As increasing numbers of Americans obtain dual citizenship, they are listing their newfound legal status on CVs and LinkedIn accounts in the hope of getting an edge in a competitive job market.
But is dual citizenship really a resume builder?
Paula Caligiuri, distinguished professor of international business and strategy at Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, advises job applicants to include dual citizenship as a qualification while also recommending employers take a closer look at what it means about prospective employees.
“Dual citizens are able to move to places where they have dual citizenship status without worrying about visa and immigration restrictions,” she says. “That’s the practical side of it.
“It also signals, correctly or incorrectly, that someone is culturally agile, that they have cultural competence to move comfortably and effectively in and out of different countries,” Caligiuri says. “To me, that’s an assumption that needs to be tested for each person.”
Dual citizens are citizens of two countries who have rights to live, work, own property and in some cases vote in both countries.
The number of Americans applying for dual citizenship has increased steeply over the last several years for investment purposes.
There are several paths to dual citizenship. Some countries allow dual citizenship by birthright or ancestry, allowing Americans with a parent, grandparent or even great-grandparent with citizenship to qualify.
Other routes to dual citizenship for Americans can include marriage to foreign nationals and investment in other countries. Henley & Partners, which specializes in global residency planning, counts Antigua and Barbuda as well as Dominica among the least expensive countries to become a citizen by investment, with costs averaging around $200,000.
Employers, especially multinational employers, like dual citizenship for their employees for many of the same reasons individuals do — the ability to live and work in a foreign country without dealing with the hassle of visas and immigration issues, Caligiuri says.
If the dual citizenship is for a country where the organization is doing business, individuals holding it “become very, very valuable because of their ability to move,” she says. “Multinational organizations need to be able to deploy people as needed, especially for longer stints.”
Some foreign countries will allow a corporation to send an American who does not hold dual citizenship to work within its borders for two years, but after that the country requires the organization to replace the employee with one of its own citizens.
Whether for work, retirement or extensive tourism, dual citizenship can also promote ease of travel, says Caligiuri, whose father was born in Italy and who is in the process of applying for dual Italian citizenship herself.
“You can move easily without immigration challenges, without needing work visas and the like. You have an ability to stay in a country longer. All of that is really helpful,” she says.
Also, since Italy belongs to the European Union, dual citizens of Italy also have the right to live, work and study in any EU state.
Employers may think holding dual citizenship means an individual can easily change their norms to operate in another cultural context, says Caligiuri, a psychologist and expert in cultural agility.
“Organizations have to be a little bit careful about the assumptions that they make about people who are dual citizens,” she says.
People can obtain dual citizenship without being familiar with other cultures and without ever leaving home.
And some people are more cosmopolitan, which means they do great in big cities anywhere in the world but struggle in host national environments outside those big cities. It is in the less cosmopolitan environments that they often will first experience a cultural challenge, Caligiuri says.
“I worked in Milan for three years. That was a world apart from where my parents were from, which was a very rural area in southern Italy. They don’t even feel like the same country.”
Employers also should not assume that a person with dual citizenship in a non-English speaking country is fluently bilingual, Caligiuri says.
She gives points for people who are bilingual since research shows that these individuals have built up a cognitive muscle that allows them to move in and out of different cultural situations with relative ease.
“Their language fluency gives bilinguals cognitive flexibility, a skill which is independent of a culture,” meaning that people who are fluently bilingual or multilingual don’t necessarily need to speak the language of the latest culture in which they find themselves to enjoy the benefits, Caligiuri says.
She says it’s also possible that people who seek dual citizenship are likely to have something called “the adventure gene,” which is believed to be present in individuals who are comfortable trying new things and picking up and moving. “If they have it, they can thank their biological parents or grandparents.”
A possible drawback of dual citizenship includes being taxed in two countries, which is one reason Caligiuri says consulting with an attorney who specializes in this area is beneficial for anyone seeking dual citizenship status.
“Americans get taxed on their income, regardless of where it’s made. So you have to understand the dual taxation laws,” she says.
In the case of individuals working for multinational companies, their employer usually has tax experts who sort out the details so the employees are not penalized, she says.
In addition, in some cases people cannot hold certain government jobs or obtain certain levels of security clearances while being dual citizens, Caligiuri says. There’s also a push to prohibit members of Congress from holding dual citizenship.
Giving up one’s citizenship in a second country is always possible, she says.