About 15 years ago, I knew a couple from Latvia who had moved here and gone through the long process to become U.S. citizens. It was a big deal to them and it represented the culmination of years of hopes — dreaming of getting away from what had been a repressive government and becoming a part of the American experience.
For many of us, it’s always been a point of pride that so many people in other places wanted to become Americans. Some are like the 6-year-old from China, above, who are adopted here and don’t have much say in the matter. But most of the naturalized citizens are people who have struggled to get here and then struggled to make something of themselves in their new homeland. They’ve been grateful to have opportunities they couldn’t have dreamed of in the countries of their birth, in many cases. But I wonder whether that’s slowly changing.
The United States is still the “land of opportunity” compared to many places, but there are an increasing number of people who find the tax burden isn’t worth putting up for in exchange for U.S. citizenship. The latest example is Eduardo Saverin, a Brazilian-born c0-founder of Facebook. Saverin has decided to renounce his U.S. citizenship. It’s going to save him a lot of money as he becomes a very wealthy man by Facebook going public.
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