American Citizenship

American Citizenship

            The definition of citizenship is based on the ‘right’ to enjoy the rights of a particular land. The rights enjoyed by citizens include the right to vote and participate in public decision making. In America, citizenship is attained through two main processes; birthright citizenship where an individual obtains citizenship for being born within the territorial limits of the United States or born abroad by American parents, and citizenship by naturalization where an eligible immigrant attains the legal requirements of being accepted as a citizen. The definition of an American citizen has changed with the change in presidential reigns, and with forty-five presidents having ruled the US, the change is significant.

Misinterpretation of religion has changed the definition of citizenship. Immediately after the 9/11 terror attack, the perception of many Americans towards Islam were changed, and Islam was associated with terrorism. [1] Americans faced a lot of challenges due to the questioning by different authorities concerning the authenticity of their citizenship upon admitting to being Muslims. Also, Muslims suffered from comments made by several leaders concerning Islam. Most American leaders seemed to warn their followers against the radicalization associated with Islam. With the election of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of the US, the Muslims seemed to get some reprieve. Obama used to create a narrow Muslim American identity in his speeches, by emphasizing patriotism of Muslims and normalizing Muslim Americans by making Islam in a comprehensible version of that was similar to the American values[2].

The equality of treatment by the government towards different groups of citizens has been an issue of concern. A true American citizen is one who gets the full attention from the government. However, the citizens seem to get different levels of attention by the government, an issue that raises concerns about the rights that all citizens should enjoy. An example in hand is the way the government responds to natural disasters affecting different population groups. For example, when Katrina hit a region inhabited by African-Americans, the response by the government was not as would be expected[3]. A similar disaster, the Tsunami hit a whites-inhabited area in 2004, and the response was different from Katrina’s case. The discrimination in terms of getting government attention has raised concerns on the right definition of an American citizen.

The attainment of American citizenship by naturalization has been hit by controversy due to the position of education in the acquiring of citizenship. The modern society believes in citizenship as a definition of political identity, or a judicial bond between the government and an individual[4]. However, the improvement in the provision of civic education has changed the definitions by the citizens. The requirements for acceptance as a citizen have also been lowered since individuals who qualify for admission in the education system are recognized to have qualified as citizens of America.

The definition of American citizenship has witnessed significant evolution with different leaderships that have ruled since the independence of America. The requirements for acceptance as an American citizen have changed with time. Different events like natural disasters have given American citizens an understanding concerning the priorities given to the various population groups by the ruling governments — an American citizen is one who gets maximum attention from the government when a need arises.

[1] Selod, Saher. “Citizenship denied: The racialization of Muslim American men and women post-9/11.” Critical Sociology 41, no. 1 (2015): 77-95.

[2] De Roos, A. M. “How does President Obama approach negative sentiments towards Muslims in his rhetoric? The defining and uniting function of the presidency.” (2016).

[3] Barbour, Christine, and Gerald C. Wright. Keeping the republic: Power and citizenship in American politics. Cq Press, 2019.

[4] De Haas, Hein, Katharina Natter, and Simona Vezzoli. “Growing restrictiveness or changing selection? The nature and evolution of migration policies.” International Migration Review (2016).