Comment by carlosjobim
4 days ago
Or move back to your home country once you've gained a beneficial citizenship and can have foreign government benefits paid out every month while you don't even live in that country anymore.
4 days ago
Or move back to your home country once you've gained a beneficial citizenship and can have foreign government benefits paid out every month while you don't even live in that country anymore.
Perhaps. I think it's more about the passport ranking so one can travel and also the salary bump. But even if more of the other government services, try living in a country where if you get into a serious car accident you have to pay cash at the ER before they treat you. Scrambling to find multiple thousands of dollars in cash at 3am sometimes. (This happened to my friend in Kenya)
Im not sure if I can blame people for wanting to have more financial or medical security.
I think a very low percentage of migrants do it so that they can get a better passport for traveling. Sure, there are people who do that also.
Fair point. I also think the same group you're talking about is probably not thinking about going back home with just government benefits to sustain them. They probably are more focused on working in countries with higher wages and building big homes back home. I think it tends to be more wage driven than government benefit driven, but I could be wrong.
Is it legal to let people suffer or even die at the ER on Kenya if they don’t happen to carry a few k$?
Fair point, just looked it up and it seems to be illegal to do that. But in my experience, many probably still do it, or people don't trust that hospitals will follow the law...it may be more of that latter part, not knowing whether they will or won't ask you for money, or whether they will or won't take your insurance. So I think that uncertainty can mean having to be prepared for it anyway.
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What country pays out benefits to non-residents?
The UK will pay state pension if you live abroad: https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad
.. which is a contribution based benefit. There's a lot of (deliberate) confusion between pensions and "welfare" benefits, which are generally not available to either immigrants who have not achieved nationality or to overseas nationals.
People should cite more specific examples if they want to claim otherwise.
Any country that pays out benefits to bank accounts instead of cash-in-hand. When was the last time you as a citizen were summoned to appear in front of a government official so that they could verify that you are in the country.
My elderly British relatives have to prove every year that they are still alive (sworn statement by an official in their country of residence) if they want to keep drawing their government pension.
Of course pensions aren't contingent on being in-country, but I have trouble picturing the same bureaucracy being less anal about other government benefits.
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And if you pay taxes and social security for 20+ years why wouldn’t you be entitled to it? Especially considering you wouldn’t be using expensive programs like Medicare.
You don't have to pay taxes nor social security for 20+ years in order to become a citizen in very many countries. You can live on benefits before becoming a citizen and after becoming a citizen. Usually the requirement is that you are a resident for a set number of years in order to become a citizen.
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