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Abstract:
There is variation among the Latin American sending countries in the timing, sequence, and form by which they have approved retention-of-nationality laws (dual-citizenship laws) and have extended political rights to their migrants abroad. This variation is the product not only of the characteristics of the migration in each country but also of the specificity of their political and electoral systems and of the historical relationship between the state and its citizens. I focus my analysis on Latin American migration to the United States, which, although not the only destination, has attracted the majority of Latin American migrants and has significantly influenced, with its immigration policies, the policies of Latin American sending countries towards their émigrés.
INTRODUCTION
Political participation across borders and dual nationality, both expressions of the transformation of the state in this new era of globalization and increased migration, have become common phenomena worldwide. In the United States, a major point of destination of Latin American migration, a growing number of Latin American immigrants are becoming dual citizens by naturalization, thanks to laws in their countries of origin that allow them to retain their original citizenship. At the same time that these immigrants are integrating into the polity of the United States, they are becoming active members of the political communities of their countries of origin as these countries extend political rights to their nationals abroad.
The United States has maintained a de facto "tolerant" policy (Aleinikoff and Klusmeyer 2001) towards dual citizenship, which has, in effect, shifted the decision on dual citizenship to the sending countries. Hence, Latin American countries have been the ones dictating the constitutional and legislative changes, not only to extend citizen rights to nationals abroad but also to enable them to become dual citizens.
Dual nationality and voting abroad have been debated simultaneously, because both concern the migrant community and have been up for discussion in the Latin American sending countries, particularly in the 1990s, during the same political conjunctures. We must distinguish these two issues, however, in order to better understand the origin and consequences of each one.
The first goal of this paper is to show that within the context of Latin America-U.S. migration, dual citizenship has been the result of the integration of immigrants...