William Petersen - From Birth to Death: A Consumers Guide to Population Studies

As demographers understand the term, the population of a designated area is the number of persons who, by specified criteria, are there on a particular date. This is similar to the understanding of the word in biology, but biologists are likely to concentrate only on the number of individuals per unit area and the rate of their increase under varying conditions. In counting the members of a nation or of another areal unit, the census can enumerate either all who in some sense belong there (whether or not they are currently present) or all who are physically in residence (whether or not that is their legal domicile). The first is called the population de jure, the second, the population de facto. Some nations count one, some the other, and some both. Since neither system has been generally accepted, any comparison of human populationsto be as precise as possibleought to be made with an awareness of how each country arrives at the number of its inhabitants.

What is the population of the United States? To this seemingly simple query, there is no single correct answer.

There are three official totals: the civilian population, the total resident population, and the total population including Americans living abroad. Military and diplomatic personnel are not the only ones who may reside outside their country, but alsoamong otherstourists, professionals of various types, businessmen, Gastarbeiter, missionaries, employees of voluntary services, and students. The practice of the United States in distributing census forms abroad is to use whatever facilities seem to be useful, such as Army and Navy units for their personnel and airlines and passenger ships for others. American consulates have the forms available, but persons not on the public payroll who live abroad are recorded only if they themselves take the trouble to register.

The accuracy of the count may be affected by the complicated definition of nationality. In works on politics authors often use nationality rather loosely, meaning more or less a community that defines itself by some process of self-determination, and population statistics sometimes reflect this usage. In typical practice, however, the meaning of the word is based on legal definitions of citizen or subject, which differ considerably from one country to another.

In the United States, the 1940 census was the first in which the census count of aliens was supplemented with a registration by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. There was a disconcertingly large difference in the number of aliens between the enumeration (based on each persons self-identification) of about 3.5 million and the registration (a summation of persons so defined in a legal context) of about 5 million. One can assume that in every census many aliens report themselves as citizens.

The concept of citizenship has undergone fundamental changes. Under laws enacted in the United States during the first decades of the twentieth century, a naturalized American relinquished his citizenship if he indicated a dual loyaltyas, for instance, by becoming a citizen of another state, or serving in its armed forces, or voting or being a candidate in a foreign election. In a series of subsequent decisions the Supreme Court abandoned all these restrictions on how one defines an American. Under todays law, a person may commit himself to another state without losing his American citizenship unless it is proved that he intended to forgo it. Rabbi Meir Kahane, a rabble-rouser repeatedly arrested in both the United States and Israel, was a striking example. Elected to the Knesset, he pledged to be faithful to the state of Israel, but he challenged the revocation of his American passport by claiming that he did not intend to forgo his United States citizenshipfor he wanted to continue visits to the States in order to raise money for his cause. The subsequent legal battle in American courts became moot when the Israeli parliament passed a law, aimed directly at Kahane, requiring its members to relinquish legal ties to any other country.

As another interesting example, ethnic Japanese living abroad used to be obliged to register with a Japanese consulate, noting both the place of their honseki, or an ostensibly permanent legal residence in Japan, and where they were currently living. The dual record, however, was not very well maintained. Children were sometimes omitted from the prescribed listing, while names of deceased persons remained on it for years; and in countries where the assimilation of Japanese was in process, some did not register their honseki because to do so was considered a symbol of continuing political adherence to Japan.

From random beginnings, dual citizenship has spread widely. A native-born American with one Irish grandparent, for instance, can obtain an Irish passport and thus the right to work in any country of the European Union without fussing about restrictive regulations. In 1998 Vidas Adamkus, a naturalized American citizen and a former federal employee, was elected president of his native Lithuania. On March 21, 1998 a Mexican law went into effect permitting the citizens of that country to hold an American passport, and the already porous border thus became still more permeable. Scholars in several social disciplines are analyzing the effect of such changes on the actual meaning of nationality, and there is a new periodical,