What nationality is MIKA?

[Romis]

Computah says no.

 

Kidding aside, I don't think he would. I don't think your parents have anything to do with it, do they?

it has...my grandparents are italian, so I'm citizen of Italy and European Community, I can enter to the US and UK...

 

and I can get my italian passport if I want to!

 

so if his family wanted him to have it, he can be citizen uf the US just because his father was born there. and perhaps...their parents registered him at the Ameriocan Ambassy, so he would be an american born in beirut by accident...

[lollipop_monkey]

A nationality nerd...like me.

 

I travel with 7 passports for me and three kids. I try to keep up on dual nationality stuff. I agree that being on a Lebanese passport might be difficult. Next thing is I wonder if they evacuated from Lebanon to France under some arrangement like asylum/refugee status. Or whether they just looked at a map and said Let's try Paris.

 

Sorry. It's not so much the personal "I need to know about MIKA" as much as the "I am curious about nationality arrangements"

 

I've also wondered how they chose Paris. And what made them choose London a few years later.

 

7 passports for four people? What passports do y'all have? Let me guess, Aussie for you and each child, plus Japan for each child?

 

If you're ever bored on day and looking for a little light reading, try reading up on US immigration. It's ridiculous. We have the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which is supposed to allow more freedom of movement of workers between Canada, the US and Mexico - but it's a gong show. It's so much red tape. I think the EU has it right, in the way they do it.

[Romis]

I've also wondered how they chose Paris. And what made them choose London a few years later.

 

 

they chose Paris...wait they didn't choose Paris!! hahaha:naughty:

they were evacuated with a lot of lebanese families...all together to Paris, it was the place they were accepted to be placed as refugees. All lebaneses had their houses at the XVI arrondissement I guess...(it's the left side of the Seine)

[Guest]

*sigh* It's so much easier to just get into Canada.

 

You just wave a birth certificate in their face, and they open the doors.

[IngievV]

I've also wondered how they chose Paris. And what made them choose London a few years later.

 

7 passports for four people? What passports do y'all have? Let me guess, Aussie for you and each child, plus Japan for each child?

 

If you're ever bored on day and looking for a little light reading, try reading up on US immigration. It's ridiculous. We have the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) which is supposed to allow more freedom of movement of workers between Canada, the US and Mexico - but it's a gong show. It's so much red tape. I think the EU has it right, in the way they do it.

 

 

I recently had the NAFTA at Geographic but they said it was The North American Free Trade Association. Sorry just had to be a smart *ss:naughty:

[Blue Sky]

I've also wondered how they chose Paris. And what made them choose London a few years later.

 

7 passports for four people? What passports do y'all have? Let me guess, Aussie for you and each child, plus Japan for each child?

 

 

Yup you got it! And to confuse the issue, one child was born in the UK and my mother is Scottish which gave that child the right to a UK passport, even though I myself cannot get one. And we would carry it with us too, except it expired when he was 5 (he is now 13). I will renew it when he needs it I s'pose. Forgot to renew my daughter's Aussie p/p and we need to use it in 3 weeks, so buried in forms as we speak. Otherwise she will need a visa to enter Oz on her JP p/p. What a mess.

[Guest]

I don't understand a thing you're talking about.

 

Kidding aside, I really don't understand passports, Visas, etc.

It's all gibberish to me. But I guess when I move to Germany, I'll have to actually GIVE a damn about it.

[mariposa]

I don't understand a thing you're talking about.

 

Kidding aside, I really don't understand passports, Visas, etc.

It's all gibberish to me. But I guess when I move to Germany, I'll have to actually GIVE a damn about it.

 

You will be moving to Germany? When? Where? Why? :naughty:

[Guest]

You will be moving to Germany? When? Where? Why? :naughty:

 

Not anytime soon. I plan to after college. Or at least visit for a LONGGGG time.

[Scut Monkey]

It's possible to have a dual citizenship in Lebanon. I have Lebanese friends with both Australian and Lebanese citizenship.

 

I personally think he's travelling using a US passport. A Lebanese passport could cause problems. If his band have UK passports then that would explain why he found it easier to get out of the country than them at times.

 

I've also wondered how they chose Paris.

I thought it was the US military that evacuated them? How much choice would that mean they had in choosing where to go? France was accepting asylum seekers/refugees from Lebanon so maybe it wasn't a matter of where they wanted to go but more a matter of where would accept them?

 

Sort of. If I'm talking about Mika, I say he's British. I don't say "He's Lebanese, but he lives in England..." blahblah. He has that sort of Britishy accent, and strikes me as being very British. I don't really think of people in England by what their heritage is. I don't really think about Americans by what their heritage is, either.

 

And we're not all descendants of immigrants from the UK and Europe. I have Native American (Indian) in me. *shrug*

 

To me, it's not really about where you're from, it's about where you grew up. I'm not German. Am I German by heritage? Yes. Do I live in Germany? No.

Everyone has their own definition. I would call you German-American, but that's my definition.

[mariposa]

I actually think that he was talking in an interview about that issue, but I can't remeber where and when it was and what he said...

 

...maybe I just dreamed it...hmmm, does anybody know what I'm talking about?

[Guest]

Everyone has their own definition. I would call you German-American, but that's my definition.

 

That's true.

And I probably wouldn't refer to you as a whatever-Australian. You're just an Aussie.

[lollipop_monkey]

I thought it was the US military that evacuated them? How much choice would that mean they had in choosing where to go? France was accepting asylum seekers/refugees from Lebanon so maybe it wasn't a matter of where they wanted to go but more a matter of where would accept them?

 

 

I think you're right, there must have been some asylum/refugee agreement in place. Although if it was in fact the US military that evacuated them, that makes it even more lieky that they're US citizens. Can you imagine how frightening that must have been - being evacuated to another country with three tiny kids in tow?

 

*sigh* It's so much easier to just get into Canada.

 

You just wave a birth certificate in their face, and they open the doors.

 

Technically, that's supposed to change soon - but no decision makers in Canada or the US can seem to figure out exactly how it's changing and when. They keep changing their minds. I just whip out my Canuck passport when going to the States and back, makes everything easier.

 

I recently had the NAFTA at Geographic but they said it was The North American Free Trade Association. Sorry just had to be a smart *ss:naughty:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement

 

*sticks tongue out at Ingie*

 

Yup you got it! And to confuse the issue, one child was born in the UK and my mother is Scottish which gave that child the right to a UK passport, even though I myself cannot get one. And we would carry it with us too, except it expired when he was 5 (he is now 13). I will renew it when he needs it I s'pose. Forgot to renew my daughter's Aussie p/p and we need to use it in 3 weeks, so buried in forms as we speak. Otherwise she will need a visa to enter Oz on her JP p/p. What a mess.

 

Wow. Because that's not complicated at all! Where were your other two children born, the two who weren't born in the UK? I assume they have Aussie citizenship through you?

[guylainem123]

i was born in vermont to canadian parents, without ever living in usa.

my hubby is same.

my sons have dual citizenship... usa & canadian.

our passports can be usa

 

i'm assuming usa would do same if dual citizenship with lebanon

 

not sure though

[Yoppappop]

his passport is american.

they said it in a french doc a few months ago that had been posted and translated here. it was the program 7 à 8 (Sept à Huit) if you want to look for it...

[Christine]

He has that sort of Britishy accent, and strikes me as being very British. I don't really think of people in England by what their heritage is. I don't really think about Americans by what their heritage is, either.

 

I don't really think of him as British but it's even more difficult to think of him as American. He seems most continental European to me. He doesn't look or behave like an Englishman very much, despite the slight accent and tendency to swear a lot.

 

I regret not living in South Kensington anymore because I'm sure I would have noticed him. He's about 7" taller than your average Englishman and would stick out like a sore thumb, especially if the London uniform is still black as it was when I lived there.

 

Interestingly, Mika's two younger siblings would not be French citizens even if they were (I assume) born in France, unless one of their parents is a French citizen. Unlike Canada or the US, for example, being born in France doesn't automatically make someone a French citizen.

 

Their mom may have acquired French citizenship though because the Lebanese passport would be problematic for her as well, especially if they wanted to move to the UK in the 1990s.

 

Finally, I suspect that after living in the UK for so long, there must be some channel available to Mika, his siblings, and his parents to have naturalised as UK citizens, if they were so inclined.

 

Yes you can apply after 5 years from acquiring your right of abode and living in the UK.

 

Stalker.

 

Actually I'm the stalker. I've been supplying her with info.

 

And what made them choose London a few years later.

 

London is a huge financial centre so I'm sure it has the greatest opportunities for his father.

 

my mother is Scottish which gave that child the right to a UK passport, even though I myself cannot get one.

 

Why can't you get one if your mother is British? (if you don't mind me asking)

 

I thought it was the US military that evacuated them? How much choice would that mean they had in choosing where to go?

 

I thought they were evacuated to Cypress?

 

I would have thought their number one choice would be to move to the US after their initial evacuation.

[avoca]

lebanese people are bilingual: french and arabic o.c. old french colony. that may explain paris: a huge lebanese community there.

[LebAngel]

Is MIKA travelling the world as a dual national of the US and Lebanon? Or does he have an EU passport?

 

I am just renewing passports for my multi-nationality family so I was curious.

 

with a lebanese passeport he cant go too far (sadly)!!!

so i guess it's with the american one...(you need just one not both)

[Christine]

with a lebanese passeport he cant go too far (sadly)!!!

so i guess it's with the american one...(you need just one not both)

 

Yes he wouldn't be able to work so freely in the US without citizenship. Lollipop_monkey hit the nail on the head when she mentioned that Dutch interview where the band were stuck in the UK awaiting their US work visas and he was not.

[LebAngel]

Their mom may have acquired French citizenship though because the Lebanese passport would be problematic for her as well, especially if they wanted to move to the UK in the 1990s.

she might have get the american nationality from his husband.

it wasn't so hard to go to the UK or FRance in the 90's, when there was the civil war.

 

lebanese people are bilingual: french and arabic o.c. old french colony. that may explain paris: a huge lebanese community there.

yep!!! not only in Paris but almost everywhere in France!!

 

his passport is american.

they said it in a french doc a few months ago that had been posted and translated here. it was the program 7 à 8 (Sept à Huit) if you want to look for it...

what can i say... a Lebanese passport is not very useful when you have an other passport, even more it's hard to renew it...i guess

personally i have only a french one, but lately when i went to Lebanon i asked to get a "paper" (fiche d'état civil) in order not to need a visa to enter the country, but it's only useful there.

[LebAngel]

Yes he wouldn't be able to work so freely in the US without citizenship. Lollipop_monkey hit the nail on the head when she mentioned that Dutch interview where the band were stuck in the UK awaiting their US work visas and he was not.

 

oh ok i didn't read all the comments:blush-anim-cl: too lazy:bleh:

[Yoppappop]

lebanese people are bilingual: french and arabic o.c. old french colony. that may explain paris: a huge lebanese community there.

 

not ALL lebanese people are bilingual... mostly the catholic ones...

[LebAngel]

almost all people under 60 are bilingual: they speak both lebanese and english, at early ages.

many of them speak too french, but there you're right, most of them are catholics. it's "la langue de salon", you cant imagine how proud they are, especially the old sophisticated ladies

 

yesterday for example, i've watched a doc where a mother was talking to her 3 children in 4 languages: lebanese, armenian, english and french....and they were only 4 years old...

[Scut Monkey]

I thought they were evacuated to Cypress?

 

I would have thought their number one choice would be to move to the US after their initial evacuation.

Yes, I thought that it was the US military that evacuated them to Cypress?

 

lebanese people are bilingual: french and arabic o.c. old french colony. that may explain paris: a huge lebanese community there.

That's a fair point, the large Lebanese community in France may have been attractive. Mika does often refer to the "transplanted" community there.

 

not ALL lebanese people are bilingual... mostly the catholic ones...

Isn't it also a matter of the higher up that you get in education (e.g. tertiary education/university) the more that French is used?

[A. Clay]

International music star Mika sets sights on U.S.

http://in.reuters.com/article/hollywood/idINTRE58I09520090919

"-- Mika was born in Lebanon but has a dual U.S. and British citizenship --"

 

Why Mika isn’t Really Lebanese, by Nadim K.

http://beirutspring.com/blog/2008/08/04/guest-writer-why-it-matters-that-mika-is-not-lebanese/

Nadim K. over at Tajaddod youth reminds us that because of an antiquated Lebanese law, Mika, the celebrated “Lebanese” artist, never got the Lebanese nationality simply because his father wasn’t Lebanese.

Edited November 6, 2009 by A. Clay