Integrating Immigrants
Morality and Loyalty in US Naturalization Practice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4853345 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan M Gordon (University of California San Diego, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 367-382 |
| Publication date | 2007-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Citizenship Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13621020701476236 |
| OpenAlex | W2138347026 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 15 |
The issues of how to integrate immigrants and ensure the integrity of citizenship have become passionate topics of public discourse and policy debate in recent years in a number of immigrant receiving countries. Behind these debates are often unarticulated questions about how to ensure loyalty to the state and to particular conceptions of national identity among prospective citizens. These issues have been explicitly debated in the United States since the enactment of the first naturalization law in 1790, which requires that immigrants who wish to become citizens demonstrate their good moral character and attachment to the country. This article explores the ways that these morality and loyalty requirements have historically been applied and institutionalized in US naturalization practice, particularly through government sponsored immigrant education programs. It does so first through a discussion of the interpretation of these laws, and then through a case study of the original 1914 Bureau of Naturalization initiative that resulted in the incorporation of these laws into naturalization testing and citizenship education for immigrants. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of this history for current debates in both the United States and elsewhere on immigrant integration
Aesthetics · Citizenship · Good moral character · Immigration · Loyalty · Morality · Naturalization · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Race, History, and American Society
Atypical citizenship regimes
Literacy in Citizenship Preparatory Classes
Deserving Welcome? Immigrants, Christian Faith Communities, and the Contentious Politics of Belonging in the US South
Uncovering Settler Grammars in Curriculum
Naturalization ceremonies and the role of immigrants in the American nation
Through the European looking glass
Citizenship acts and immigrant voting rights movements in the US
From a Spouse to a Citizen
Good American citizens
Identifying the Needs of LGBTQ Immigrants and Refugees in Southern Arizona
The Power of Ambiguity
Strangers in the Land Patterns of American Nativism 1800-1925
We Are What We Eat
Civic Ideals
Stories of Peoplehood
Historical guide to the U.S. Government
Class, Race and Democracy in the CIO
Imagined communities
The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law
Constituting Americans
The INS and the Singular Status of North American Indians
Between Facts and Norms
Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,73 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2023 (13) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |