The Big Switch

Via Bill

 

So how did your nationality get combined with citizenship?  A friend from Australia recently sent me a nicely summarized list of legislative acts from the 1920 through the late 60's, and what it very neatly summarizes is a fundamental change that happened in the 1940's and which has never been corrected.  

At the beginning of the legislative history there were numerous "Nationality Acts" in the 1920's and 30's.  Then, beginning in the 1940's all of these became "Nationality and Citizenship Acts".  This is where your nationality got confused and "lumped together" with your political status as a "citizen" or not.

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