WORLD | TAXES | GOVERNMENT | LIFE LESSONS | LIFESTYLE
World Citizen
Second nationalities and passports
Are you driving or cooking? Listen to the article.
Do you aspire to be a world citizen? Take it not as a snub, but as a possible lifeline or a powerful lever for financial success.
A passport is a government-issued document that proves a person’s identity and nationality so they can travel internationally. A government, of course, can only issue passports to its “subjects.”
Something so common today and taken for granted was not always so. Many people are unaware that the use of passports only became popular during World War I because they were practically non-existent prior to that time, and that they were not standardized until 1980.
When it comes to exploring and exploiting the potentialities that the vast world has to offer, the idea is to not be constrained by governments and borders. Similarly, having “life insurance” in case of persecution, wars, etc.
Having only one passport can work against you
It is common to hear that no one chooses when or where they are born or when they die, but given that the place of birth determines nationality (and thus the passport), is it possible to choose which country to belong to?
“No one chooses his birthplace, but he can choose his passports”. — Baruch
Many people find the idea of having a subservient relationship with their government repugnant because it implies a dependency in which the government makes important decisions about them.
Consider the following, what kind of citizen does your government say you are?
If you are a British “subject,” you may have one of six different classes of “citizenship”… and thus passports, and you may be treated differently by other “sovereign” governments based on those classes.
Is it possible for your government to refuse to issue you a passport?
Of course, this occurs all the time. Many governments unilaterally declare (by law, of course) that “their” passports are their property and can thus refuse to issue them, limit their issuance, and revoke, suspend, or invalidate them once issued. If you don’t believe it, ask the Canadian government or the immigration office in your home country.
In 2012, 2013, and 2014, the US government tried to pass laws that would have taken away the passports of US citizens with “seriously delinquent tax debts,” which means owing more than USD 50,000 in taxes. The United Taxation Committee estimated that this method would collect approximately USD 400 million in taxes over a ten-year time span. That amount would cover 0.1% of estimated highway spending during that time period. In other words, the goal was not to collect more taxes, but to show who was in charge.
In Pakistan, you can’t get a passport unless you pass a special interview; in North Korea, only a small number of people have passports, with the vast majority denied.
You won’t be able to get a passport if you haven’t done your military duty in Finland or Syria. Cuban citizens had to wait 50 years to leave the island, and only to countries that would grant them a visa, because receiving countries were afraid of mass immigration.
In short, the passport can be used to exert pressure, coerce, and manipulate. Remember, you can’t travel without a passport… and, as we’ll see below, you don’t have to be Jason Bourne to require a second passport.
Mechanisms for acquiring new nationalities
If someone knows that a passport (or lack thereof) can be used for more than one thing, they might want to get a second or even a third citizenship to get more options. Depending on the country, such nationalities can be obtained in a variety of ways.
- Lex soli — Under the lex soli (law of the soil), a person can become a citizen of a country if they were born there, if their father or mother is a citizen of that country or had that nationality when the person was born (or if the father or mother lives in the country); or if their mother went to that country to give birth to them (Brazil and Chile, for example).
- Lex sanguinis — According to the lex sanguinis (law of blood), a person born abroad has the citizenship of the country if one of the parents is from that country and has registered the child with the appropriate consulate.
- By registering
- Through adoption
- By way of naturalization
When you have the proper passport(s), your privacy and security are greatly enhanced, and you have greater protection in the event of war or persecution, as well as greater investment opportunities and possible tax benefits. In short, you will have more options in a variety of life situations.
For example, a U.S. citizen must pay taxes to his government even if he has not lived in the country for many years, a case almost unique in the world.
The only way out of this is to renounce US citizenship, which is becoming more common by the year. But there are already plans for laws that would charge the “deserter” a high “exit” tax from the system, keep him from quitting, and keep him from coming back, even as a tourist, in the future.
It’s not surprising that some states look at people with more than one citizenship with suspicion and sometimes as a threat. For them, the ideal is that you are born, live, work, pay taxes¹, and die under the “protection” of your government. When you die, your assets will remain under the same umbrella, even if you have left them to heirs.
War?
You are summoned to defend your homeland, putting its interests ahead of those of your wife (or husband), children, and yourself; you are asked to die in defense of it. What about people with multiple nationalities and interests? What about those who hold different values and ideals, those who think differently? There are many people who have adopted Benjamin Franklin’s old saying:
where liberty is, there is my country.
War also often leads to the seizure of property and the imposition of war taxes to pay for the war. War is in our nature, and there is always fighting somewhere on the planet. When was the last time your country did not have an outside or inside conflict?
Because there are also wars that are internal: civil wars (Spain), guerrilla wars (Peru), narco-wars (Colombia or Mexico), gang wars (El Salvador), and so on.
In the not-too-distant future, additional citizenship, and thus a passport, could mean the difference between life and death for you… and your cherished family. But I want to get to the substance of this topic and show you the reasons and benefits of an additional citizenship.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Global Citizenship?
Although it is said that every person is a citizen of the world, the sense we give to this concept is a practical one, in which an individual can and should seek additional legal citizenships that facilitate moving around the world and settling in other countries for reasons of freedom, internationalization, business opportunities, and personal security.
This article delves into those possibilities.
How do you become a global citizen?
When it comes to exploring and exploiting the potentialities that the vast world has to offer, the idea is to not be constrained by governments and borders. Similarly, having “life insurance” in case of persecution, wars, etc.
This article examines the various procedures for obtaining a second nationality.
What is the Nº 1 passport in the world?
Japan’s, which allows entry to 170 countries under three modalities: without a visa, with visa issuance on arrival or electronic travel authorization.
Here’s to your future!
— Víctor Tapia —
Thank you for reading this article. If you have any questions or concerns, leave a comment below, I promise to respond.
Do you want to learn more about health and wellness, international business, and bitcoin? I invite you to join my free subscription so you can become informed, trained, and use the tools that will help you change your life for the better.
COMPLETENESS is the publication that studies the factors that restrict your freedom and prevent you from reaching your financial, health, and wellness goals. It analyzes the alternatives at hand and formulates and discusses actionable strategies.
Did you like this article? Here are some others you may enjoy:
Víctor Tapia is a writer who specializes in bitcoin, internationalization, and wellness issues. For his website’s web presence, he writes and edits both English and Spanish articles, guides, and courses. Similarly, he focuses on producing material for other parties and produces Medium stories on various themes related to his field.
Víctor worked for many years in the field of food and beverages, both for the hospitality and food industries. Before founding My CBS in 2002, he was the General Manager at Parmalat S.p.A., the multinational food corporation, at its subsidiary in Curaçao. One of his activities is service coaching in any area of commerce and industry, including food and beverages.
You can get in touch with him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, follow his posts on Medium, Mixturas (Spanish) and Completeness (English), or by visiting his website, My CBS.
¹ According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word tax comes from Latin taxare “evaluate, estimate, assess, handle,” also “censure, charge,” probably a frequentative form of tangere “to touch, handle”. So, there you have it all: your government will evaluate how much are you earning, it will censure your profits, estimate how much you have to pay for earning them and touch or handle your money.
