Expatriation, Expatriates, and Expats: The American Transformation of a Concept

There have been many expatriates, but few people have legally expatriated. Living abroad is one thing; losing one's citizenship is another. With the notable exception of Henry James in 1915, Americans who chose to live and write abroad rarely gave up or lost their citizenship in the process.1 The terms “expatriate” and “expatriation” have a long and complex history, but they have been largely absent from recent studies of citizenship. Their use ranges from simple residence abroad (“for a considerable amount of time”) to the more definitive legal renunciation or destitution of allegiance, “denationalization,” or “decitizenization.”2 Most often, the noun “expatriate” conjures up the interwar “Lost Generation” writers. The lives, essays, and novels of the American expatriate writers in Paris in the 1920s have captured readers' imaginations and framed an important debate on exile and a comparative critique of the New World versus the Old. The term “expatriate” has been extended backward to refer to Edith Wharton in the early twentieth century and beyond World War II to James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Encompassing everyone from the Henrys—James and Miller—to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, from White Bostonians and New Yorkers to Black Harlemites, from those escaping sexual and social convention to those fleeing prejudice and discrimination, expatriate writers, artists, and musicians have become a romanticized icon, haunting Parisian cafés where Hemingway's Moveable Feast can still be seen, clutched by earnest would-be Ernests.3 However, the writers and artists have eclipsed a broader understanding of expatriation both as a legal act and with regard to its meaning for changing notions of citizenship. The concept itself comprises somewhat contradictory elements. Ever since Roman times, the question of belonging has turned on the question of patria or domus. To which place does one belong and/or owe allegiance: to one's place of origin, or to the place where one hangs one's hat—literally, where one keeps one's seat (sedes)?4 Birthplace and domicile considerations have given way to the distinction between jus sanguinis, the right of blood or the acquisition of citizenship through parentage, and jus soli, the right of soil or citizenship by virtue of being born in a territory. Most contemporary democracies incorporate some of both in their citizenship laws, which means that one country's citizen by jus soli may be another's by jus sanguinis. With ever-increasing geographic mobility over the last two centuries, the uneasy relationship between birthplace and domicile and the multiple identities that they may engender have become ever more complex. The word “expatriation,” loss of citizenship, is sometimes used as coterminous with “emigration,” the physical change of domicile, and emigration and legal expatriation are often linked, but it is possible to move without losing one's citizenship of origin just as it has been possible to lose one's citizenship without ever leaving home. The meaning of expatriation also varies depending on who is initiating the act, the state or the individual, and whether or not it is voluntary. The state banishes; the subject can choose to depart. But the valence given to assignment or consent has changed over time. Whereas exile used to be the first definition of “expatriation,” the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has explicitly decided to list voluntary leave-taking first and expulsion second, a sign of a transformation in the meaning of departure.5 The aim here is threefold. First, it is important to incorporate expatriation into our categories for understanding the state's relation to its citizens. The upsurge of citizenship studies since the 1990s has focused mainly on those within the state's boundaries. Long celebrated as a country of inclusion, the United States has had its history rewritten to include the history of exclusion within its borders. T. H. Marshall's notion of social citizenship, the right to participate in educational, welfare, and other social services, has been abundantly used to look at the domestic limitations of belonging. Slavery, gender, and policies toward Native Americans have been reexamined in a broader understanding of long-embedded exclusions within American social citizenship.6 Much less attention, however, has been given to those who have left the country and/or lost their legal citizenship.7 Only the expatriation of American women who married foreign nationals between 1907 and 1931 has received due attention in recent years.8 Yet even this well-known case of involuntary expatriation needs to be situated within the longer history of the term. Expatriation has also been largely absent from migration studies. Immigration history, written primarily in the countries of arrival, has most often focused on the problematic policies and experiences of entry, acceptance, rejection, and/or settlement of newcomers. Yet emigration and expatriation provide reverse mirrors of and are to it both in and in are they the other and become their and be one country's is another's the in a of studies to emigration and can reverse the and citizenship by on the state itself not through those it or less within its but also with regard to those who the concept of expatriation be as both a legal and a social in the United States over citizenship and have been in the and the The of the expatriate has the legal at the for an history of the of the and the state's of citizenship can the has an important in the in which citizenship has been this history of the last two can be as which the meaning of expatriation has from an to an notion to of the first two both of which in an expatriate as to the and early expatriation to the of a from the right of expatriation from to the United and the American with or in the century with from a second, on the expatriation be as a to that their in the United States from the countries of their the early twentieth however, a by the Expatriation of a more The expatriate as leaving whether for women foreign for or just to the first two be legally from citizenship. The list of that citizenship loss and at the more and more Americans with a in World War from the has one more in the meaning of to a more of that the has had a in the list of legal as abroad and even citizenship have become expatriation has often used from “expatriation” to to to and those of in the to of those Americans who of the twentieth to on citizenship loss two of American and have the of expatriation from to to Expatriation a of the United States to its from it other to the notion of leaving one's country of Expatriation as a of in with in citizenship expatriation both a and a for the early The of which that had the of the has to the of for that the for of to to their a of the right of the in to American and citizenship, expatriation from had to be a right for both the state and the The United States had to both and the that or those born the to most by the in expatriation as a and a legal for the to its that expatriation in a The right of the to a right of entry, and a notion of the definition of the American The and early not on however, as in The of Expatriation in to 1907 one of the most of the first century of expatriation for still the of an to the in New in to the citizenship of those who had the the of into by the to which they is of and in and to the of the social this the right of that of the the that of the however, to a notion of citizenship expatriation as a right in to American and the right of to become The American up their citizenship in early the question whether the had a that since had become a citizen in not be for in the United is a of a citizen can be a who had or lost or citizenship be an but not a as However, that expatriation a right that be by and the James left one of the more of the of still a not to be a that not be to a to first that not be to in a to which is can less in one and may live in are which as as and they are as most in the to the early the less on the who the American on and who for the American citizenship. The War of a of debate in the United States over the question of to be one of the of the with the and The other over of expatriation and of citizenship. With a of to the notion of and that one not from one's to to the of those it still to be its to American and as its American and of the to the notion of a debate which the that the not just a but an American as the this concept of expatriation to the of over who to that expatriation a right to be at with the of not it an extended of the of New as one in that it be for a to that by the case that emigration from a that of and that to it and the of on that the those who from a not just of but of the of the that the term itself of Roman that the contemporary definition of American origin, as used in a of expatriation to domicile residence can be and left the question as to whether the act and not the country's to that itself to the expatriation of its The in critique of and its to and with the of their at the of everyone that the concept of not in it is and in has to two as by the of on Expatriation as a a of but as the the which to a somewhat in of expatriation on but to over that the from other of the for the of who in and in of to over the this and for the of the of from to in up their that critique of at people for a long The to or the War of on the of but in they also the of the even the in their of those the had explicitly that not a or one who and/or people who the of emigration have The the the are to at However, of and who to abroad as that at English who had to the United been and to The who the a for early the American expatriation in First, in to the of expatriation on of the American in the early of the century primarily to the of who the for this change of on the that consent to citizenship the legal also with in of who the leave-taking have an important on in the social and legal notion of expatriation over the two the of the expatriation had become The Expatriation of right of expatriation to be a and right of to the of the of and the of way of the of the the The of expatriation had from to in of American on the subject of expatriation the right of in a domestic and the domestic the act one the which in to the and right to citizenship. and the Expatriation and the a of they jus soli citizenship to the of Americans born on American soil at the to from the citizenship of their a one that can be to of the at Expatriation also a domestic had this in in expatriation that the country to its not lose countries with that the means of are to be it is and to But our is for our country is but and have to for the of to the of in of expatriation as the that in the of the century ever more to the The of the Expatriation also two a in which the had the in in of two American who had to their country the The a way of that expatriation to the United States and acquisition of American citizenship by their The Expatriation of also a sign of the of people from their of the notion of in by the to an change of and a of who to countries emigration to be a often with still and even one of the most of allegiance, its in to by the United States with and and an that one country's expatriate another's as a of countries that had to be legal emigration other to and the American and the the that the had the right to choose to change the legal that one legal the to for the that in the United States expatriation from a by in terms of the Expatriation still and inclusion, those who to become American the of the twentieth however, the concept of expatriation had changed from a of to one of Americans leaving as as this expatriation less as a of as a categories of American citizens. Whereas the Expatriation of had the right of to become a the Expatriation of to the of Americans who the one the country longer had the that in the of and other longer a sometimes in the of and and to to provide on to citizenship, but their the other a century of American had and American more and more Yet the of the citizen and those leaving a the that to loss of citizenship, the Expatriation of 1907 in the from to Whereas the had an it had not and ever since had been a of the to the for the 1907 the of long of from the to a definitive on born or But on a legal not the of the The that citizenship loss or an of to a foreign extended residence abroad American and of women to foreign citizens. American still the where they but they at of losing their citizenship they for two in their country of origin or in other foreign The of loss of American citizenship due to extended residence abroad be that had been to American citizenship. The of the up at or to and it not a There of on the of who up American citizenship to citizenship The of the American abroad complex. the one in a notable on of to in of state the of American into the of and of the and the of and that had in of who are their way into the most of foreign countries to a an early to of the of and the mobility of from to to The of the of allegiance, with the of of the had of or for as The of in 1915, also of the by of and the attention to the and that citizenship not just a domestic in in regard to not the for its abroad but also the in which and emigration to one another's Yet other the of Americans who with the and American women married to those who had the of the 1907 more explicitly those who be the a of that in the loss of citizenship to an in involuntary The the for loss by in the of or by a foreign or The Immigration and of as the laws, and of the Expatriation to be over the first of the twentieth century a of to one that for American a with one both a right of and the of to Americans The of expatriation had from a being to a to a of from and to two women and writers. Expatriation explicitly the most of involuntary expatriation are those of American women who married between the Expatriation of 1907 and the of which the women who married who for citizenship, as and still of the Expatriation of 1907 that American citizen be to have has been in foreign state in with its laws, or has an of to foreign The the with to their expatriation as being through that American who married a the of on the that be as the of loss for due to extended residence a American from citizenship loss as long as a for The American however, whether left the United States or to the expatriation without residence abroad is as a of American and and that to to the United States to or residence abroad is in for of or for a of have the American citizen had been as a who had the through to a foreign into an American to the of American citizenship to foreign women who married American There of the of American women married to foreign in an that the 1907 but it to the of married by on their for their citizenship. a voluntary act, to in voluntary or one legal the Expatriation of the that by an the to a to the still at and The expatriation of women not just a of to a can also be to the that many had the of the twentieth both and women who married who married American women not in their to American citizenship and the the 1907 also as the American women at by of of their in for their of There to be an of between American and at the of the two those of and and and the of and into of of American leaving the debate who from the that icon, the citizen a the to be a renunciation of American and as of women also in the of the the 1907 at over this in the interwar not between foreign women who American citizenship and American women who had lost women the 1907 foreign women and women be even by The and of the expatriation by the of to the of is at the of the women who married American longer citizenship some of had become without the American women who married foreign longer lost their American citizenship. American women who married however, still to expatriation and those who had lost their citizenship had to for to for women not the the “expatriate” the of the twentieth “expatriate” into as a a American women losing their citizenship an The expatriate or as problematic of one at of involuntary citizenship American women be without the 1920s writers without are to in the understanding of Expatriation as a legal of citizenship loss and the expatriate as a citizen abroad in the early twentieth used the term “expatriate” in of since the legal meaning of a loss of citizenship, is in the of the legal meaning of or the the the concept of expatriation had from a of citizenship to one of The term which the writers and artists had a that the relationship of abroad to the the American and musicians in interwar Paris who had for on foreign soil had not or lost their citizenship, their to the United who more American Gertrude who the a Henry But their to live abroad and their on exile important the relationship of the citizen to home. Their and to up with the of the the more as many of explicitly their with the and of American The 1920s often at the as and/or and the distinction between the 1920s “Lost Generation” and those who had the more and the and other who had the between the War and World War and the of the exile and its to the even they the of the that American the of in of an one the of being an expatriate or it more not in Paris and the more complex is The American and the more the writers and in for their of or not the expatriate a to The American use of “expatriate” as a noun to have been in The in Americans in Paris to their and even physical to the of and and live one of the in the of on this live from country and the American as a of to a The of Americans in Paris in the first of the twentieth century extended beyond the well-known writers and everyone from American women married to but to to There an Americans in in the most of not write or the of the interwar American in Paris at the term it to be a and in to the Paris to American for the most on the of the not to be with the writers and But they to from those even this more in for some the first in the American being for up the of left in to they fleeing or the writers, and lost their citizenship in the a foreign a more But they to an that often from the “expatriate” still a term. who left the United States the War as or in for their of the of the term up by a the a of in the and turned the to the 1920s writers, to a with the concept of The 1920s Americans in Paris and their the of attention of a of of American or and by the of those who had left the United States in the interwar or World War and and writers, artists, and and and for their and the and the noun most often used in to a and a the legal concept into a and term. the the romanticized interwar expatriates, a of voluntary can also be as of the more to a notion of expatriation without loss of citizenship. the a of the the this most recent of beyond or even had has given meaning to the concept of as itself more with the and to a that change the of expatriation case also to include categories of who had been for American as a by in by the of the twentieth most nationals have been as in the on The to have in the in the first as the of a by the But by the of the twentieth it used in the United States and to a of from the 1920s writers and is most often used to abroad to a and to those they The is a with and not be from the of loss of citizenship. a century of the definition of the exception of the and 1931 on case citizenship loss a in the of the twentieth the list of that to of for to be into question as a an American citizen in in an in the it not for citizenship loss the that not with the of citizenship but the of had as not to that a However, in the early a in who had in a expatriation on the that not to have have the of the that had with and that at that the not and lost The however, in of a of on the of American in the a that turned the on the and of The that expatriation be the of an voluntary to citizenship, and that the that the has the of our country the people are and the its relationship to the people by their on the act of expatriation with the the in and abroad have to be with the of losing one's American citizenship has of citizenship has been an important to this of involuntary The of the from the century to the twentieth on the notion that a belong to one Expatriation and as to citizenship. The of changing one's citizenship not that one belong to two The American that the with a and allegiance, from the of the citizenship as from a to in the that have a and have one However, citizenship has as the of two of countries of as the and the have countries to the that those who not their their The United States has long since the of its that the of citizenship. citizenship not to in the United States but also to Americans has citizenship has become from to abroad the of due of citizenship for Americans abroad is also to the of the and have been but the of has to are to lose their citizenship, and some have is longer for studies of citizenship, however, most of the on citizenship, have at the primarily from the of countries of legal who are for most social have become needs to be on both the of the emigration countries and To has citizenship in the history of citizenship needs to beyond the notion that it is an of the twentieth born abroad to American be jus and jus soli is however, that citizenship has on and also is as the of its is a to the on the of most of the recent has focused on emigration from countries to the emigration and citizenship of the and also more in this in which abroad are more often as as involuntary expatriation has legally been of on the move have become in the citizenship on and in that to expatriation few Americans a century for the to change from and other to Americans The of the United States for abroad and the in of the of Yet an between and and the of American that are more Americans abroad expatriation to expatriate to is it that a concept the of with one's place of origin has become a notion one to the changing of who is and for The United States may have been on a notion of the right to to of a with but on who is the from to and long as expatriation as to the United it an Americans abroad and to be the through their or the concept more and to through the twentieth however, as the of Americans abroad and to largely writers and from the its their that even that had of citizenship as for the of the concept has to with a of The of expatriation with notable been with notions of and even Expatriation has been as of of toward and of the that are not for but for to the and of as the right of expatriation has been to of and the of in of the that for a of the twentieth the of expatriation not to the of but to involuntary with from American women to American and women Yet even the expatriation of women at by the that women their the the two have been through a of of and of of belonging. The valence of expatriation and the of citizenship have to be a of in an important of a citizenship from those who have most countries are to with their absent as an has been in an ever more into with to their they may expatriation have to a more understanding of citizenship, it more and more to the of citizenship, not to the that United States has been one of the few countries in the to on their where they The of belonging is Only the up or in of changing However, the understanding of expatriation has from to the of the The here a way of changing notions of the and who to Yet the the categories are There and that at of and to over the of the interwar and the of the of the expatriate has become into the however, the is not an as over Americans abroad can be as in citizenship, and the of the legal of citizenship a to many a on their they have to that other may the its and and still in use at the of the twentieth the Immigration and itself that the to place on an the that expatriation is an the has loss of to the of the United or to the concept that expatriation can as the of voluntary the of the has become from the of citizenship as the right to choose has been the state's to the of involuntary expatriation and the of the citizen has to an understanding of the of citizenship. to be and laws, and the of those who have their and