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Citizenship and what it means
What is citizenship to you
What is citizenship to you
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The definition of citizenship change over time by allowing all races to vote . Over the course of time citizenship has changed in many ways like allowing all people 18 and older to vote. The 26th lowered the voting age to 18 years old because it use to be 21 years old. Citizenship has changed will a lot over the years because the Wars that help establish the freedom citizens get to have. The some of the other countries don’t get freedom like we do. Citizen gets to have the same freedom we do so immigrants from other countries come to the United States of an America. Therefore people have to take a quiz and an Oath. Citizenship has changed by letting all people vote.
America is a nation consisting of many immigrants: it has its gates opened to the world. These immigrants transition smoothly and slowly from settlement, to assimilation then citizenship. These immigrants are first admitted lawfully as permanent residents before they naturalize to become full citizens. In her book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”, the historian Mae Ngai draws our attention to the history of immigration and citizenship in America. Her book examines an understudied period of immigration regulation between 1924 and 1965.
This week I enjoyed reading Lauren Berlant’s reading, “Citizenship” and one section that stood out to me what on the U.S. Naturalization Act of 1790. This section of her article made me think about/understand through different ways the role that immigrants have had in the U.S. For instance, Berlant points out that the U.S. Naturalization Act of 1790 essentially excluded some groups of immigrants from become citizens because the requirements were freedom and whiteness. Therefore, African slaves did not have the chance of becoming citizens because they could not sell their own labor and they were not white. In addition, other immigrants who could sell their labor, but if they were not white, they could not have full rights of citizenship (e.g.
The radical reconstruction tried to bring the south to submission while protecting blacks. This brought forward the 14th amendment which stated that all citizens born or naturalized in the U.S. are citizens of the United States. Then came along the 15th amendment was passed that stated that black m...
During the Progressive Era, our country was going through many changes and those changes have had numerous effects that are still apparent today. Theodore Roosevelt and Randolph Bourne both had very differing opinions about how citizens should be seen by themselves and their governments. The main difference between Roosevelt’s and Bourne’s theories on citizenship is the amount of domination and empowerment that was posed to the people. Roosevelt had thought that the people of American should only identify as American, even if they were born in another country. Bourne’s opinion was drastically different form Roosevelt’s by believing that the people of America should embrace their own cultures and share it with the rest of the country.
The Constitution lays out the rights and obligations of the newly formed United States government. But, what of the rights and obligations of its citizens? Starting in 1791, only two years after the Constitution was ratified, the Constitution began to evolve and this process continues to this day. The first ten amendments to the Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. This Bill of Rights outlines the protections citizens have from the government of the United States.
As the hostility toward immigrants had begun to relax, the residency period was reduced to two years by 1824. More reforms were made over several decades, and by 1870 new legislation gave persons of African descent, Asians and other non-white groups access to citizenship. As the country matured and became more multiracial, additional legislation would be passed to prevent “protected groups” from discrimination and exclusion. Present day, the United States is still a country of immigrants and continues to expand its laws to be inclusive of all its citizens and residents. All participants who contributed to the diversity of this county helped to create the vibrant economy and democracy that we know
The fourteenth amendment defined a citizen as being anyone who was born within the United States. The negative elements of the fourteenth amendment are twofold; First, it only established voting rights for men; and secondly, the way the fourteenth amendment was used by the northern states against the southern states. By doing so the fourteenth amendment disallowed women the right to vote. By in large, the fourteenth amendment virtually denied the right to vote to almost all southern white
There are various immigrants that come from different countries every year that want to provide a better life for themselves and their families. When immigrants initially arrive to the United States they are not citizens. Those who are not citizens cannot change how they are being treated because they have no rights. When immigrants are treated unfair often times they go back to their native country. The author is trying to seek the attention of those who stayed in the country long enough to become a naturalized citizen and be able to vote. The author writes this essay to appeal to those who want to change how immigrants are treated.
In the eyes of the early American colonists and the founders of the Constitution, the United States was to represent the ideals of acceptance and tolerance to those of all walks of life. When the immigration rush began in the mid-1800's, America proved to be everything but that. The millions of immigrants would soon realize the meaning of hardship and rejection as newcomers, as they attempted to assimilate into American culture. For countless immigrants, the struggle to arrive in America was rivaled only by the struggle to gain acceptance among the existing American population.
The United States changed as a nation because of the Civil Rights Movement. Especially, the United States notched up as a more perfect union. The Civil Rights Movement secured voting rights for African-Americans and called for the ending racial segregation, discrimination and segregation. After years of struggle and upheaval, it resulted in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. The purpose of the act was to protect African-Americans’ voting rights and overcome legal barriers that prevented them from exercising their rights to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a historic triumph as it helped the nation acknowledge the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which granted equal voting rights to all but which goal remained unfulfilled for the next several decades. Therefore, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned
President Jefferson work diligently with congress to change the Alien Acts to have a more relaxed naturalization for only requiring five years of residency achieve United States citizenship, instead of the previous fourteen years.
A citizen is defined as a member of a certain community. A way that African Americans expressed this sense of citizenship was through the establishment of black churches and attempts to reunite with family lost during slavery. The gatherings of the community in the newly formed churches created that sense of social citizenship between themselves even if they were not viewed as a “social citizen” by white southerners. In the article “Former Slaves Seek to Reunite Their Families,” one advertisement for a lost family member reads “Information is wanted of Cayrel Robinson .. any information of his whereabouts will be thankfully received by his wife” (Former Slaves Seek to Reunite Their Families). The outlying reason for reuniting with family was to establish the ideal “American Family” as well as a sense of social citizenship for themselves. The reason that this form of citizenship was the most abstract was due to the fact that there was no true tangible proof of it. With formal citizenship, one obtains a green card or passport, political gives one a ballot to cast votes and economic deals with the possession of money. However, Social Citizenship is based upon what one does for the society around them, the true meaning of what it means to be a part of a community. If a “citizen” is not active in the eyes of the members of the community, then the term citizen really means nothing at
During the late 1500’s to the 1700’s, America had no written policy on immigration. Settlers came from around the globe with high hopes of riches and prosperity in the new land. It wasn’t until 1790 did the U.S. attempt to unify the States on who could become a U.S. citizen. Under the Naturalization Act, “free white persons” of “good moral character” could become citizens after two years of residence in the country. Of course this law had no implications on who could actually become a U.S. citizen. So the U.S. decided to start monitoring who was coming into America by the use of the Steerage Act of 1819. It was designed to continually report all immigration by the use of passenger manifests. These manifests were to be turned into the local Collector of Customs, then the Secretary of the State and finally reported to Congress. By 1875 the U.S. had finally implemented exclusion laws and centralized a control for immigration. These laws limited specific people the U.S. deemed “Undesirable”. This mainly consisted of criminals, prostitutes and Chinese contract laborers. This lasted until 1891 when the United States created a comprehensive national immigration law called the Immigration Act. This law created a Bureau of Immigration under the Treasury Department, allowed for deportation of illegal aliens and added polygamists and contagious diseases to the list of people who could not enter (cite). Over the next 100 years, the immigration policy became less biased of ethnicity and instead focused more on how many were entering the U.S. per year.
Immigrating to the United States requires individuals to submit a number of detailed applications to the federal government (CIS). If and immigrant marries a legal citizen in America they become a citizen under law. The process of gaining citizenship continues to get more difficult (Discovery). To become a citizen you have to be able to prove your know most of Americas history and values. Among these are the constitution, star spangle banner, and other important U.S. documents. The laws that are put in place minimize illegal immigration but not completely as no law can fully control and stop
The task of defining citizenship is a difficult endeavor which takes much thought and careful examination in order to make sense of what constitutes the ideals of citizenship. Citizens are individuals who have a legal status within the state. Unfortunately it would take an amendment actually the repealing of an amendment to end birthright citizenships. To do that will take years, if not decades. So it can be done, but it won 't fix the short term problem. What the US needs to do is to secure borders to stop mothers from coming into another country illegally and having their baby because as soonest they do they become American citizen and they cannot be denied any government benefits. It is completely different when a person does come here legally