Our Feudal Immigration Policy

Until its reform in 2000, German immigration law was based on a principle that many Canadians might find objectionable, even disturbing: blood. To be a German citizen, you had to be born to German parents. Thousands of “guest workers” who had lived in Germany from birth, some even second and third generation, were permanently excluded from ever becoming full members of the community. At the same time, the children born to German citizens living abroad would automatically be entitled to citizenship, as were their descendants, even if none of them ever lived there. Exceptions have since been made, but the principle remains: children of German stock are admitted to German citizenship automatically, as of right. Everyone else can wait in line.

But then, a German might find Canadian immigration law no less odd. There is no bloodline requirement for Canadian citizenship: it is enough, rather, to have been born on Canadian soil. Your parents might have been changing...