Foreign Nationals in the Armed Forces

The Daily Telegraph reports that in the U.K. One in 10 soldiers is recruited overseas: "Ten per cent of soldiers in the Army are foreign nationals, new Government figures show. The number of overseas recruits has risen dramatically in recent years as the Armed Forces struggle to overcome a shortage of home-grown applicants."

This adds up to about 6,000 foreigners in the British services, with Fijians being the single biggest group (with over 2000) and the second Jamaicans. This doesn't take into account the 3000 plus Nepalese who serve in so-called Ghurka regiments.

In the US armed services, foreign recruitment is declining, despite service being a fast track route to citizenship. Perhaps, in part this because of the 174 non-US citizens who have died serving in the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Foreigners have long served in the US military -- in a nation of immigrants its a quick way to become part of ones new country -- and they're often as not front-line soldiers. Traditionally non-citzens do not serve as officers (in the Civil War the foreign-born in the Union army were sometimes formed into their own regiments "Swiss Rifles (15th Missouri); the Gardes Lafayette (55th New York); the Garibaldi Guard (39th New York); the Martinez Militia (1st New Mexico); and the Polish Legion (58th New York)").

Today even with a falling overseas recruitment, however, there are something like 30,000 non-citizens in the US armed forces.