아세안 나라들, 이중국적 허용하는 근본이유는 충성심과 국적의 뿌리를 잊지말라는 뜻으로 이해하고 있는것 같다. 여기서 이민자의 설움과 어려움 그리고 심적갈등을 많이 겪게 한다. 1970년대 초와 중반에, 나라를 떠나 미지의 나라에서 삶의 터전을 만들기위해 개나리 봇짐을 싸들과 김포공항을 떠나올때만 해도, 떠나오는 Diaspora의 아픈 삶의 두려움속에서 가슴을 조이면서 조국을 떠나는 심정을 이해하지 못하고, 심한경우에는 "저혼자만 잘먹고 살려고 조국을 버리고 떠난다"라는 따가운 눈총을 받으면서 비행기 트랩을 올랐었다.
지금도 이민자가 조국을 떠나 새로운 정착지를 찾아 새로운 삶의 터전을 닦기에는 정신적 고통을 감내하면서 삶의 꿈을 키우기에 각고의 노력을 하고 있지만, 1970년초와 중반에 개나리 봇짐을 들고 조국을 떠났던, 지금은 인생의 황혼을 살아가고 있는 인생선배들의 애국관, 애국심과 조국 사랑은 그어느세대의 국민들과는 비교가 안돼게 높다.
그이유를 나름데도 분석해 보면, 초창기의 이민자들은, 조국이 가난하고 못살던 당시에, 조국중흥과 번영을 위해 주야로 산업현장에서, 박정희 대통령의 "다시는 우리 후손들에게 가난을 물려주지말고, 잘사는 나라를 건설하여 물려주자"는 피맺힌 한과 절규가 한데 어울려, 모든 국민들이 하나가 되여 건설현장에서, 허리띠를 졸라매고, 뛰면서 고생했던 나라가, 결국은 "한강의 기적을 이루는데 한축을 담당했었다"는 자부심이 강하게 마음속에 남아 있기 때문이다. 떠나 올때는 개인당 $200달러가 전부가 당시 정부가 허락해준 외화반출 최고 금액이었었다. 힘들게 고생하면서 살아온 인생들이기에 잘사는 조국에 대한 마음속의 조국은 여전히 더 부자나라가 되기를 바라는 대한민국인 것이다.
그때만해도 산아제한정책을 실시했었고, 단 한사람이라도 외국에 이민가는것을 국가정책으로 시행하던, 먹고살기 어려운 시기였었다. 이민자로 조국을 떠나는 그시점에 외환보유고가 거의 없어, 빈손으로 조국을 떠나야 했었던 야속함도 있었지만.... 모두가 좀더 잘살기위한 골육지책이었음을, 이민 초창기의 우리 한인들은 이해하고 있다고 나는 생각한다.
오늘 외신이 전하는 뉴스를 보면, 좀 생각해 볼점이 있는 내용이, 특히 아세안 국가에서 이민온 사람들의 Motherland 상당수의 나라들의 이민 정책이, Dual Citizenship을 선호하는쪽 보다는 규제하고 있다는것을 봤다.
Anna는 미국인 아버지와 일본인 어머니사이에서 태어난 2세로 두개의 여권을 소지하고 미국과 일본을 필요시 여행 하면서 살아가는 아가씨로 일본과 미국의 문화에 깊숙히 연결되여 있음을 느끼고 있다. 그러나 일본의 이민정책은 2세가 자라서 22살이 되면 이중국적을 버리고 한쪽나라를 선택하기를 요구한다. 그래서 Anna는 지금 고민중에 있다고 한다.
지난 수십년동안에 지구촌의 사람들은 국제적으로 여행을 많이 해왔었다. 때로는 거주국가에서 최소한 1년을 살수있게까지 했었다. 그런데 1970대부터 2015년까지 3배로 여행자들이 늘어났었다 라고, International Organization for Migration협회가 발표했다.
동시에 2중국적에 대한 선호도역시 증가해왔다. 1960년대에는 1/3도 안되는 국가들이 이중국적을 얻을수 있도록 허용해 왔었으나, 지금은 3/4의 나라들이 이중국적을 허용하고 있다 라고 네델란드의 Maastricht University, Maartin Vink,정치학교수가 연구결과를 발표했다.
일본의 법원은, 현재 유럽에 살면서, 일본국적을 보유하고 있는 일본인이 법원에 제소해서 법의 심판을 받았는데, 결과는 일본정부의 손을 들어주어, 이중국적보유가 어렵게 됐다는 내용이다. 홍콩은 이보다 더 심하게 적용하여 이중국적 국가의 영사보호를 전연받지 못하게 하고 있다.
"이중국적은, 중국법에 따라서,인정안된다" 라고 홍콩행정관 Carrie Lam이 며칠전 발표하면서 "우리 중국은 이법의 적용을 강하게 준수하고있다".
역사적으로 식민지배와 이해상충의 역사를 포함하여 이중국적에 대한 반대심정이 지역에 따라 강하게 작용하는 여러 이유가 있다. 그러나 학자들의 의견에 따르면 앞서 언급한 이유도 있지만, 근본 취지는 단일민족 단일문화를 반영할려는 목적에서 이중국적을 반대하는 경향이 강하다고 한다.
아시아 태평양 지역의 나라중 캠보디아, 동티모, 뉴질랜드 그리고 피지등등의 나라들이 국적정지 조치를 취하지 않고 이중국적을 허용하고있다.
대부분의 아시안 나라들이 이중국적을 반대하고 있지만, 강력하게 제재하지는 않는데, 이는 여러나라의 여권을 소지했어도 이를 확인하는 선언만 하지 않으면 괜찮다. 또다른 나라들이 이중국적을 강력히 제한 하면서 허용하는 나라가 필리핀인데, 필리핀에서 태어난 시민은 이중국적이 가능하지만, 필리핀으로 이민와서 필리핀 국적취득자는 이중국적 허용이 안된다.
한국은, 외국에서 태어난 아이가 그나라의 국적을 취득한 경우는 이중국적을 허용하고 있다. 그런데 한국의 문제는 지금과 같은 사회주의 정권하에서는 젊은이들로 부터 애국심을 유도하기는 이미 물건너갔고, 자기집을 쉽게 소유할수있고, 자유를 맘껏 허용하는 다른 나라로의 탈출이 사회적 추세로 보인다.
유럽여러나라에서 2차대전후 많은 사람들이 북미로 이민와서 평생을 살다가 은퇴후에는 다시 자기가 태어난 나라로 되돌아가는 경향이 많다. 특히 이태리 은퇴자들은 모든것 정리하고 되돌아가고, 또 인도 파키스탄쪽 이민자들이 은퇴후 일부가 되돌아가는 경향이 있다. 물론 되돌아 갈때는 한쪽의 국적만 소유하게 되는것으로 알고 있다.
아시아의 모든 나라들이 자유롭게 국적선택이 허용되지 않는것으로 보고 있다. 서구의 나라들은 이중국적 취득여부는 극히 개인적인 선택에 따른다. 대부분의 아시안나라들은 국적선택은 선택사항일뿐이고 권리는 아니라는 생각이다. 이런 상황으로 봐서, 아시안 국가들이 이중국적을 허용한다는것은 아주 어려운것으로 이해된다. 그러나 이분야 전문가들과 이중국적자들은 예측하기를 국제적으로 왕래가 갈수록 활발해지는 경향으로 봐서 엄격한 국적규제는 결국 완화될것으로 기대하고 있다. Maastricht University의 Vink 교수는 시간이 걸리지만 그렇게 될것으로 보고있다는 평이다.
(CNN) — Anna was born with the right to dual citizenship, because she has a Japanese mother and American father. She spent her life traveling between both countries, and says she felt deeply connected to the two cultures.
But Japan requires those with multiple passports to pick one by the age of 22 -- an impossible choice for Anna, who requested a pseudonym for privacy reasons.
"I'm mixed race, I've lived both in Japan and the US, I speak both languages, I am completely split down the middle in terms of my identity," she said. "It's like asking someone whether they love their mother or father more. It's such a cruel question."
The past few decades have seen people travel and live abroad more, with the number of international migrants -- people who changed their country of residence for at least a year -- tripling from 1970 to 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration.
At the same time, tolerance to dual citizenship has generally increased. In 1960, less than one-third of countries allowed citizens to acquire a second nationality, compared to three-quarters today, according to a 2019 paper by Maartin Vink, professor of political sociology of Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
Asia is an exception to that trend. It is the world's most restrictive region in terms of dual citizenship, with only 65% of countries and territories permitting it, according to the Maastricht Center for Citizenship, Migration and Development. To put that in perspective, 91% do in the Americas, which rank as the most liberal.
And some Asian countries are tightening their immigration laws. Japan reinforced its strict stance in January when a court upheld the country's ban against dual citizenship, rejecting a lawsuit filed by Japanese citizens living in Europe. Hong Kong took a harder line in February, barring dual citizens from receiving consular protection -- a step never before taken in the Chinese city, where dual citizenship is not legally allowed but had been tolerated.
"Dual nationality is not recognized in the Chinese Nationality Law," said Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam in February. "That is very clear. We are strictly enforcing or implementing that particular policy."
There are a number of reasons why the region is so resistant toward dual citizenship, including histories of conflict and colonialism. But in some countries, critics say the ban on dual citizenship also reflects a tilt toward nationalism -- and the desire to maintain a monoethnic, monocultural identity.
Loyalty and nationalism
In Asia Pacific, only a few places accept dual citizenship with no caveats, including Cambodia, East Timor, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.
Most countries are against it, although some choose not to strictly enforce their policies, allowing people to keep multiple passports by simply not declaring them. Others allow dual citizenship in restricted forms: the Philippines permits it for those who were born Filipino citizens, but not for naturalized Filipinos. South Korea allows children born to its nationals abroad to hold the passport of both their birth country and their parents.
One reason why many Asian countries oppose dual nationality is a belief that it can create divided loyalties among citizens, said Jelena Dzankic, co-director of the Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT), an international citizenship research network. "The reason why, historically and traditionally, countries have not been permissive of dual nationality is because, whom are you going to defend if the two of our countries go to war?" she said.
Japan drafted its current nationality laws shortly after World War II, when many Japanese Americans were put in internment camps in the US; other dual citizens renounced their loyalty to the Japanese Emperor for their own safety, said Atsushi Kondo, a law professor at Japan's Meijo University.
In one famous case, a US-born Japanese-American dual citizen worked in Japan for a company that oversaw American prisoners of war. Upon his return to the US after the war, he was sentenced to death on treason charges. He was eventually pardoned and deported to Japan -- but for decades afterward, Japanese lawmakers pointed to this case as an example of the conflicting obligations that came with dual nationality.
Tomoya Kawakita, a Japanese-American dual citizen who was charged with treason in the United States, photographed on November 17, 1952.
Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis/Getty Images
"In wartime, double citizenship showed disadvantage," Kondo said. "But in peacetime, dual citizens have many advantages" -- including visa-free travel to more countries, greater international employment opportunities, potentially cheaper university education, and more. There are modern downsides, too -- for instance, US dual citizens have to pay double taxation, but that's not the case for most countries.
The international context has now changed, and Japan's "beliefs are a little outdated," he added -- yet the government is reluctant to open up immigration laws and risk upsetting conservative voters.
China's ban on dual nationality is also to ensure that its nationals are "only giving undivided loyalty to the government," said Low Choo Chin, a history lecturer at the Universiti Sains Malaysia. During the Cold War era, China's efforts to normalize relations with neighboring countries and end international isolation were hampered because "overseas Chinese were associated with revolutionary activities" and Communist uprisings, Low wrote in a 2016 paper. So, the Communist government formulated the current nationality law in 1980 to resolve "diplomatic frictions" and to "end divided loyalty among the overseas Chinese."
Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the government has cracked down on dual citizens, encouraging the public to report people secretly holding two passports. Those caught can find their access to public services curtailed.
The crackdown is part of the government's anti-corruption efforts against "dual nationals taking advantage of the grey areas in the law, and trying to evade legal sanctions with (their) foreign nationality status ... fleeing abroad, transferring their assets," said Low, pointing to estimates by the Chinese central bank that 18,000 corrupt officials may have fled the country with 800 billion yuan ($122 billion) between the mid-1990s and 2008.
The matter of citizenship was thrust to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the midst of a crisis that transcended national boundaries, governments were suddenly faced with questions like: Which citizens do we claim as our own? For whom are we responsible? Who do we protect?
Because China doesn't recognize dual citizenship, many Chinese nationals were forbidden from evacuating back to their country of second citizenship -- even if that was their place of birth or primary residency.
There were cases of families split apart; one British woman was told she could not evacuate with her 3-year-old son because he has a Chinese passport, even though he is also a British citizen with a British passport. In the face of international pressure, the government eventually relented.
Ethnicity and blood
The idea of loyalty to a single country and culture, particularly in East Asia, may also "imply the desire to maintain a cohesive ethnocultural identity," said Dzankic, of GLOBALCIT. Several of the countries that don't allow dual citizenship are also highly homogenous -- for instance, 92% of China is Han Chinese, according to the CIA's World Factbook.
And one of the easiest ways for a country to control its ethnic makeup is through the type of citizenship it chooses to recognize.
There are multiple ways of obtaining a first, or second, citizenship, including through marriage, adoption and naturalization. But the most common ways are birthright citizenship (jus soli) -- meaning babies automatically gain citizenship of the country they are born in -- and through parental descent (jus sanguinis), which sees children automatically gain the citizenship of their parents.
In Asia, the vast majority of countries today don't recognize birthright citizenship, one of the quickest ways for ethnically foreign or minority populations to grow in a country.
Or if they do, it is so with certain conditions, according to GLOBALCIT. South Korea, for instance, only applies birthright citizenship for children whose parents are unknown or have no nationality -- so if a child born on Korean soil has been abandoned, or its parents are stateless, it will receive Korean citizenship.
"A shift from jus soli to jus sanguinis has been witnessed in Asia in the course of the twentieth century," wrote Olivier Vonk at the Maastricht Centre in a 2017 paper. Bangladesh, Indonesia, and India are among the countries that have transitioned to primarily recognizing citizenship by descent.
The type of citizenship recognized, and the rigidity of a country's restrictions, influence how diverse or homogenous its population can be, said Kondo.
"South Korea was also a monoethnic country in the old days," he said. "But they changed the policies, so they are more relaxed to double citizens now ... And now they are considered multi-ethnic, or a multicultural country," Kondo added.
South Korea liberalized its nationality law with sweeping amendments in 2010, which allowed permanent dual citizenship for its nationals for the first time (albeit under specific circumstances); dual citizens who fall outside those circumstances were given longer to choose; and a special naturalization path was created for talented individuals.
Japan remains strict in its nationality laws and is ethnically homogenous, said Kondo, though the government's statistics don't include an ethnic breakdown.
"Maybe ordinary Japanese (consider) ethnicity and citizenship as equal ... Such a traditional feeling is strong in common Japanese," he said. Even some current politicians believe Japan "should be a monoethnic country," he said.
Even the term jus sanguinis, citizenship by descent, implies ethnicity, said Anna, who is now based in the UK and declined to disclose her current citizenship status. The Latin translation means "right of blood," and Japanese citizenship is built on this idea -- so "the idea of blood is very strong in their understanding of citizenship."
If a naturalized Japanese citizen who isn't ethnically Japanese gives birth, that child would automatically become a Japanese citizen -- but social attitudes and norms continue to draw lines around ethnicity, she said. There continues to be bullying in schools and a sense of social exclusion for biracial or mixed-race Japanese.
"It is this thought of blood purity ... which is why even though I have Japanese citizenship, I'm not accepted as Japanese citizen in most cases because I'm not 'purely' Japanese as they would say ... because I don't look like them," she said. "A lot of it is xenophobia. A lot of it is racism."
Looking forward
The recent moves in China, Japan and Hong Kong suggest parts of Asia are moving further away from dual citizenship even as other parts of the world embrace it. Malawi, which had previously banned dual citizenship, amended its laws to allow it in 2019. Russia and Norway followed suit in 2020.
In Hong Kong, the future of dual citizenship is unclear. Though the government has insisted that it is taking a harder line in enforcement, it hasn't provided information on what measures will be taken or how the city's thousands of dual citizens will be affected.
"Maybe 70% of my friends have another passport," said Janice Tam, a Hong Konger who also holds a British passport. She isn't particularly worried about the government's recent rhetoric -- but "it depends on whether they force you to select one," she said. "What is the consequence of that? If you've chosen your foreign passport, what do you still get if you stay in Hong Kong?"
Ella Wong, who holds Canadian and Hong Kong passports, is also "optimistic" that dual citizens might not be affected in their daily life. Her only concern is if Hong Kong continues to change its immigration laws to be similar to mainland China -- or adopt mainland laws altogether.
"With the Hong Kong passport, you don't know what it's going to evolve into," she said. "Could it become a Chinese passport, and then what does that mean in terms of travel and work and living?"
The British National Overseas passport and the Hong Kong passport, photographed in January 2021.
Paul Yeung/Bloomberg/Getty Images
More broadly across Asia, most countries are unlikely to liberalize their laws anytime soon, said Low. The West "prioritizes liberalism, individual rights to (dual) nationality," she said. "(But) in many Asian constitutions, access to citizenship is very tough for migrant communities because governments believe that the right to nationality is a privilege, not a right. In this context, it's quite difficult to imagine that Asian governments would allow dual citizenship."
Yet, experts and dual citizens remain hopeful that change will inevitably come as global migration grows. It takes time, said Vink, the Maastricht University professor.
And though they remain a minority, a few Asian countries have introduced new rules allowing for more flexible citizenship arrangements. India, for instance, created a new category of permanent residency in 2005 that allowed people of Indian descent to live and work in the country.
It's still not dual citizenship -- but it marked "a way of acknowledging the realities of a globalizing world and adapting to them step by step," Dzankic said. "Even though countries are generally restrictive of dual citizenship, one could wonder whether those intermediate statuses could be a step or a move towards a more permissive policy."
"I hope that the world will change," she added. "What I think is essential or what will be important is a move towards dual nationality, not as a mechanism of being related to the state, but also as a mechanism for protecting individuals -- for granting them greater life opportunities in the future."
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/asia-dual-citizenship-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
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