What Is Citizenship?

Hayden Sousa
9/24/2013
IIAMST 210-02
CITIZENSHIP CULTURE DIFFERENCE: First Assignment

As by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, citizenship is defined the quality of an individual 's response to membership in a community or the status of being a citizen. Prior to taking this class, my definition of citizenship was very basic. If I were asked what my personal definition of citizenship was prior to the information I’ve received in this class, I would say it is being a member of a community relative to geographical location. In retrospect, I look at this definition as very ignorant in the sense that I was uninformed as to what citizenship really is. When defined by an official source such as a dictionary, citizenship appears very basic and textbook. When defined by a person or individual, citizenship is something extremely relative and unique to each and every individual. Although the definition of citizenship can vary between persons, I believe the one thing everyone can agree one is that it is of utmost importance in American Studies and our lives as a whole. After the time I’ve spent in this Citizenship class, my eyes have been opened to what my true personal definition of citizenship is. Personally, being a citizen, at least in terms of being a U.S. citizen, means being someone who works hard, pays taxes, gives back to their community, and someone who truly benefits the area in which they live in with their presence. To be a citizen is to be someone who boosts the socio economic status of the community they live in and to be proud of their country. Originally, I never associated citizenship under the study of American studies. I thought of citizenship as its own separate subject because I knew it to be extremely important, but I could not exactly answer why. Albeit, I have learned why citizenship is so important to people, especially those who have had to, or are still in the process of earning it. The readings from the book “Impossible Subjects” by Mae M. Ngai have offered a point of view regarding citizenship from an angle that I would not be able to see from. Many times the book references the opinions and experiences of citizenship of those from immigrants who have come to the U.S. from other countries, many of which have come during various decades and time periods throughout our countries history. One example in the book that stuck out to me was the difficulty Filipinos had in obtaining citizenship. When the United States acquired the Philippines as part of their territory, Filipino’s were denied citizenship and classified as tribal. Even though they were technically citizens of the U.S. they were still denied citizenship because of racial issues. Upon learning about this, I tried to put myself in the shoes of the average Filipino around that time. Being a born a white American, citizenship was basically handed to me without any effort on my part what so ever. The thought of having to go through all the red tape involved in acquiring citizenship, especially having the racial disadvantages that the Filipino’s did, is unfathomable. When hearing about stories like these and how hard it is for people to obtain U.S. citizenship that are coming from another country, it makes me value my given citizenship much more than I originally had. Citizenship is difficult to obtain as an immigrant in todays standards, but was even harder to obtain back in the early 1900’s. This became apparent to me after reading about the Johnson Reed act of 1924 in “Impossible Subjects” by Mae M. Ngai. I never knew that at one point our country had a quota regarding how many people could come to America from each country. For example, the country of Japan had a maximum of 100 immigrants allowed at that time. Due to the fact that traveling across the world was much more difficult in the 1920’s, Japanese people already had an extremely difficult time getting to America in the first place. To have such a small quota and the difficulties regarding travel and racism, Japan and other far away countries alike had very little chance of acquiring U.S. citizenship. Its examples like this that make me think about how valuable citizenship is and just how much I value my own. My initial impressions of citizenship prior to this class were very basic and blind. The information I have studied during my time in this class has allowed me to gain a new perspective on the value of citizenship and realize its importance to those who have a much more difficult time obtaining it as opposed to those who are simply born into it. I hope to learn more regarding citizenship in other countries and not just U.S. citizenship and how other countries view intersectionality and the legal acquisition of citizenship through immigration. In conclusion, my opinion on citizenship has shifted from a very basic one, to an opinion that is more well-rounded and valued. I look forward to learning more about citizenship and other peoples perspectives so I can more value my citizenship that has been handed down to me.

WORK CITED:
Ngai, Mae M.. Impossible subjects: illegal aliens and the making of modern America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. Print.

Cited: Ngai, Mae M.. Impossible subjects: illegal aliens and the making of modern America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004. Print.