[checktheorder]

>Citizen sounds like a pretty awful word choice in a country with so many non-citizen immigrants though (and non-immigrants for that matter). It's sound like they're deliberately being excluded.

I was referring to its use in the context of an election, which is often limited to the citizenry (in any democracy).

Also, where I live, public figures who use the word "citizen" to refer to ordinary people often don't use it in the literal sense of the word when discussing public-interest matters. They're often using it to emphasize the responsibilities and rights that all people have in relation to the broader society. In other words, where I live it's not often used in an exclusionary xenophobic way, but instead in an inclusive common-purpose way that emphasizes our shared humanity. The xenophobes here tend to prefer "taxpayer".

[Taniwha]

Some countries allow legal non-citizen residents to vote (NZ for example) - you know, that whole no taxation without representation thing.

In the US some states or cities allow non-citizen legal residents to vote in some state and local elections (SF for examples allows non-citizen residents to vote for school boards)

[InitialLastName]

> The xenophobes here tend to prefer "taxpayer"

The irony, I guess, being that the xenophobes probably intend to raise a distinction better delineated by the word "citizen".

[checktheorder]

I think it's because those with political influence who espouse xenophobic views also tend to dislike the poor. "Taxpayer" as an identity has connotations of "only the landed gentry should have a voice in society's management", whereas "citizen" connotes equal rights and a voice in society regardless of income.