Citizenship/Immigration

Video discussion and oral discussion on various immigration topics.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJlY9C7YWzI

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Immigration When and Why They Came

• During the colonial era
• First part of 19^th century from 1880s-1920

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• Reasons:
• Economic opportunity
• Political freedom
• Religious freedom
• 17^th to 19^th centuries may came against their will as African slaves

Americans

• Americans are bound together by basic political values and principles.
• Residents of the U.S. can be aliens, nationals, and citizens.
• People living here have different
• Heritages
• Religious Beliefs
• Ethnicity
• Languages
• National origins

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Definition of Citizenship

• Participatory member of a political community.
• A nation grants certain rights and privileges to its citizens. In return, citizens are expected to obey their country’s laws and defend it against its enemies.

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Becoming a U.S. Citizen

• To determine citizenship by birth two rules are followed:
• Jus sanguinis (“law of the blood”) children take parent nationality regardless of where they are born.
• Jus soli (“law of the soil”) Children are citizens of the nation in which they are born, no mater what the parents’ nationalities are.
• Naturalization is the process by which people from foreign countries become U.S. citizens.
• Steps in this process include:
• File and application
• Take a naturalization exam
• Appear for a court hearing
• Be at least 18
• Live in US as legal resident 5 years
• Be of good moral character and loyal to U.S
• Be able to read, write, speak and understand basic English
• Have basic knowledge and understanding of the U.S. government structure and Constitution.
• Be willing to take an oath of allegiance to the U.S.

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14^th Amendment

• First official written explanation of American Citizenship
• “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
• 14^th amendment does not include jus sanguinis. For a child born on or after December 24, 1952, both parents must have been American citizens. In addition, one parent must have lived in the United States for 10 years (and for at least 5 years after the age of 14) before the birth of a child.

Rights of Citizens

• December 15, 1791 Constitution amended to protect the freedoms of the people of the U.S.
• Bill of Rights are the first 10 amendments of the Constitution.

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Duties and Responsibilities of Citizens

• Right to vote is: Duty and a Privilege
• Before voting in an election, each citizen should be well informed about the issues and candidates.
• Referendum is the submission of a la, proposed, or already in effect to a direct vote of the people. Voters decide directly if a new law should be put into effect.
• Initiative is where a group of voters sign a petition asking for a specific law. A procedure by which a specified number of voters may propose a statute, constitutional amendment, or ordinance, and compel a popular vote on it adoption.
• Every citizen is expected to obey laws, respect rights of others, and pay taxes.

Duties and Responsibilities of Citizens cont.

• Community responsibilities
• To be a responsible member of ones community
• Volunteer their services
• Active member on School boards, PTA
• Participation in town meetings, public hearings, and community projects

How can you lose your citizenship?

• Can give up citizenship, known as expatriation. If U.S. citizens wish to give up their citizenship, they must declare this on a form provided by the secretary of state.
• By becoming a citizen of a foreign country
• Serving in the armed forces of, or holding office in, a foreign government.
• Convicted of major federal crime, such as treason.

Immigration History

• 1795 Naturalization Act: restricts citizenship to “free white persons” who reside in the U.S. for five years and renounce their allegiance to their former country.
• 1808: Importation of slaves into the U.S. is prohibited
• 1840s: Irish Potato Famine; crop failures in Germany, onset of industrialization and failed European revolutions begin a period of mass immigration.
• 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: concluding the Mexican War, extends citizenship to approximately 80,000 Mexican residents of the Southwest.

Immigration History

• 1849: California Gold Rush: spurs immigration from China
• 1870: Naturalization Act: limits American citizenship to “white persons and persons of African decent,” barring Asians from U.S. citizenship.
• 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act: restricts Chinese immigration
• 1891: Congress makes polygamists, “persons suffering from a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease,” and those convicted of “a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude” ineligible for immigration. The act establishes the Bereau of Immigration within the Treasury Department.

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Immigration History cont.

• 1892: Ellis Island opens processing center for 12 million immigrants over the next 30 years.
• 1907: Expatriation Act: declares that an American woman who marries a foreign national loses her citizenship.
• 1917: Congress enacts a literacy requirement. Also specifies that immigration is prohibited from Asia, except from Japan and the Philippines.
• 1921: Quota Act limits annual European immigration to 3 present of the number of a nationality group in the U.S. in 1910

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Immigration History cont.

• 1940: The Alien Registration Act requires the registration and fingerprinting of all aliens in the U.S. over the age of 14.
• 1942: Filipinos are reclassified as U.S. citizenship, making it possible for them to register for the military. Executive order authorizes the military to evacuate 112,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific coast and placed them in ten internment camps.
• 1943: Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed
• 1945: The War Brides Act: allows foreign-born wives of U.S. citizens who have served in the U.S. armed forces to enter the U.S.

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Immigration History cont.

• 1950: The Internal Security Act: bars admission to any foreigner who is Communist or who might engage in activities “which would be prejudicial to the public interest, or would endanger the welfare of or safety of the U.S.
• 1965: Immigration and Nationality Act repeals the national origins quota system and gives priority to family reunification.
• 1980: Refugee Act: enacted in response to the boat people fleeing Vietnam, grants asylum to politically oppresses refugees.
• 1990: The Immigration Act of 1990 increase the number of immigrants allowed into the U.S. each year to 700,000.
• 1995-1998 also saw changes in the immigration laws for immigrants and citizenship requirements.

Colonial Era Immigrants

• 1607: English founded their first settlement at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
• 1620: Pilgrims arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts where they established a colony.
• 1630-1640: Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• Large number of Europeans who made the voyage became indentured servants, some voluntarily others by force.
• Large number of English convicts were shipped across the Atlantic as indentured servants.
• Larger number of immigrants who arrived against their will were black slaves from West Africa.

Immigration in the Mid-19^th Century

• 1815-1865: Northern and Western European immigrants, approx 1/3 were from Ireland. In 1840s almost ½ of American’s immigrants were from Ireland alone.
• 5 million German immigrants also arrived. In a 2000 Census more Americans claimed German ancestry than any other group.
• Mid 1800s, Asian immigrants settled in U.S., lured by California Gold Rush.
• Increase in Anti-Immigration sentiment among native-born American population, predominantly the Anglo-Saxon Protestant population.
• Slow down of Immigration following the Civil War due to a depression in the 1870s

Ellis Island and Federal Immigration Regulation

• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: banned Chinese laborers from coming to America.
• Most of 1900s, federal government left immigration policy to individual states, by final decade Federal government decided to step in to handle the ever-increasing influx of newcomers.
• 1890: President Harrison designated Ellis Island as federal immigration station, more than 12 million immigrants entered the U.S. through Ellis Island during its operation from 1892-1954.

European Immigration 1880-1920

• 1890s: majority of immigrants were from Central, eastern and Southern Europe.
• 4 million from Italy
• 2 million Jews from eastern Europe fleeing religious persecution
• Peek of admission of new immigrants was 1907, approx. 1.3 million people entered the country legally.
• Outbreak of WWI (1914-18) caused a decline in immigration.
• 1917: Congress enacted legislation requiring immigrants over 16 to pass a literacy test
• Immigration Act of 1924 created a quota system that restricted entry to 2 percent of the total number of each nationality in America as of 1890 national census.

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Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

• Immigration plummeted during the global depression of 1930s and WWII (1939-1945)
• 1930-1950: Foreign-born population decreased from 14.2 to 10.3 million
• 1959: Communist revolution in Cuba, hundreds of thousands of refugees from that island nation gained admittance to the U.S.
• 1965: Immigration and Nationality Act passes Congress, did away with quotas based on nationality and allowed American to sponsor relatives from their countries of origin.

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