In the complex landscape of citizenship, some individuals find themselves stripped of their national identity. In this article, we delve into the stories of five people who lost their citizenship—whether due to legal proceedings, historical events, or personal choices. From wartime controversies to legal battles, their journeys illuminate the intricate threads that bind us to our countries.
Mehran Nasseri
No one is sure just how Mehran Karimi Nasseri got stuck in the Charles De Gaulle airport — possibly, not even the man himself. This is because most of the information comes from the man himself, who is notorious for changing his account with each telling. We know that he’s originally from Iran, and possibly had a British mother. He speaks English, Farsi and French, and carries himself like a man with higher education. After that, where facts and legend start to intertwine. Sometimes, Nasseri says that he was rejected by his Iranian family. Other times, he states that he was mistreated by the shah’s secret police. He has also claimed that his mother was a Scottish aristocrat, and likes to go by the name “Sir Alfred.”
Regardless of the specifics of his story, in 1988 a series of complicated reasons that possibly involved a suitcase theft and definitely involved a plan to enter Britain with or without his papers left Nasseri stranded on the Terminal One of Charles de Gaulle International Airport. He could not leave or enter France without official documentation, and after much head-scratching, the airport officials told him to wait in the only place he was legally allowed to stay: the airport lounge. This wait took 18 years.
The man without citizenship soon attracted the attention of media, and managed to survive quite comfortably with modest interview fees, kindness of strangers and airport employees, and eventually, a hefty sum of $250,000 from Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks for the rights of his story. The ensuing movie, The Terminal, made “Sir Alfred” famous, and he seemed content to remain at the airport — even turning down several offers of citizenship, because they didn’t use his preferred name and were from countries he didn’t like. However, fate would not let Nasseri stay in his terminal haven forever. In 2006, he was hospitalized, and eventually moved to a shelter in Paris.
Gerard Depardieu
Famous actor Gerard Depardieu may seem as French as they come, but in reality, the man is Russian these days. In 2012, Depardieu grew tired of France’s tax policies and government, and wrote a fiery open letter where he announced that he would leave the country and renounce his citizenship. The fact that the government had previously accused him of evading taxes by moving abroad was … not entirely coincidental.
Depardieu first moved to Belgium, where taxation is rather more forgiving to the rich. However, Vladimir Putin soon sensed a PR opportunity, and offered the famous actor a chance to become a Russian citizen. Depardieu took up the offer in 2013, and by 2014, he was performing on the stages of Paris as a visiting Russian actor. It appears that Depardieu is not planning to rest in his citizenship laurels, either. In a 2018 trip to North Korea, he reportedly announced that he’s planning to apply for Turkish citizenship next.
Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam is famous for directing dystopic visions such as Brazil and 12 Monkeys, and even more famous for being the only American member of the legendary comedy troupe, Monty Python. The latter part of his legacy is at least partially unfounded, though. Although Gilliam was born in Minnesota, he emigrated to Britain in the 1960s, married an English woman and held dual citizenship for three decades. For all practical intents and purposes, this makes him as English as Earl Grey tea with a slice of lemon.
In 2012, Gilliam shed his last remaining connections to the United States when he renounced his U.S. citizenship. He says that the reason for his decision was the increasingly nasty political climate of his birth country: He joked that he’s thinking of suing George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for making a less funny version of the nightmarish Brazil without his approval, and that if he’d stayed in the U.S., he’d be “throwing bombs.”
John Huston
It’s anyone’s guess why John Huston, famous director and father of equally famous actress Anjelica Huston, decided to drop his United States citizenship in favor of an Irish one in 1964. Huston and his family had been living in the country for some time, but it has been suggested that the citizenship change had less to do with personal preference — and a lot to do with the 80-90% income tax rate he was allegedly paying at the time. Huston himself insisted that the move had absolutely nothing to do with taxation, and he merely felt that a person should be the citizen of the country he’s living in.
Whatever the real reason behind Huston’s newfound Irishness was, it’s worth pointing out that in 1969, the country’s Minister of Finance, Charles Haughey, made all artists residing in Ireland exempt from income tax. Incidentally, Haughey was also the very same man who gave Huston his citizenship papers five years earlier.
Tina Turner
Tina Turner may be an iconic American singer, but this doesn’t mean that she finds America particularly iconic. Over the decades, the artist has become more and more European: She has dated a German music producer called Erwin Bach since 1985, and they finally married in 2013. Turner has also lived in Switzerland for over two decades. She’s now fluent in German, and says that she has absolutely no connections to the United States save for some family. She also has no intention of ever moving back to her country of birth.
The only remaining step for completely ditching her roots was to take up Swiss citizenship and throw away her American one, which Turner officially did in 2013. However, she didn’t dramatically renounce her citizenship, like many other people on this list. Instead, the process she chose is called ‘relinquishment’, which is rather more like an amiable divorce: Turner took Swiss citizenship with the intent of losing her U.S. citizenship, allowing it to drift away over time instead of cutting the ties right away. Although it’s a slower process, it comes with the added bonus of avoiding the tax and other penalties that can be associated with a straight renouncement.
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