{"id":335,"date":"2012-01-23T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T15:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colindgordon.net\/?p=335"},"modified":"2012-08-25T14:45:30","modified_gmt":"2012-08-25T13:45:30","slug":"four-nationalities-into-one-dont-go-the-end-of-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/01\/four-nationalities-into-one-dont-go-the-end-of-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Nationalities Into One Don’t Go: The End Of The UK?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How many passports do you (legally) have? If the answer is \u201cmore than one\u201d then you now have the support of the \u201cEconomist\u201d magazine. A leading article in its 7th<\/sup> January edition praised the concept of \u201cmultiple identities\u201d and declared that \u201cone-state citizenship\u201d looks \u201coutdated\u201d. More than 200 million people, it pointed out, currently live and work outside the countries in which they were born. Many of them inevitably acquire a sense of loyalty towards the \u201cpolitical entity\u201d in which they reside \u2013 often much to the disapproval of their nation of origin. A majority of African states (for example) appear to be hostile to the idea of \u201cdivided allegiance\u201d \u2013 as do countries such as Denmark, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, the Czech Republic, Norway, China and India, whose policy tends towards \u201cautomatic loss of citizenship if another is acquired voluntarily\u201d. Participants in US naturalization ceremonies are still expected to renounce \u201cfidelity to any foreign prince\u201d \u2013 though the movie actor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds both Austrian and US nationality: Germans and Austrians are allowed to obtain a second one as long as they apply for permission beforehand. Saudi Arabians risk incurring \u201ccriminal penalties\u201d if they \u201cexercise\u201d another citizenship. \u00a0In Latin America (according to \u201cImmihelp.com\u201d): Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina accept \u201cdual nationality\u201d but Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Chile discourage it. These last three, however, along with Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Honduras, have signed a \u201cdual citizenship treaty\u201d with Spain. \u00a0A successful application immediately confers the right to live and work anywhere in the European Union, which is why an EU passport is so highly valued. Alex Ragir of \u201cImmigrant Connect\u201d in Chicago, has asserted that it is much easier to get citizenship in Italy than elsewhere in the EU and that this favours particularly Brazilians and Argentinians with Italian ancestry. Research conducted by the \u201cInternational & European Forum on Migration\u201d(FIERI) has suggested that \u201c over 25 million people worldwide are eligible for Italian citizenship\u201d.<\/p>\n

For British nationals who would like a second (or third) passport – but have no immediate intention of moving abroad or marrying someone from overseas \u2013 there may soon be another option available. In 2014, Scotland will vote on whether it wants to remain in the UK. A \u201cYouGov\u201d poll quoted in the \u201cSunday Times\u201d on 15th<\/sup> January indicated that so far just 33% of Scots are in favour of independence and that 68% would prefer a \u201cdevolution max\u201d arrangement, whereby they would continue in the Union but become virtually self-governing with only defence and foreign policy controlled from Westminster. If the Scots do decide to go their own way, Wales and even Northern Ireland may also conclude that they should do the same. Such an outcome would confirm the fears expressed in 1997 by Stephen Crabb, Conservative MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, Wales, when Tony Blair (then Prime Minister) announced his devolution proposals \u2013 namely that the UK is being \u201cslowly dismembered with the tacit consent of the political classes\u201d. Although England\u2019s population (an estimated 51,446,000) is the largest of Britain\u2019s four constituent elements (Scotland has around 5,222,100; Wales: 3,006,400; Northern Ireland: 1,789,000) it could be (in the opinion of many commentators) \u201creduced to the status of a small country off the coast of Europe, lose its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and no longer qualify for membership of the G8 Group of major world economies\u201d. Despite this entirely feasible scenario, another \u201cYouGov\u201d poll has revealed that 36% of English voters would be happy for Scotland to leave and only 39% want it to stay; 25% are as yet undecided.<\/p>\n

A complete break-up would present both a dilemma and an opportunity for those of us on this island who have family connections with other parts of the Union.\u00a0 I have a Scottish surname: At my naturalization ceremony, would I be required to wear a kilt (the clan\u2019s colours are green, yellow and black),to know at least one of Scotland\u2019s three national anthems (\u201cFlower Of Scotland\u201d, \u201cScotland The Brave\u201d or \u201cThe Thistle Of Scotland\u201d) and to speak a bit of\u00a0 Scottish Gaelic ? I could for sure already answer some of the probable questions in the citizenship test: The colours of the Saltire (Scotland\u2019s flag) are white & blue, their patron saint is St Andrew and the thistle is their national emblem – according to legend because a Danish invader stood on one in his bare feet and his shouts of agony alerted the defenders. On my mother\u2019s side, I\u2019m Welsh: The citizenship ceremony there would be even more formidable: They are renowned for their fine choral traditions, so I might be asked to sing (with difficulty) their national anthem, \u201cLand Of My Fathers\u201d and then have to recite without errors the name of their most famous railway station: “Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-gogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysilio-gogogoch”. The Welsh national flag consists of a red dragon superimposed on a green & white background, the leek is their national emblem and St David (their patron saint) has his own special day: March 1st<\/sup>.\u00a0 The Welsh language is undergoing a revival \u2013 it is spoken by over 21.7% of the population \u2013 so I should definitely consider taking a \u201ccrash course\u201d in it prior to both the test and the ceremony. As far as I\u2019m aware, I have no Northern Irish family background \u2013 and anyway, a Queen\u2019s University, Belfast, survey has indicated that, at the moment, 73% of inhabitants there would vote to retain their links with the UK. Just a couple of other quandaries to resolve: Which team should I support in the FIFA World Cup preliminary rounds (it\u2019s highly unlikely that all of them will get to the finals) and which flag should I stick on the back of my car if I can ever again afford the price of petrol to drive across Europe?<\/p>\n

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How many passports do you (legally) have? If the answer is \u201cmore than one\u201d then you now have the support of the \u201cEconomist\u201d magazine. A leading article in its 7th January edition praised the concept of \u201cmultiple identities\u201d and declared that \u201cone-state citizenship\u201d looks \u201coutdated\u201d. More than 200 million people, it pointed out, currently live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colindgordon.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}