Many have immigration privilege but seem unaware of their privilege:
JUST BACK FROM…Puglia
By Carly Shea
For the last five or so years, my mom has been researching our Italian lineage as part of the process to prove jure sanguinis—the right to citizenship by direct bloodline. Having Italian citizenship means we can live and work anywhere in the EU, travel freely with no limit on stays in the EU and make the most of many other benefits. She’s combed through hundreds of posts in the “Dual U.S.-Italian Citizenship” Facebook pages and has woken up at ridiculous hours to try and book an impossible-to-get appointment at the consulate. We finally hired a lawyer from Italian Citizenship Assistance after learning that we qualified as a special “1948 Case.” (Prior to 1948, when the Italian Constitution granted women civil rights, women could not transfer citizenship to their children jure sanguinis. A 1948 Case allows you to claim Italian citizenship through a female ancestor.) After years of waiting, our court case was finally approved earlier this year, and to celebrate we decided to plan a trip to Puglia, where one side of our Italian family had immigrated from.
Bric-a-Brac 54 – Yolo Intel (substack.com)
Immigration privilege enables those who have it to travel freely. As best I can tell, they are oblivious to their privilege – and view this as normal. Yet it gives them, in some cases, enormous privileges. I am retired from computer engineering – I have six friends who became international tech consultants – because of their dual US/EU citizenship, they do consulting work in both the EU and North America without requiring additional visas. This is a huge competitive “feature” of their consulting services.
For other travelers, most visitors to the EU (and most countries of the world) are limited to a maximum stay of 90 days. But those with immigration/residency privileges can visit for as long as they want.
During Covid, most Americans were prohibited from traveling to Europe – but those with dual residency dual citizenship, or if married to a European or the immediate family of a European – could freely travel back and forth. For example, celebrity nutritionist Eric Feigl-Ding (his background was nutrition, not infectious diseases) lobbied to have schools closed in the United States while he and his family secretly moved to Austria where the schools were open. He could do this because his M.D. wife is a native of Austria which gave them privileges to travel back and forth. His antics are described about 3/4s of the way down this page.
Incredibly, nearly half of those in America may have immigration privilege: Bloomberg says up to 40% of Americans may qualify for EU citizenship due to ancestry.