Allegiance and land go together”

Automatic Naturalization and the Changing Nature of Immigration in Nineteenth-Century America

Bibliographic Data

ID16769232
AuthorsRonald Schultz (University of Wyoming, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume12
Issue2
Pages149-176
Publication date2011-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Nineteenth Century History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1466-4658 • E-ISSN: 1743-7903
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14664658.2011.594649
OpenAlexW2086546346
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited60

This article discusses the long-neglected early period (1790–1906) of American naturalization. The article maintains that lax naturalization procedures dominated this period because of a conscious social effort to facilitate territorial expansion and because an unconscious schema of automatic naturalization of rural immigrants guaranteed that newcomers would invariably become loyal and productive citizens. This naturalization regime was questioned in the mid-nineteenth century and ultimately abandoned in the early twentieth century amidst the closing of the American frontier and a massive influx of labor migrants who were not only urban and industrial, but also showed more interest in work than in citizenship. As a result, the naturalization process became centralized and the federal government adopted a new naturalization schema that emphasized civic education and an expectation that “enlightened” immigrants would assimilate into American society

Allegiance · Citizenship · Deportation · Frontier · Immigration · Naturalization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Race, History, and American Society

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