Citizenship pipedreams
By autum of next year, I will have lived in Great Britain for twenty years and been married for nineteen of them.
Every now and then, my thoughts turn to adopting British citizenship—particularly with view of any future possible medical emergencies abroad when I’d rather have the British embassy contacted and my husband informed as soon as possible.
Two hurdles have stood in the way for me adopting British citizenship. The first (swearing allegiance to the queen) has recently been softened to the extent that it is acceptable to my political beliefs. The second (reform of the unbelievably finicky German citizenship laws) looked to happen back in the year 2000. Unfortunately, the process stalled. It is still not possible for someone like myself to retain German citizenship. I’m not the only one to be frustrated by this.
Ironically, this is because I cannot prove any remaining strong connections to the country of my birth. I don’t have any property, and I no longer talk to my remaining relatives there.
This means that I can keep my German passport by right of birth but will have to surrender it should I decide to become British. And as I still have an accent thick enough for people to think I’m here on holiday (thanks, German English teachers!), I simply can’t do that. It feels fake.
I’m both—British and Geman. But the German government with their DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES attitude makes a rational approach to dual citizenship impossible.
It doesn’t bother me most of the time. But I don’t want to get into another situation like the one in Bangkok. Hopefully, increased globalisation will make the traveller’s live easier in the future. After all, my insurers were Australian. But I’m not going there right now.
PS If there’s any more comment spam, I’ll have to close this entry for comments, no offense. (It’s open for now.)
Tags: Neither here nor there, Tag Index
Denni