by Richard A » Tue Feb 26, 2019 9:20 pm
Of course the fact that the Federal Republic (presumably) never recognised the Islamic State a state would mean that its military would not count as an army either. The UK has not had such a sweeping provision, at least in modern times - we have no objection to our citizens serving in armies of states that we like, it's just ones we view as hostile that we have a problem with. However, in Shamima Begum's case, one thing is clear: she never served in the IS military, she simply went there to marry a guy who did. Arneb, does the provision of the GG refer to actual armed service; if not, did this mean that the GI brides from 1949 on lost their German citizenship?
I presume that what Heid is talking about is that the US has a provision, not unlike France's, that service in its military qualifies a foreign national for citizenship. But unlike France, the US provision is inspired by the Roman Empire: the qualifying length of service is 25 years. My guess (although I don't know) is that the 25 year rule was a compromise included in the 1946 law. Previously, any application for citizenship was subject to a rule going back to the Republic's founding: American citizens were by definition white. Ironically, in the 1923 case, a group of Sikhs had watched the racial terminology gaining ground in Europe and tried to argue that India was where the Aryans originated. The US Supreme Court ruled that they were clearly not white and. as such, their grant of citizenship had violated the 1780s law. So come 1946, a new law provided that a person who had served for the requisite length of time qualified for US citizenship regardless of race.