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Comment by sneak | Hacker News Reader

It is racist to assume that someone’s place of birth determines their allegiances.

I really don't think racist is the term to describe this discrimiation, since you could hardly say Swiss and French are from a different race.

edit: clarification

By your logic, people from all nations should be able to get top secret government security clearances. Let me know how that works out.

No. By his logic "birth place" shouldn't be the determining factor. FYI, birth place does not determine nationality.

While that's true, personally I'm ok with birth place being a restriction for some things e.g. in order to run for President in the US, one needs to be born in the US, not merely a citizen. Not sure how it is in other Western countries.

I don’t think that’s true - John McCain was born in Panama. The rule is they have to be a citizen at birth.

The problem with this logic is that when applied, it can absolutely be racist.

For example, in your example what happens to those born in say, Puerto Rico? Are they barred from running for president because they weren't born in the US?

Naturalized citizens are often more trustworthy than citizens by birth.

No it's not. Some form of prejudice, certainly, but not racism.

It was a matter of nationality (family bounds, schools you attended, school/univeristy friends, friends, etc), not race. A Swiss being black could have been hired.

Switzerland is a small village, so if you break the law, everybody will know it. So locals tend to respect the law (social pressure).

Today a company would be bbqed in the news paper for such a heavy policy.

Thats a pretty inclusive view on what racism is.

But is it true? Because speaking as someone living abroad, it's certainly true for me.

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