That said, it sounds like you’re racing ahead of yourself to defend against some attack on your patriotism. Do you want to become Japanese that badly? And don’t you think it’s kind of inappropriate to try and connect such a minor issue to some age-old struggle to broaden people’s minds?

Part of America’s national identity is the belief that this is the best nation in the world and all the world’s people aspire to be like us. So the rule saying that you cease to be a citizen of the US if you A) Join a foreign army or B) Become a citizen of another country fits right in with that thinking. In that sense, your friend is right: it goes against the American way to abandon your country. America wants to deter just this sort of behavior by denying people dual-citizenship wherever they can. If people start defecting in mass numbers it would diminish their reputation as a beacon of freedom to the world.

And for the same reason I don’t think you can look down on someone who doesn’t understand why you would want to be Japanese or something like that. In case you haven’t noticed this, it’s extremely rare!

Not that it’s not an option. There may be very practical or even strictly ideological reasons to change one’s citizenship, even when it means abandoning your home country. I might even consider it myself. But your friend’s argument is extremely valid, since it has the forces of law and history behind it, even if you reject the reasoning behind it.

An attempt to answer your questions is below:

1 – As posted by Ben, Americans tend to see themselves on top of the world – we’ve had immigration going since the beginning of time, and justified or not, we tend to feel that everyone wants to live here (I’m not saying that I necessarily agree with that, so don’t jump all over me). It has to do with the overall cost of living as compared to your income, healthsystems, stability of the gov’t, and many other factors. This gets reinforced by the ex-pats we meet here who tell us how much better things are here than anywhere else.

2 – I think you might be confusing an instinct that’s being held over – loyalty to your family and then tribe. As we were evolving, you had a stake in whether or not your family survived and perpetuated their genes, so given a choice, you’d support them at the expense of other members of the species. As we started to get more integrated, that loyalty was transferred to your local tribe, then nation, etc. Additionally, this is reinforced politically throughout one’s lifetime via many national contests, etc. (soccer, olympics, wars, etc.). The idea of integration has always been taught as them integrating with you, not the other way around as it goes against the nationalism view from above.

3 – Couple of points here – You’re asking people to hold to a view they can’t really comprehend. People can readily comprehend fairly short time-frames. Right now, I’m 33 (I think…), but I have trouble comprehending what 10 years truly is. Why? Because my true adult life of responsibilities and the like is only 14 years long. I know, intellectually, that I need to start saving for a true house and retirement, however, that’s probably over twice as long from now as my current true life is only that long. Secondly, look at level of comfort. Most of the people who look to change their nationality (either by moving or by changing the government) aren’t comfortable (these doesn’t count those in power, this is the common man). That gives them the drive to desire change. Without that impetus, they’ve no reason to look past their current nationalism. Thirdly, if they don’t leave the local area for most of their life, they develop loyalties to the people who live in those areas, which gives them a reluctance to change as they feel they’d ‘betray’ their friends and family.

As for my personal view on turning in your passport: Depends on why you do it. If it’s because you’ve personally found a life that you enjoy more and want to stay there, have at it. It will make folks look at you askance (see the above reasons), but I can respect that. If you do it to avoid your responsibilities as a citizen, then I’ve got serious issues. But the last sentence of the first paragraph – what happens when they collide? And by collide, I mean go to war.

This is the riskiest part of the proposition. You’ve found a life you enjoy more or you’ve decided for some idealogical reason that you don’t want to be a member of the country of your birth. Then, the country you’ve decided to join goes to war with your original country. Chances are you’ve got friends and family in the original country. Can you be part of an effort that might kill them? Can you ask them to be part of an effort that might kill you? This is the biggest risk inherent in making your choice. Maybe it’s subconcious, by the patriot you were talking to might have been thinking this as well.

All things to consider…