During the early years of this country prospective new settlers were offered citizenship on the basis that they revoked allegiance to their country of birth.
Somewhere down the track this was softened. Dual nationality became an option and we now find this being taken up as a safety measure - a fall back situation in case something goes wrong with the other half of the equation.
Ten years ago many Hong Kong citizens were terrified at the prospect of the former Crown colony being handed back to China and coming under Communist rule. There was a rush of applicants - mainly wealthy property owners - to acquire Australian citizenship and the right to reside here.
Little changed in Hong Kong and the Communists honoured the " one country - two systems " arrangement. The fear abated - and the expected huge relocation to this country simply didn't happen.
Now there is a new avenue of Australian citizenship being used as a safety measure. Middle East citizens who temporarily move to Australia in order to gain citizenship - and then permanently move back to countries such as Lebanon - which is mired in civil war and terrorism.
What riles many people here is the moment something goes awry in their foreign homeland - civil war breaks out or they get arrested for supporting terrorism - they loudly claim to be Australians and demand that the Australian taxpayer fund a rescue effort to bring them home or provide consular support to get them out of prison.
Inevitably, when the danger passes - they revert to the foreign half of their citizenship and happily relocate back to their former country.
This is a cop-out that is being exploited with no gain for Australia. There is no shortage of refugees wanting to emigrate to Australia and we can pick and choose who we allow in to adopt our relaxed lifestyle.
Perhaps now would be a good time to discontinue dual-nationality as far as citizenship is concerned. If you want to come to this country and be an Australian
then say goodbye to your former life. If that is not acceptable - then do not bother to apply !
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