Two possible examples of what I’m talking about: 1) South Korea pulling a ‘you’re in the army now!’ on US-born young men who were over there visiting grandma, as it seems they call dibs on all ethnic Koreans; 2) Eritrea trying to shake down overseas Eritreans for taxes and penalties and such.

16 comments

  1. not me but for a while my parents lost the ability to vote in Canadian elections because they had been out of the country for so long, but a few years ago I think the right was restored.

  2. I knew a guy in college who renounced his Korean citizenship to avoid service.

    Begs the question: if you’re a naturalized US citizen, would South Korea have any authority to extradite you to force military service? Obviously we have a draft system as well, but people went to Canada to avoid conscription

  3. Not exactly “the old country” but there’s a lot of fighting between Israelis and Diaspora Jews for a lot of different reasons. Israelis generally lean right while American Jews lean left. The religious dynamics are entirely different, which can get confusing at times. Not to mention that a not-insignificant portion of American Jews have turned against Israel in recent years, myself included.

  4. Israel considers all Jews on earth as sorta part of their responsibility

    If your parents were an Israeli citizen then your legally required to get citizenship. I know people who visited on a trip and were stopped at the airport and were told they had to get citizenship or even join the military. It was a very annoying and stressful process to fight it. Unlike South Korea Israel wont really draft you if you really dont want it and dont live in Israel but its still a struggle.

    If you want to avoid that you have to get some kind of exception at an embassy before you go and its hard to get.

  7. Born in the US, grew up in Canada (my mom is a dual-citizen, born in the US to Canadians.) Couldn’t stay past 18 since Canada only grants automatic citizenship to children of Canadians born in Canada. I don’t mind living in the US but it’s been an arbitrary feeling source of heartache in my family.

  8. The scene in Selena where Edward James Olmos is hesitant to play in Mexico because they’re Mexican-American is pretty accurate haha

  9. America. I spent some time in Saudi Arabia and there were some Saudis there who were born in the US but had lived in Saudi their whole life. They worked for Saudi Aramco and Saudi Aramco needed some people to go to the states for some training or something. They were selected because being US citizens it would be easy for them to get into the US. Mind you, they hadn’t been to the US since they were born. Upon arrival into the US they were arrested for tax evasion.

  10. Nothing really that I can think of. India gives you a pretty good deal if you have almost any Indian ancestry — you can register for a card called “Non-Resident Indian” which gives you basically all of the rights Indian citizens have except the right to vote.

  11. Break any Indian law (especially with your speech re: ‘dignity of the state/morality’ or wahtever bs) enough times and seriously enough and they’ll just harass your parents/relatives until you break lol.

  13. My original country doesn’t really do anything like that, besides the hating on Americans and thinking they’re superior somehow.

    It’s been over 20 years since I left, the place is still somehow the exact same shit hole it ever was.

    It’s kind of weird how nothing changes despite all the time that’s gone by. They had plenty of opportunity but no.

  14. I have a friend who has dual American and Cypriot (Cyprus) citizenship but has never lived in Cyprus. All Cypriot men (and men with Cypriot ancestry who aren’t citizens or even children of citizens) between 18 and 65 have to have approval from the military to leave Cyprus, saying that they have completed their mandatory military service.. He was there on vacation to see extended family and was almost not allowed to leave.

  15. US makes you pay US income taxes on top of your local country taxes. Meanwhile, if I live in one US state and work in another, I have to pay income taxes in both states.

  16. “Adoringly” calling me fat to my face. One time it was in front of my boyfriend who was meeting the family for the first time.

    Also get ripped on for never learning Spanish. My dad rarely talked to us in English, let alone Spanish.

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