South African-born Canadian-American

[GoodTaste]

Does " South African-born Canadian-American" mean "an American whose Canadian parents gave birth to him in South Africa"?

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Elon Reeve Musk is a South African-born Canadian-American business magnate, investor,[8][9] engineer,[10] and inventor.[15]


Wikipedia source

 

[GoesStation]

I would understand it to mean a person who holds both Canadian and American citizenship and was born in South Africa. According to the same Wikipedia article, Mr. Musk also holds South African citizenship. If that's true then the description in the quoted sentence is incomplete and the Wikipedia article contradicts itself.

 

[SoothingDave]

It's ambiguous to me without more explanation. According to that article, he is a citizen of three countries.

 

[andrewg927]

You should read the "early life" section. It clearly states he was born in South Africa with one parent from Canada and one from South Africa.

 

[andrewg927]

I would understand it to mean a person who holds both Canadian and American citizenship and was born in South Africa. According to the same Wikipedia article, Mr. Musk also holds South African citizenship. If that's true then the description in the quoted sentence is incomplete and the Wikipedia article contradicts itself.

I guess it should be South African-born South African-Canadian-American businessman. I have never known anyone with three citizenships so wow. But I think it is probably okay to use "South African-born" to replace such a lengthy description. It has to be assumed that since he was born in South Africa, he automatically holds South African citizenship (which may not be the case).

 

[probus]

Havng three citizenships is far from unusual. I have three: Canadian, Portuguese and Indian.

 

[andrewg927]

It's unusual for me which doesn't say much of course. I bet someone out there may have 4 or 5 citizenships.

 

[SoothingDave]

I've never heard of a three-way citizenship with the United States. I know they allow dual citizenship now, but that was not the case when I went to school in the 1980s.