BritInParis

Again, you may not like the IMF definition, but it's a perfectly reasonable metric to use given the nature of the organisation. The World Bank would disagree with the IMF and include Chile but then their list is twice as long.

It's happening because US citizenship is valued for the future education opportunities it provides. Ambitious Korean and Chinese parents want their children to have an English language education.

scrubbedexpat099

I assume it is seen as Insurance, f1 is there to study.

BritInParis

The F1 comes with all sorts of strings attached - cost, medicals, academic performance, English language knowledge, temporary status - that a US passport simply doesn't. Attending a public high school on a F1 visa means paying the full per capita costs of your study. A US citizen would get the same education for free.

Steve_

But it's not, that's my basic point. Generally you use the OECD list to compare countries, I've heard this "IMF" comparison used before, and it's a contrived way of doing it in order to imply that Canada and the US are somehow shockingly different and naive. In reality nearly every country in the Americas has jus soli citizenship and plenty of those countries are perfectly nice places that are reasonably well developed, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, etc.

Someone at some point looked into these lists and especially chose the IMF list because it fit their agenda. It's misleading.

Look I'm sure Chinese people etc. think having US citizenship for their kids is wonderful, but it's really a triumph of marketing over reality because I'm sure the schools in Shanghai are better.

BritInParis

And that's absolutely fine, but that's a different argument to have, which just writing 'bollocks' doesn't really convey. IMHO a better observation would be jus soli is the norm in the Americas whereas it is rare in the rest of the world for which there are historical reasons connected to the creation, and later separation, of the 'New World' from the old.

Evidently you haven't experienced the school system in China.

scot47

When I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia 1996 -2011 I came across quite a few Saudis who had been born in the USA when their parents were in the States as students or similar. Most had US passports but many were reluctant to discuss this. The Saudi Government is not happy with its nationals having claims to other citizenships.