ciel a fredonné

Et ja le rossignol doucement jargonné,

Dessus l’épine assis, sa complainte amoureuse.

Sus ! debout ! allons voir l’herbellette perleuse,

Et votre beau rosier de boutons couronné,

Et vos œillets mignons auxquels aviez donné,

Hier au soir de l’eau, d’une main si soigneuse.

Harsoir en vous couchant vous jurâtes vos yeux

D’être plus tôt que moi ce matin éveillée :

Mais le dormir de l’Aube, aux filles gracieux

Vous tient d’un doux sommeil encor les yeux sillée.

Ca ! ça ! que je les baise et votre beau tétin,

Cent fois, pour vous apprendre à vous lever matin. 

Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585)

And people complained because there was no translation into English. So JJ sent a follow-up e-mail:  

As I anticipated, I receive lots of complaints about lack of translation for today’s quote.  So here is a quick (and dirty?) one, omitting all the gory details that poets ridiculously insist on stuffing their production with.

"It’s springtime, Marie, let’s do what people usually do during that season."

If you would like a bit of inspiration and amusement with your morning coffee and e-mail, click on the above link to subscribe.

Citizen Orange

Those of you who regularly visit my site have probably deduced that I am pro-migration and that I am firmly on the side of people "who move around."  It would be inconsistent with my personal history and experience to be anything else.

The rhetoric coming out of the U.S., the U.K. and Germany about migration and assimilation is both ill-informed and quite frightening even to those of us who do have papers and are legally living in our countries of residence.  I doubt that many of the people screaming "total immersion and assimilation" or "English/French/German Only!" ever had to struggle with such difficult and emotionally complex topics in their own lives.  Having no direct experience with being migrants themselves, they then compound their ignorance with a failure of imagination and of empathy.

Citizen Orange is a U.S. based site that I discovered very recently. They do not speak for migrants (migrants can speak for themselves quite nicely), they simply offer a forum where migrants can speak out, find allies and exchange information and where non-migrants can learn something about the migrant experience.  From the Citizen Orange website:

This does not mean that we cannot relate to the migrant experience through our common humanity. We constantly strive towards understanding and empathy through Citizen Orange and our daily lives. It just means that we will not profess to speak on behalf of migrants. Citizen Orange is not the place to look for a space representative of the migrant voice. If you are searching, look through our blogroll for answers, or in a community near you. Citizen Orange is not the migrant voice, but we do seek to support it and amplify it through our efforts. 

Much of the content is U.S. centered but even if you are outside the Americas you will still find useful information and good reads about Human Rights, Assimilation,  Global Citizens, and International Migrant Discrimination.

Not My Weekend?

This Saturday, somewhere between the suburban train station and the RER A line in La Defense, someone unzipped the back pocket of my backpack and took my wallet.  I lost all the usual things:  money, credit cards and, of course, my French residency card.

Like all unfortunate events, there was a silver lining in there somewhere.  If I hadn't had my wallet stolen that day, I would never have:

• Seen how calm and competent my elder Frenchling can be.  She had the presence of mind to calm her mother down and then grab the first soldier she saw (there are patrols in the station) and ask what to do.
• Met three very professional and helpful soldiers who took the time to walk us personally up to the nearest police station.
• Talked with a very nice policewoman at the La Defense police station who gave me the list of all the information I would need and advised me to go to the police station in Versailles.
• Visited the police station in Versailles where another very charming and quite funny policewoman took down my statement and did her best to make me feel better. (And, yes, I was feeling like the world's biggest imbecile.)
• Then I went to the Prefecture this morning to report the loss.  Stood in line, talked with other foreigners, read the Declaration of the Rights of Man that was posted on the wall, and when I finally arrived at the window, I  was taken care of with sympathy and efficiency.

Over the weekend I had a lot of time to reflect on what happened and I've decided that the universe is sending me a sign.  I am convinced that the universe does not want me to be a resident of the French Republic, it wants me to become a citizen.

When I was on the train platform staring at the empty space where my wallet had been, I realized that the only thing in it that I really cared about was my residency card - the proof that I live and work and have friends and family here. It was the only official evidence I had that I belong and I feel its loss keenly.

To the above, I add all the help and kindness of strangers over the weekend and my conclusion is this:

It is high time I asked to join this strange tribe.

Bodies in motion: Dancing around the world - The Big Picture

From The Big Picture 40 stunning photos of....

Bodies in motion: Dancing around the world

And one more from the Flophouse Archives:

Younger Frenchling dancing on the beach in Brittany, France

Bon weekend!