Our Homes and Native Lands?

My brother-in-law forwarded a copy of Peter Worthington's column Convenient Canadians. It's an interesting question in this time of the global village, wondering about the ethics of Dual (or multiple) Citizenship(s).

It raises questions not only of what duties these citizens have to each of their countries, and how they ought to reconcile conflicting demands when they arise, but also what are the obligations of their countries to them. In some ways the matter is easily taken care of if each person in the world can have only one declared citizenship at any time.

But this is not workable. Poorer countries rely on expatriates to support them. They will not cut off their significant source of income by renouncing their native sons and daughters right to return home.

As long as these people are paying for the privilege of Canadian Citizenship (e.g. income tax) and are not actively supporting an enemy of Canada (hmmm), istm that they should be treated the same as the rest of us Canadians.

On the other hand, when Canadians insist on visiting dangerous areas of the world against the advice of their government they shouldn't whine when they find themselves in trouble. As to Mr. Worthington's idea of assigning second-class citizenship (of a sort) to those who take up permanent residence in other countries whose citizenship they also hold, I think a good, open, democratic debate might serve the public well.