Sunday, June 13, 2004

Voters have overwhelmingly approved a plan to do away with a constitutional provision granting automatic Irish citizenship to any child born in Ireland or the neighboring British territory of Northern Ireland, according to preliminary results from a national referendum held on Friday.

The outcome is a victory for the Irish government, which insists that Ireland has become a destination for pregnant mothers who immigrate here before giving birth so their children will be entitled to European Union residence and welfare benefits.

Ireland is the only member of the European Union to grant citizenship to anyone born in the country regardless of where their parents come from, and holders of an Irish passport may travel freely to any other member state.
  NY Times article

There's criticism that this was put on the ballot to capitalize on current fears and racism. Frankly, I've often thought it was rather strange that just because a person was delivered in a certain country he or she would be a citizen of that country. It always seemed more reasonable to maintain the citizenship of the parents. If the parents wanted a child to be a citizen of a particular country, then they should move to that country and become citizens. The new Irish law makes it even easier than that, although not as easy as just being delivered on the island.

Most voters seemed to accept the government's argument that removing citizenship-by-birth was, in the words of Justice Minister Michael McDowell, "common sense." Under legislation promised by the government, children of non-Irish parents who are born in Ireland will still have the right to Irish citizenship if at least one has lived here for three of the previous four years.

At any rate, expect this to become a cause here, I think.

Another odd law in some countries is that which a couple different friends of mine have recently taken advantage of (both in Canada); if your parents or grandparents are/were citizens of that country, you can apply for dual citizenship with that country as well. Both of these guys seem to think they may need to be Canadian citizens before all is said and done, and they may well be right.

I myself would have to go back to before the Civil War on my father's side (and before the Revolutionary War on his mother's side) to get an ancestor from overseas. I don't know about my mother's side, but I think it's as far as a great-great grandparent, so that's no help, either. It might not be a bad idea to check into that possibility if you have parents or grandparents who came from a foreign country. You never know. On the other hand, if it comes down to it, I think for many countries you could just move there and apply for citizenship.

I think for now I'll just plan on staying right here blasting away at the direction we're heading till they throw me in the gulag or I'm absolutely certain that there really is no hope of changing our course from a fascist dictatorship, whichever comes first. At the rate BushCo is going lately, I may have to make a decision PDQ.

....but hey, you do what you want....you will anyway.