The Privilege of Citizenship

Recently while talking to a friend a subject of emigration from Russia came up. My friend knew some people who moved to US in their late teens with their parents, but who returned to Russia once they became adults. I have previously known of a few cases where people were extremely unhappy in this country and have returned to their native land, but I have never heard of a group of virtually unrelated people going back to Russia permanently. I was shocked.

I questioned the possibility of moving back to one’s mother country without proper working documents. I had forgotten that people emigrating from Russia in the mid 1990’s and later did not have to give up their renounce their citizenship like I did. Today former Russian citizens are able to get their citizenship reinstated. In fact, Russian immigrants, now American citizens, who travel back to Russia a lot, find it convenient to get their Russian citizenship reinstated so that they do not have to get a visa to enter Russia every time.

The US government highly discourages dual citizenship due to the problems that may arise when the laws of the two countries conflict. A US citizen who automatically qualifies and is granted another country’s citizenship stands no risk of losing the US citizenship. However, a US citizen who deliberately applies for the citizenship of another country may lose his or her US citizenship.

When I moved to the United States, I could not wait to receive my US passport. Coming to America has given me a lot of freedom and choice-- freedom to choose what to study and what educational institution to enter, freedom to follow the traditions of my ancestors, freedoms I did not have in Russia. Receiving the US citizenship also provided me with the freedom to travel as well as the safety of being under the protection of the US government.

The US government does not guarantee protection to its citizen in the country of their birth, which is logical given that a person can have legitimate claims to that country’s citizenship. This policy is unfortunate for the US citizen who explicitly renounced the citizenship of their mother countries. Thus when traveling to Russia, I cannot rely on the help of US government in case Russian authorities decide to detain me regardless of which passport or passports I held.

If I wanted to move back to Russia, or if I wanted to make my travel to Moscow only a matter of purchasing a ticket, I could pay some money, fill out a few forms, and get my Russian passport. Obtaining the Russian citizenship would also give me the opportunity to move back to Russia.

Would I like to spend some time in Russia? Yes. Would I like to move to Moscow for a year or two and live alongside my friends like an ordinary Russian? Yes, there is no doubt about it. I have never lived in Russia as an adult, and I would very much like to experience it. If today someone offered me a Russian work visa and a job, I might very well accept. The time I have lived in Russia now represents less then half of my life. Yet the effects of growing up in the Soviet Union are not wearing off. I miss my friends, and I long to know better the city I grew up in. I have always felt at home when I went back.

If I had a Russian passport, all I would have to do is find a job, and I would be ready to move. Yet I am not rushing off to get my Russian citizenship reinstated. In fact I would never accept the Russian citizenship, even if paid to do so. It might mean that I would never live in Moscow again, but I already had to face that reality when we were leaving the Soviet Union. In accepting the Russian citizenship I would be acting against my principles.

When moving to the United States my parents left their well established lives, their friends and elderly parents behind so that I would never know the discrimination with which the Soviet Union treated its Jewish population. My parents made the sacrifice of their own comfort so that I would feel safe to live my life however I chose to.

Moving back to Russia would erase everything they have done and struggled for. By accepting the Russian citizenship I would accept all the injustice inflicted upon my parents and my grandparents as due course. I could never do so. Moreover, it would break the trust that the United States has extended to me when allowing me to become the US citizen. I spent six years being a citizen of no country at all. I was born in Russia, but I am proud to be a citizen of the United States of America.