In the wake of the media’s contemptuous portrayal of Canadians with dual citizenship — make that non-white Canadians with dual citienship — as mooches and hustlers, CBC.ca commentator Madelaine Drohan has penned a sound response to what she calls these “parochial and uninformed” opinions:
“In a study done at the University of California at Berkeley, [professor Irene Bloemraad] took the StatsCan census figures and studied them to determine who claims dual citizenship. She found that dual nationals, as she calls them, are highly educated. In fact she suggested they could be considered part of an educated global elite. Professional and cosmopolitan individuals are more likely to embrace dual citizenship than people she described as marginalized…
“None of this has come up in our current debate. Instead, dual citizens have been painted as semi-rapacious Canadians of convenience, who do little for the country, except demand evacuation when problems arise. And in return, we grant them the same rights as native-born Canadians. (Except that we don’t entirely. Their citizenship can be revoked if they are found guilty of certain crimes, whereas that of a Canadian-born citizen cannot.)”