Mexico Latest to Grant Rights to Expatriates of Other Citizenship

In an era of growing global migration, Mexico is the latest in a series of major immigrant-sending nations that has allowed expatriates to retain rights as nationals despite taking on citizenship status in the United States or elsewhere.

Countries resisting the dual-nationality trend, including India and South Korea, are under increasing pressure from their emigres to follow the Mexican example.

Many dual nationals, including those from Colombia and the Dominican Republic, are even able to vote in their homelands’ elections, sometimes via absentee ballots.

The new Mexican law pointedly does not grant electoral privileges--a matter of great dispute in Mexico, where a potentially landmark presidential election is two years away. Allowing Mexicans living abroad to vote in national elections would turn Southern California and other regions into major Mexican political battlefields.

The sheer size of the Mexican immigrant population has galvanized opposition to the dual-nationality concept among many groups worried about split loyalties, especially in instances of war or political conflict.

Critics cite a seeming paradox: New citizens must formally renounce allegiances to foreign governments as part of the U.S. naturalization process, but U.S. law still permits Americans to possess other nationalities. In practice, the mandate for renunciation of foreign loyalties is not formally enforced.

“Is it in our national interest to have literally millions and millions of people who have this dual allegiance?” asked Ira Mehlman, West Coast representative of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors lower immigration levels.

Others, however, argue that the increasing incidence of dual nationality is a natural and healthy outgrowth of growing globalization and world economic and cultural integration. Moreover, some call it an ideal way to foster U.S.-style political values and participation, both at home and abroad.

“Encouraging dual nationality can become a part of our policy of encouraging global democracy,” said Peter J. Spiro, a law professor at Hofstra University in New York who has studied the issue.