I can give you some examples that I'm personally aware of that illustrate this.
- I worked with a guy who's Aunt was a Bermudian. He told us that she owned a really nice house and property in Bermuda (she lived there). He told us that when she dies, it can NOT be willed to/inherited by anyone who is not a Native Bermudian due to their laws. In other words the property will be confiscated by their gov't.
- We vacationed in St. Lucia (British territory) once and met a retired American couple (retired teachers) who had bought a really nice house for their retirement. They told us the same thing . . . when they die, the gov't takes the property since they weren't British Subjects nor are their children.
- I did a lot of business with two German product safety test houses who opened local offices TÜV – München and TÜV - Bavaria, in MetroWest and the North Shore respectively. The heads of these offices were German Nationals who lived in the US for many, many years. I recall a discussion with the head of TÜV - Bavaria and he told me that although he had no desire to return to Germany to live. HOWEVER, he told me that whenever he retired he would be taken care of for life with free socialized medical care and a fat retirement from the German gov't. I don't know for certain, but suspect that TÜV may be a gov't entity. If Juergen spots this perhaps he can elucidate on that.
Bottom line is that there are economic issues involved in making decisions to abandon your "homeland" for a new citizenship and different people make different decisions. This is something that I can respect. NOBODY should be forced to forsake their homeland for a new citizenship against their will.
