I got an interesting perspective on citizenship late at night at a remote Canadian border post.
While I have dual citizenship, I live and work in the US, and nearly always travel on my US passport.
The boarder guard gave me a hard time about traveling with my children and without my spouse, but after ascertaining that I wasn't abducting my own children in a custodial dispute, let me in, and then got chatty.
He said something along the lines of, "I could tell you were annoyed that I had to call your wife, but if your kids ever went missing, you'd be glad that we checked."
Since we were just having a chat and he seemed friendly, I let him know that I was a dual-citizen, and asked a few questions I'd had about dual-citizens crossing boarders. One of them was, "would it have made any difference if I was coming into Canada as a Canadian, instead of an American?"
His answer was, "As a foreigner, I can deny your entry into Canada for all sorts of reasons. As a Canadian, I have to let you into Canada so long as I don't have reason to doubt the authenticity of your citizenship. Basically, if I think you're a foreign criminal, I can deny you entry. If I believe you're a Canadian criminal, I have to let you in then arrest you."
BTW, he also let me know that the biggest reason that dual-citizens should travel on the passport of the country they reside in is hassles over import duties. AKA, if I'd been entering as a Canadian driving a US registered vehicle into Canada, he would have been suspicious that I was importing it, and likely to charge me import duties, or at least given me more of a hassle about making sure it was going back to the US at the end of our weekend camping trip.
>BTW, he also let me know that the biggest reason that dual-citizens should travel on the passport of the country they reside in is hassles over import duties.
It's important to add the caveat that different countries have different views on this. For example, my understanding is that while the US does not ban dual citizenship, it is illegal for a US citizen to enter the US on a non-US passport.
I believe there was discussion on this in an HN post some months ago, and the consensus seemed to be that, while technically illegal, the law does not provide for any penalty for doing so[0]. At worst, you'd be denied entry, and then would present your US passport and be let in. (If you didn't have it, it would be more of a pain, but eventually you'd be let in after proving your citizenship through other means.)
I think the bigger issue with trying to do this would be getting an ESTA/visa for US entry on your foreign passport. Anecdotal reports seem to suggest it's possible, but apparently there's a question on the ESTA form asking if you are a US citizen, and if you say yes, they're supposed to deny you.
I don't think the officer was over-reaching in this case. Kids are a complicated matter since if you "abducted" your own kids the first thing you'd do is run out of the country. Of course, no officer will want that to happen on his watch.
Obviously, if my children were ever abducted, I'd want every law enforcement officer everywhere looking for them, and doing whatever was necessary to find them.
On the other hand, I dislike the construct that I as a parent am required to have a "permission slip" from my wife to take my kids camping north of the border.
Honestly, I think this could pretty easily be solved with a technological solution. Just some (optional) system where parents can alert the government of neighboring countries "I trust my spouse and they can cross the border with my kids at any time" or "we're in a custody arrangement/domestic dispute don't let them through!"
Tie it to the digital info they already have related to passports, and this becomes frictionless.
I had this happen to me too, and it was really strange. The border dude looked really pissed off at me. He didn't call my wife or anything, just berated me for a while (for what?? for driving up to Canada?). Very strange. He didn't check on anything additional at all, just yelled at me for a while (for not having a wife in the car??) and waved me through.
While I have dual citizenship, I live and work in the US, and nearly always travel on my US passport.
The boarder guard gave me a hard time about traveling with my children and without my spouse, but after ascertaining that I wasn't abducting my own children in a custodial dispute, let me in, and then got chatty.
He said something along the lines of, "I could tell you were annoyed that I had to call your wife, but if your kids ever went missing, you'd be glad that we checked."
Since we were just having a chat and he seemed friendly, I let him know that I was a dual-citizen, and asked a few questions I'd had about dual-citizens crossing boarders. One of them was, "would it have made any difference if I was coming into Canada as a Canadian, instead of an American?"
His answer was, "As a foreigner, I can deny your entry into Canada for all sorts of reasons. As a Canadian, I have to let you into Canada so long as I don't have reason to doubt the authenticity of your citizenship. Basically, if I think you're a foreign criminal, I can deny you entry. If I believe you're a Canadian criminal, I have to let you in then arrest you."
BTW, he also let me know that the biggest reason that dual-citizens should travel on the passport of the country they reside in is hassles over import duties. AKA, if I'd been entering as a Canadian driving a US registered vehicle into Canada, he would have been suspicious that I was importing it, and likely to charge me import duties, or at least given me more of a hassle about making sure it was going back to the US at the end of our weekend camping trip.