I've been in Japan long enough to ponder proper expatriation. Still can't answer definitively why I don't just take the plunge, though.
It wouldn't have anything to do with nationalism or patriotism, that much I know. The fact that the Japanese passport has recently been hailed as the best to have in the world would be more of a factor than any allegiance I might feel to my former homeland.
Malcolm X once said, "Just because a cat has kittens in an oven, that doesn't make them biscuits." Well, I was never a biscuit, and in America's eyes, I knew I would be tolerated but never truly belong. I was as much an "other" there as I am here. But a part of me — a part I don't often acknowledge — longs to belong somewhere.