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I am reading on a blog from CR that the blogger believes that it is possible to obtain full Costa Rican citizenship after achieving residency without marrying a Costa Rican.
Voting and working would be permitted then, of course. Is this true? My understanding was that foreign nationals who immigrate can only obtain residency at the very most unless they marry Costa Ricans.Citizenship is possible after you’ve been a legal resident for 10 years, speak fluent Spanish, can pass the written exam, and can sing the national anthem. I know several people who have obtained CR citizenship this way.
Well, thanks for that information. I can’t understand how I went so long without having come across this. I wonder how many expats have taken the path to Costa Rican citizenship? I would imagine the only advantages to citizenship would be the opportunity to express gratitude to the host country by contributing to the betterment of Costa Rica via political participation and the permission to work since most of the other benefits would already have been obtained with residency.
I have never felt any sense of debt or gratitude to my birth country. On the contrary, all I have felt towards the U.S. is shame and anger and, on occasion, fear. BUt never pride or gratitude.
Dear Sprite:
I am Canadian and all my life have known what is to be a Canadian. Everything is good in Canada, I mean good compared to any developing country I have visited. My wife and I moved to CR to enjoy the weather, because it’s really cold where we lived in Canada.
I also know many Costa Ricans and many Nicaraguans. Every single one of them has the thought that they would trade places with you in an instant. Believe me Sprite, where you are born makes a big difference in how you will have the opportunity to live your life the way you want.
Sure moving here after living in the USA is easy, because you and every other person from North America has had the opportunity to do what they wanted in our free societies and you probably have a little extra money.
But if you are born in CR or Nicaragua, you are limited to “opportunity”. Right now 2008, as I write these words the men who are working on the house project next door to me are making 880 colones per hour. They are living in a metal sheds and they are being eaten alive my bugs. They are eating beans and rice, sometimes a little chicken. They work 12 hours a day and they work hard. Block work, mixing concrete, hauling dirt in a crappy wheel borrow. Their families are at home trying to survive, some living in tin sheds, waiting for the money their husband or son is going to send them at the end of the month. Their kids are missing out on school, they have no medical, they have nothing. Unfortunately they have no opportunity and little hope to improve their lives.
Many of these men travel from the Panama border to work in the North Pacific. Many come from the Northern area of Nicaragua. They all live and have lived under dictators. In CR everything is controlled by the government, everything, read between the lines here.
You don’t need to be proud of your government, but you do need to appreciate your country of birth. I don’t agree with many USA policies and actions either, but right now as the USA goes through these difficult times, they need you and every other American to take a stand and change what is wrong.
Not everything in paradise is perfect either. CR is an extremely complex place to live, for CR citizens and for foreigners. The current transition from the OX cart days to modern day living is creating all kinds of problems for CR. You and I will be long gone before there is equal opportunity for all in CR, as there is in the USA and Canada now. Those feelings you have towards your country are not going to leave you, just because you move here, as you will be taking on a whole set of new feelings in CR.
There is a cure for how you feel towards your country. Live in Nicaragua, live in CR, live in India, live in a third world country as an average person, leave your money and belongings back in the USA, marry for citizenship and I can assure you that it won’t be long before you will be back in the USA appreciating what you have and you will then possess those feelings of pride and gratitude.
As I mentioned in the beginning, I have always known what it is to be Canadian, but I never really appreciated the opportunities available to all Canadians, until I lived in CR and visited other developing countries.
I hope this response will encourage you to revisit your feelings about the good old USA and encourage you to help change the wrongs that make you feel shame about your country.
Pura Vida
you don’t have to move to nicaragua, India, or peru to know what it’s like to live in poverty — live in parts of america where the only job you can get pays $6.00 and you have no medical insurance, can’t afford food for your family, etc. The US has its own share of poverty which is despicable as far as I’m concerned. there is no way anyone is going to fix the mess here that we are all running away from. it’s too far gone, and the worst hasn’t even happened yet.
Please believe me when I tell you I am not an innocent and naive puppy. I know the world and I am familiar with the miseries of poverty and injustice in other places.
All those Nicaraguans and Mexicans who want to trade places with me are part of the problem with my country. The united States is made up now of people from all parts of the world whose only goal in life is an economic one. The lofty goal of community is gone from my culture because we have presented our country as a place where everyone can achieve the American Dream of wealth and freedom. That dream is a lie because in the end, it only creates a society of self involved, disconnected individuals who suddenly find one day that they are not really happy.
Many of the old Cubans who came to Miami 60 years ago have died, many never having returned to their mother country. I used to see them playing dominoes in the parks and talked with them at social gatherings. They pined for the good old days when they had very little in the way of economic wealth but they owned a world of happiness and contentment living in the culture in which they grew up. Some admitted in private that they deceived themselves that the U.S. would be a paradise.
They discovered a truth about human happiness I have finally come across. It has little to do with being self absorbed and chasing the dollar. That is all my culture has to offer to anyone now. We bully our way across the planet taking what we want by force and by stealth and a tiny fraction of that wealth is re-distributed to the working class while the rest shores up an incredible power base in the hands of a very few. This is EMPIRE. And it is based on strong, negative and very prevalent human characteristics which I and a million others like me could never hope to redirect. I am leaving this country. I don’t want to be caught up in the swirling forces as it all goes flushing down the tubes.
Those Nicaraguans and Mexicans are welcome to that tiny fraction of wealth if they want to come up and claim it. I am sure they will end up like the old Cubans wasting away in the park of a country so alien to the one they knew and in which they were happy.
Edited on May 19, 2008 05:07
Edited on May 19, 2008 05:08
Edited on May 19, 2008 05:12
I have to agree with Maravilla on this one, the poverty rate in the US is quite deplorable especially for a country with so much abundance. I don’t mean this to sound rude but you seem to speak from the point of view of an affluent white north American. Sure I appreciate the US and many of it’s fine people and I am happy for the dumb luck I had to be born here in a favorable position. My position in life is pretty good but I know there are tens of millions here getting by hand to mouth, week to week, but for some reason we just don’t seem to think they’re there through our very very rose colored glasses. Because our roads are nice, the supermarkets well stocked, lots of shiny cars and cheerful commercials as good as we are is as bad as we are. To be clear I do appreciate all the opportunities I have been afforded but I think we can and should be doing much better. http://www.lowwagework.org/Shulman.htm
Part of the cause of much of the poverty and injustice in some Central American, Caribbean and South American countries which pushes the people from these areas to immigrate to the U.S. lies in the foreign policies of the United States.
You’re right I am white. I grew up in a town called Beardmore, Ontario. Look on the map, it’s just a dot. Dirt poor and when you are poor in a town like Beardmore, you’re really poor. It gets 30 below all winter and winter is eight months. Luckily, I had the opportunity to join the Military and served in both Canada and the USA. I’d hardly call myself affluent, I swung a hammer for twenty five years. I am the only Canadian living amongst Americans in Playa Grande and I agree 100% with you about the American attitude. Please don’t lump Canadians in with Americans, just because we are on the same continent. Yes we speak english and we are Homo sapiens, but that’s where the similarities end. Don’t take it wrong Canadians love Americans, but we don’t want to be Americans.
As far as the remarks about Nicarguans and Mexicans being the problem in your country, your comments are ridiculous. Canada is made up of immigrants from throughout the world, all coming for the same reason “opportunities”. Same goes for the United States. Those folks you refer to want to better their lives and you do that by seeking out opportunities, just like Costa Ricans and Nicarguans are trying to do here.
It’s interesting that you point a finger at immigrants while not mentioning anything about murders, drug dealers, gangs or any of the other millions of criminals that contribute nothing to the United States.
All about money? Your in Costa Rica man, wake up, everything here is about money. Costa Rica wants to be just like the USA and that’s exactly how it’s ending up. If you want to live somewhere, where life is not about money, head to jungles in Peru.
This thread started out about citizenship and I doubt if the government of Costa Rica or the citizens of Costa Rica are going to want a couple of Americans who are fed up with their own country, to obtain citizenship in CR, just so they can turn their backs on Costa Rica when things aren’t going the way those two Americans want it to go.
Instead of bad mouthing your country, go home and do something about it, make the changes that need to be made. Vote! Your return to the United States will benefit both the USA and Costa Rica.
Like I said before, strip yourself of your worldly possessions and stand beside the men who are cutting cane in the fields of Costa Rica. Most likely the good old USA will start looking pretty good real fast.
I am still living in the U.S.
I referred to the U.S. as a country made up of immigrants FROM EVERYWHERE all coming here for the same goal, money. That means new immigrants AND the ones who have been here for generations.The world is filled with people like them and like you, focused on the money. My point is that money is not a particularly satisfying goal when it becomes the ONLY goal, whether obtained or not. It is a false prize.
I suppose it is human nature but people develop insight with maturity…usually. It is not unusual for young people to strive for money and power. Nor is it unusual for mature people to grow beyond those goals. A country or culture should be made up of both influences but not entirely of just the money oriented one.
I disagree with your crass assessment of Costa Rica. Costa Ricans are very different than other Central Americans. They do not leave their country en mass like others do to settle in the U.S. chasing down money. We have large immigrant communities in Miami from everywhere south of us EXCEPT Costa Rica. There just are not many Ticos here. They seem to like their homeland better. I don;t blame them.
We see the world through different eyes and your assessment is skewed to a right leaning, capitalistic, patriotic “My Country, Right Or Wrong” attitude. All I can do is point to a few objective facts:
1) Ticos stay put
2) YOU are living there instead of your birth country.
Be honest with your self and you might see a bit of hypocrisy peeking through all the flag waving.Sorry but none of you know what true poverty is! I bet if you ask a person from Haiti they will tell you what it means!
I have been living here in Paraguay since October and even here where it is poorest country in South America has it that bad.
Or when you have to sell your own daughter or son just to pay for food for the rest of the family… that is poor!
I grew up in West Africa (Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia) and our family was there (Nigeria) during the Biafra crisis and seeing bloated dead bodies at the side of the street was not remotely unusual.
Thankfully, I was NOT one of those starving but it does tend to change your outlook on life…
I think it’s a bit conceited scottbenson to assume that “none of you” out of over 12,000 VIP Members know what “true poverty” is, I have met VIP Members and even have a few multi-millionaire investment clients who may be comfortable now, but at one time, did not have shoes to wear or food to eat.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI think it is significant that this topic on CR citizenship developed into a discussion on relative poverty. Of all the reasons that motivate immigrants, economic forces are, of course, the strongest.
Many older North Americans leave their respective countries and cultures for the south looking for a place where limited income will go farther. Mostly younger South and Central Americans leave their countries for the north looking for a place where they can make more income. A macro economic imbalance seems to be the cause for a cultural AND generational migration.
Younger people might seek citizenship since they have more of a life time in front of them in country and can more easily break with their native culture. Older people might not concern themselves with citizenship for the opposite reasons.
Edited on May 20, 2008 07:32
Edited on May 20, 2008 07:33
I would like to think that I’m running towards something, not running away from anything. Running from a sea of drones, in cubicles, crossing off the days till I die on a desk-size calender with a black sharpie. Let me go plunging to my death on a zip line in a rain forest, not slumped over the buffet line at Golden Corral from an msg induced coma.
Days separated by natural beauty and a little adventure, not by evenings of Dancing with the stars and American Gladiator.
For me, our once great country has turned into some twilight zone, where the food is fake and the water is a sludge of chemicals. More laws are put in place to “protect” the children and if we’re good we get a week in Disneyland.
Things now are so complex that the only recourse is zoloft and lunesta for millions. Too fat to protest, to tired to notice.
I think there are others like me who just are tired of living in a land of surreality. I know we will keep engaging in wars, too much money not to, fear will keep spreading and I don’t want to play on this holadeck anymore.you took the words right out of my mouth, Tracy. After 4 months in CR, I’ve come back the the States to find myself in some weird reality that I can’t quite get a grip on. After not seeing a TV for 4 months, channel surfing the other night literally gave me the creeps. How can people pollute their minds with this idiotic stuff that has not one whit to do with real life. The only days I’m counting are when I go back to CR, alas, not soon enough.
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