The Meanings of Citizenship

The Meanings of Citizenship
Author(s): Linda K. Kerber
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 84, No. 3 (Dec., 1997), pp. 833-854
Published by: Organization of American Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2953082 .
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The Meanings of Citizenship
Linda K. Kerber
It is no accidentthatthisannual meetingis devotedto a grandadvancedcourse
drawsto a close,eventsconspireto demand
century
in citizenship.
As thetwentieth
responded
to themeaningsofcitizenship.
(So manyhistorians
thatwe be attentive
to explorethosemeaningsthatsessionson citizenship
so creatively
to ourinvitation
of the program.)
absorbednearlytwo-thirds
intheUnitedStatesoccurred
tocitizenship
The lastgreatperiodsofattentiveness
of the turnof the centuryand again in the late
amid the massiveimmigration
of
fromNazi Germanychallengedtheresidents
1930s,whenthefloodofrefugees
to decidewhomtheywouldacceptas fellowcitizens.Attheend ofthe
democracies
Is
politicalfluidity.
Cold War,we again findourselvesin a timeof extraordinary
a conceptthatwas inventedin the era of the Americanand
nationalcitizenship,
resilientin a post-ColdWarworld?
sufficiently
Frenchrevolutions,
All overthe globe individuals'rightsas citizensare beingrecast.The statusof
citizen,whichin stabletimeswe tendto assumeis permanentand fixed,has beholding
come contested,variable,fluid.Fluiditycan mean advantage:Travelers
in
students
whisk
checkpoints;
through
Europeanpassport
the burgundy-colored
theEuropeanUnion'sErasmusProjectcanwanderacrossEuropeas theypursueuniwillbe a thing
degrees.We hearvoicesannouncingthatnationalcitizenship
versity
citizenshipthatwe need.
of the past; it's multinational
But manyelementsof destabilizedcitizenshipsremainproblematic.Ask the
membersofthe UnitedStatesCongresswhovotedforthe 1996 PersonalResponthe
Reconciliation
Acthowtheyhavereconstructed
and WorkOpportunity
sibility
or,betteryet,ask the citizen
relationship
betweencitizensand legal immigrants
Ask the citizensof Californiawho votedforPropspouseof a legal immigrant.1
osition187, makingradicalchangesin the relationshipof citizensto undocumentedaliens.Askthe citizensof Hong Kong. Twoyearsago,whenwe chosethe
themeofthismeeting,we could nothavepredictedthatthemeaningsofcitizenshipwouldbe so destabilized.
conwascreatedas partofthenewpoliticalordercourageously
Moderncitizenship
Greeks
and
in
back
to
the
structed the era of the AmericanRevolution.Reaching
addressat theannualmeetingof the OrganizationofAmericanHisThis essaywas deliveredas thepresidential
in theLiberalArtsand professor
toriansin San Francisco,
April19,1997.LindaK. Kerberis MayBrodbeckProfessor
of Iowa.
of historyat the University
1 PersonalResponsibility
and WorkOpportunity
Reconciliation
Actof 1996, 110Stat. 2105 (1996).
The Journalof AmericanHistory
December1997
833
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
834
December1997
whattheyfound,the foundinggenerationtransformed
reinventing
the relationshipbetweenkingand subject.Theyconstructed
a newand reciprocal
relationship
betweenstateand citizen.
"Citizen"is an equalizing word.It carrieswith it the activismof Aristotle's
definition-a citizenis one whorulesand is ruledin turn.We describerightsand
obligationsin egalitarianlanguageand in genericterms:all citizenspledge allegianceto theflag,usinga capaciousrhetoric
thatignoresdifferences
ofgender,race
and class.At itsfounding,the UnitedStatesgovernment
and ethnicity,
assumed
thatanyfreepersonwhohad notfledwiththeBritishor explicitly
denouncedthe
wasa citizen.It radicallydisconnected
Patriots
religionand politicalparticipation:
Congressmaymakeno religioustest.2The UnitedStateshas no formalcategories
or activeand passive,citizens.
and second-class,
of firstMostpeople who becomecitizensdo so bybeingbornon Americansoil; they
claimius soli, the common-lawrightof the land. Others,bornelsewhereon the
globe to parentswho are Americancitizens,claim citizenshipby descent;they
claimlus sanguinis,rightof blood. And UnitedStatescitizenship
can be acquired
naturalization.
The
in
all
of
these
three
by
citizenshipacquired
waysis essentially
the same, exceptthatonlythosewho acquirecitizenshipat birthmaystandfor
electionto the presidency.3
in theUnitedStates
The idea oflus soli has been treatedmuchmorecapaciously
thanelsewhere;forexample,in Francechildrenbornon Frenchsoil to aliensmay
be citizensiftheyreachtheage ofeighteen,havelivedin Franceforfiveyears,and
havecommitted
no crime.In someothercountries,
citizenshipis ascribedonlyon
thebasisofdescent.Birthon Germansoiland prolongedresidencehaveno bearing
on citizenship.Germanoppositionpartieshave recently
proposedthatchildren
bornin Germanybe citizens.Childrenbornon UnitedStatessoilto aliensbecome
citizensat birth.
But membersof the foundinggenerationleftfewexplicitdefinitions
of what
The federalConstitution
theymeantbycitizenship.
sayslittleotherthan"The citizens of each Stateshall be entitledto all privileges
and immunities
of citizensin
theseveralStates."The texttakesforgrantedthatwe knowwhatthose"privileges
and immunities"
are. It spendsitsenergypolicingthe boundariesofcitizenship
enunciatingthe obligationsnot to committreasonand not to harborfugitive
slaves.(The traitor
seeksto underminethecitizenry;
at theotherextreme,
thefugitiveseeksto blend into it.) Afterthe CivilWar,the Fourteenth
Amendmentexpanded theconceptof nationalcitizenship,
definingall persons"bornor naturalized in theUnitedStates"as citizensoftheUnitedStatesand ofthestatesin which
theyresideand guaranteeingthemthe "equal protectionof the laws."But the
amendmentassumedeveryone
knewthe"privileges
and immunities"
to whichcitizens wereentitled,leavingchangesup to the politicalprocess.4
2
U.S. Constitution,
art.6.
3Rogers Brubaker,
Citizenshipand Nationhoodin Franceand Germany(Cambridge,Mass., 1992), 80, 87.
4
U.S.
Constitution,
art.4, sec. 2, amend. 14, sec. 1.
The Meaningsof Citizenship
835
One exampleof whateveryone
"knew"can be foundin an opinionwrittenby
ofthe SupremeCourtin 1823.He describedwhathe
JusticeBushrodWashington
and immunities"thatall
understoodto be the commonsenseof the "privileges
citizensshare.His visionwas expansiveand made no distinctions
amongcitizens:
withthe right
Protection
the enjoymentof lifeand liberty,
bythe government;
to
ofeverykind,and pursueand obtainhappiness
to acquireand possessproperty
and safety. . . to claimthe . . . writofhabeas corpus;to instituteand maintain
actionsof anykindin the courtsof the state.5
was engagingin whatsomecommentators
haverecently
decriedas
Washington
"rights
talk."But emphasison rightsis themostprogressive
characteristic
ofAmerithe aspectof Americanlaw and social practicethatis most
can legal traditions,
in legalcomplexity
admiredabroadand bestunderstoodat home.Peopleunversed
understandthattheyare entitledto freespeech,to a rightagainstself-incrimination, to religiousfreedom,to a jurytrial,to the vote. The TenthAmendment
is crucial:"rightsnot grantedto the stateare reservedto the people."It is not a
bad thingto livein a systemin whichwe haveso manyrightsthatwe cannotlist
themall.6
In liberaltradition,rightsare implicitly
pairedwithobligations.The rightto
enjoya trialbyjuryis mirrored
by an obligationto serveon juriesif called. The
rightto enjoytheprotection
ofthestateagainstdisorderis linkedto an obligation
to beararmsin itsdefense.The rightto enjoythebenefits
ofgovernment
is linked
to an obligationto be loyalto it and to pay taxesto supportit.
In commonspeechwe mayreferto our
But theword"obligation"is confusing.
civicobligationto vote,whichis a responsibility
voluntarily
assumed.But theprimarymeaningof obligationis to be undercompulsion.This is not so pleasantto
Ifthedutyofloyalty
werenotso difficult,
thepunishment
contemplate.
fortreason
would not be so severe;if the dutyto defendthe nationwerenot so distasteful,
therewould neverbe need fora draft.
Some obligationsare wide-ranging,
applyingnot onlyto citizensand resident
aliensbutto anyoneon Americanterritory;
amongthesearethegeneralobligation
toobeycriminal
and civillawsand administrative
requirements
(suchas therequirementto pay the minimumwageor not to discriminate
on the basisof race). All
citizenshavefivespecificobligations.Twoare sharedwithall inhabitants:
the obligationsto pay taxesand to avoidvagrancy
(thatis, to appearto be a respectable
the negativeobliworkingperson).Threeare incumbenton citizensspecifically:
fromtreason,theobligationto serveon juries,and, mostsignifigationto refrain
cant,theobligationto riskone'slifein military
service,to submitto beingplaced
5 Corfieldv. Coryell,5 F. Cas. 546 (C.C.W.D. Pa. 1823) (No. 3230). The issuewas the extentto whichthe
stateof NewJersey
could limitthe takingof oysters
by inhabitantsof otherstates.
6 JamesH. Kettner,The Developmentof AmericanCitizenship,1608-1870(Chapel Hill, 1978), 259-60.
MichaelLesBenedictpointsout thattheconceptofa nationalcitizenshiphad wide-ranging
potential;antislavery
lawyersconcluded"thatfreeAfricanAmericanshad rightsas nationalcitizens,whethertheirstatesrecognized
themas statecitizensornot."MichaelLesBenedict,TheBlessingsofLiberty:
A ConciseHistoryoftheConstitution
of the UnitedStates(Lexington,Mass., 1996), 164. U.S. Constitution,
amend. 10.
836
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
December1997
in harm'swaywhenthestatechooses.Thislastobligationhas slippedout ofcomsincethe adventof the all-volunteer
armyin 1975, but it is a
mon conversation
real one, and whenwe considerthe meaningsof citizenshipwe ignoreit at our
peril.
had muchto say about rightsand
Americanpoliticaltheoryhas traditionally
littleto sayabout obligation.This tendencytoo is wholesome;bewarethe polity
someofthecomplexities
whereobligationtalkis expansive.Butithascamouflaged
I
Tonight wantto tryto place thetermin historical
ofthemeaningsofcitizenship.
context,not to undermineit- it stillcarriesitsvisionof equal status- but to demystify
it, to showhowtheAmericandreamof equal citizenshiphas alwaysbeen
in tensionwithits nightmares.
A BraidedCitizenship
fromthe beginning.Here are
havebeen inconsistent
The meaningsofcitizenship
the
of
ninegroupswho haveexperienced meaning UnitedStatescitizenshipsubdifferently:
stantially
-women (as distinctfrommen);
-Africansbroughtenslavedand theirdescendants;
on them
conferred
whodid notas a grouphavecitizenship
- NativeAmericans,
until 1924 (whetheror not theywantedit);
of involuntary
-other categories
immigrants:
people of Mexicanbirthor idenwho"became"AmericanwhentheUnitedStatesacquiredTexas,New Mexico,
tity,
the United Statescame to
afterthe MexicanWar (In effect,
and otherterritory
Chicanos.);
-"noncitizen nationals,"who lived in possessionsthat neverbecame states:
Filipinosbetween1898 and 1946,PuertoRicansbetween1900 and 1917,Virgin
Islandersbetween1917and 1927,personsbornin AmericanSamoa now;
fromEurope,all ofwhomwereelzgiblefornaturaliza-voluntaryimmigrants
tionand citizenship;
- voluntary
fromAsia and elsewhere,
who forlong periodswere
immigrants
fornaturalization;
znelzgible
- refugees
who can neverreturnto theirhomelands;
- refugees
in whichtheyhave reasonto believethe
uprootedby disruptions
UnitedStateswas complicit,forexample,Vietnamese"boat people."
said
does notseemstableat all. It is commonly
Envisionedthisway,citizenship
are
that
two
children
never
into
the
"same"
born
family.
family
therapists
among
The eldestchild,who entersa familyin whichhe or she is the onlychild,has a
offamilylifethantheyoungest
different
child,whoentersa differently
experience
familyin whichspaceis alreadytakenup bysiblingsand complexinterconfigured
The citizenshipof a childwhoseancestorscould not
generationalrelationships.
fromthe citizenship
claimcitizenshipby birthcarriesdifferent
historicalfreight
The Meanings
ofCitizenship
837
ofa childwhoseancestors
couldand did. WhenAmericans
todaytelltheirchildren
storiesof whatit has meantin theirfamiliesto be citizens,thewordmaybe the
same but the storiesvary.Americancitizenscarrywiththemdifferent
histories
of
rightsand different
memoriesofaccomplishing
The UnitedStatesthat
citizenship.
was formyfather's
familya refugefrompogromswas simultaneously
a statethat
ofitsowncitizens.Thereareprofounddifferences
countenanced
lynching
between
a citizenshipaccomplished,as mymother'swas, by birthin the UnitedStatesto
parentswho landed on Ellis Island and remainedlegal immigrants
all theirlives
(because theyneverlearnedenoughEnglishto pass the naturalization
test)and
thatof a Californian
who is a citizenby birthbut spentherchildhoodin the internment
campat Manzanar,orthatofa Texanwhois a citizenbybirthbutwhose
parentswereforcedbackto MexicoduringOperationWetbackin 1954.It wasthe
citizensbornin California
and Texaswhowerederacinated.
Noncitizens,
mygrandparents,livedsecurelyall theirlives.
It is, I think,becauseso manyofthedifferences
in theexperience
ofcitizenship
I have listedare linkedto ethnicor culturaldifference
thatmulticulturalism
has
cometo be so greata sourceof anxiety.Behindthe emphasison multiculturalism
lurksthe knowledgethatnot everything
meltedin the meltingpot, thatthe exhas been deeplyembeddedin thelegalpathsto citizenship.
perienceofdifference
The definition
of"citizen"is singleand egalitarian,
butAmericans
havehad many
of whatit meansto be a citizen;indeed,overthe centuries
different
experiences
since1789thenumberofdifferent
ofexperience
has increased.To deny
categories
thosedifferent
histories
is hypocritical.
Denial sustainsanxieties.Denial ofhistorical realityleads to falsepremisesin contemporary
argumentand to uninformed
judgmentswhenpublic policychoiceshave to be made.
in theUnitedStates
TonightI wantto considerthebraidedhistory
ofcitizenship
and to reflect
on the choiceswe havemade and are nowmakingabout sustaining
or undermining
in the experienceof citizenship.A braidis of a single
differences
length,as citizenshipat its bestis a singlestatus,but a braidis made of several
strandsthattwistaroundeach other,and each strand(as in the braidswe make
ofhairorrope)mayitselfbe composedofmanythreadsgatheredtogether.
Tofocus
on the braidednessof the nationalnarrative
willplace in the background,
forthe
moment,the dreamof an uninflected,
ungradedcitizenshipand foreground
the
distinctions
thatwerehistorically
for
that
men
experienced: example,
and women
gainedrightssuchas suffrage
and assumedobligationssuchas juryserviceon different timetables;that,althoughtherehave not been religioustestsforoffice,
there
have been ethnicboundaries;and thatpeople of European,African,and Asian
descenthave distinctive
historiesof assumingrightsand obligations.
I tellmystudentsthatthephrase"race,class,gender"is a cliche,and I challenge
themto avoidit. But thestrandsof the braidednarrative
ofcitizenshipas experiin the United Statesare the nine thatI listeda momentago
enced historically
wovenintothe threeropesof race,class,and gender-the categoriesI havetried
to avoid but findimpossibleto ignore.Let me describe,briefly,
some of these
historicaldynamics.
The Journalof AmericanHistory
838
December1997
4. ._
to internment
American
A Japanese
camp,April1942.
girlawaitstransportation
D.C.
Photo by C/emAlbers.CourtesyNationalArchives,Washington,
Gender
unrevised,the traditional
At its founding,the United Statesabsorbed,virtually
old law ofdomesticrelaThe
wives.
and
husbands
law
of
governing
Englishsystem
thephysical
thehusbandcontrolled
tionsbeganfromtheprinciplethatat marriage
bodyof thewife.Therewasno conceptofmaritalrapein Americanlaw untilthe
mid-1970s.Therefollowedfromthispremisethe elaboratesystemof coverture:
was "covered"byherhusband's.Sinceherhusthe marriedwoman'scivilidentity
his
of
the
wife,he controlledherwill. It followedlogically
band controlled body
or a willof herown,a married
thathe controlledherproperty.
Lackingproperty
Early
withoutherhusband'sspecialpermission.
womancould not makecontracts
she
areclearaboutthelogic.Ifa marriedwomanwereto entera contract,
treatises
fordebt,and thenthehusband
mightbreakit,and thenshewouldbe imprisoned
would be deniedaccessto the bodyof hiswife,"which,"wrotethe authorof one
and exiled,or imBut ifhe werea traitor
lawwillnotcountenance."
treatise,"tthe
wifeof an exile
so
the
prisoned,he would be denied accessto her bodyanyway,
or an imprisonedcriminalcould makea contract.7
'Tapping Reeve,TheLaw ofBaronand Femme,Parentand Child,Guardianand Ward,Masterand Servant,
and ofthe Powersof the Courtsof Chancery(1816; Burlington,1846), 98-99.
ofCitizenship
The Meanings
839
to imaginethattheFounderscouldhavethoughtto change
Areweanachronistic
We knowthattheydid revisitit. Undertheold law of domesticrelathissystem?
tions,thekillingofa wifebya husbandwasmurder,but thekillingofa husband
bya wifewaspetittreason,analogousto the killingof a kingand punishedmore
severely
thanmurder.The Founderseliminatedthecrimeofpetittreasonfromthe
oftheRepublic.Theyknewwhattheyweredoingwhentheyleft
newconstitutions
in place. Everyfreeman,richor poor,whiteor black,gainedsomething
coverture
ofdomesticrelations
alreadyinplace;theyhad no needofchange.8
fromthesystem
all marriedwomen'sidenoftheUnitedStates,virtually
thehistory
Throughout
throughtheirhusbands'legalidentities.Manyscholtitiesas citizenswerefiltered
and the problemsit raisedfadedbeforethe
arshavewrittenas thoughcoverture
has beenan extendedprocess,accompanied
CivilWar.But theerosionofcoverture
and the problems
byan almostwillfulinsistencebymanyscholarsthatcoverture
laterSupremeCourtdeit raisedneverreallyexisted.Some of the mostforceful
thepowerofhusbandsovertheirwives- Thompsonv. Thompson
cisionssustaining
(1910),whichdenied a wifedamagesagainstviolentbeatingby herhusbandon
the groundsthatto giveherdamageswouldundermine"thepeace of thehousehold,"orBreedlovev. Settles(1937),whichuphelda Georgialaw excusingwomen
womenfornotvoting do not
whodid notvotefromthepoll tax,thusrewarding
appearin the standardhistories.The SupremeCourtdid not rulethatthepower
ofhusbandsoverwivesis no longerrecognizablein law until1992. Evennoweleof domesticrelationsremainembeddedin our
mentsof the old understanding
socialpractices.9
werebent by gender.The firstNaturalizationAct
The rulesof naturalization
theywereborn,
of 1790providedthatall childrenofcitizenswerecitizenswherever
have
shallnotdescendto personswhosefathers
exceptthat"therightofcitizenship
mothers
very
beginning,
the
from
Thus
States."
neverbeen residentin theUnited
law
on naturalization
thanfathers.
Subsequentvariations
weresituateddifferently
Until 1934 a legitimatechildbornabroad
wouldskewthe claimstowardfathers.
wasa citizenwhohad residedin theUnited
citizenonlyifitsfather
wasa birthright
10
the
Statesbefore child'sbirth.Nothingwas said about citizenmothers.
forwomenthanfor
of the experienceof rightshas been different
The history
So longas voting
ofvotinghasbeendifferent.
men.Everyone
knowsthatthehistory
and
holdingand marriedwomenlostcontroloftheirproperty
wastiedto property
Before
inconceivable.
was
almost
married
woman
earningsat marriage,a voting,
therecould be a NineteenthAmendmentin 1920, therehad to be expansive
were
women'sproperty
acts,and thosedevelopedslowlyovertime.The first
married
in the antebellumera,but otherswerestillbeingreviseddeep intothetwentieth
11
century.
8
LindaK. Kerber,"The ParadoxofWomen'sCitizenshipin theEarlyRepublic:The Case ofMartinv. Commonwealth,1805,"AmerzcanHistoricalReview,97 (April 1992), 349-78.
9 Thompsonv. Thompson,
218U.S. 611(1910);Breedlovev. Settles,302 U.S. 277 (1937); PlannedParenthood
v. Casey,505 U.S. 833 (1992).
of SouthernPennsylvania
10 StephenH. Legomsky,
1992), 1032-33.
Law and Policy(Westbury,
Immigration
11 Diane Avery
Rightsand Women'sLivesin Mid"The DaughtersofJob: Property
and AlfredS. Konefsky,
840
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
December1997
The NineteenthAmendmentauthorizedwomen'svotingbutdid notguarantee
thatall womencould vote.Where AfricanAmericanswerebarredfrompolling
century-black
places- and thatwasmostofthe South,formostofthetwentieth
womenfaredno betterthan black men. Because the Bureau of InsularAffairs
a septo theterritories,
decidedthatthe NineteenthAmendmentdid not stretch
forwomen'svotehad to takeplace in PuertoRico.Nor did theright
aratestruggle
to vote alwaysincludethe rightto hold office;in Iowa it took a separatecamuntil1926;thefirst
womanlegislator
did nottakeherseatuntil
paign,unsuccessful
1929.12
come to recognizethatthe rightof citizensto be secure
We haveonlyrecently
in theirhouseholds-the FourthAmendmentrightofprivacy-becamein practice
of
the rightof the male head of the householdto bar police againstsurveillance
domesticviolence.13 The claimofwomento "custodyof ourpersons"has notnecessarilymeantaccessto birthcontrolor to medicallysafeabortion.
The rightto custodyof childrenhas not been the same forfathersand for
mothers.Under the old law of domesticrelations,the fatherwas the primary
prevailed.The deathofthe
guardianofthechild.His judgmenton apprenticeship
fatheroftenmade the child an orphanevenif the motherwas alive,and "halforphans"werevulnerableto fostercareand the guardianshipof strangers.14
to thestate
Mostsignificant,
womenhavenothad thesameobligationofloyalty
thatmen have had. Under the old laws of domesticrelations,as one lawyerexpressedit, "a marriedwomanhas no politicalrelationto the statemorethan an
she
alien."Her civicidentityfilteredthroughherhusband's;if he was a Loyalist,
republic.It followed
to therevolutionary
wasnotexpectedto takean oathofloyalty
men marriedforeignwomen,the
fromthatprinciplethatwhen American-born
womenautomatically
but-and thiswas estabgainedUnited Statescitizenship,
lishedbystatutein 1907-when an American-born
womanmarrieda foreign
man,
she losthercitizenship.(When PresidentUlyssesS. Grant'sdaughtermarriedan
in 1874and wentto livewithhimin England,shelosthercitizenship,
Englishman
whichwasreinstated
bya specialactofCongressin 1898.)WhenEthelMacKenzie,
Law and HistoryReview,10 (Fall 1992), 323-56; NormaBasch,In theEyes
NineteenthCenturyMassachusetts,"
in Nineteenth-Century
New York(Ithaca,1982);RevaSiegel,"Home
oftheLaw: Women,Marmage,
and Property
as Work:The FirstWomen'sRightsClaimsConcerningWives'HouseholdLabor,1850-1880,"YaleLawJournal,
103 (March1994), 1073-1217.
12 SuzanneLebsock,
in VisibleWomen.New
and WhiteSupremacy:
A VirginiaCase Study,"
"WomanSuffrage
groups
Essaysin AmericanActivism,ed. NancyHewittand SuzanneLebsock(Urbana,1993),62-100. Suffragist
legislature
granted
In 1929theterritorial
mobilizedin PuertoRicowithsupportfromtheNationalWoman'sParty.
in
restricted
to women,but not untilPuertoRico becamea commonwealth
suffrage,
bya literacyrequirement,
and Politicians:
Iowa's Women
Legislators
1952wasuniversal
suffrage
established.On Iowa,see SuzanneSchenken,
Law Makers(Ames, 1995).
13 See ElizabethM. Schneider,
"The ViolenceofPrivacy,"
Connecticut
LawReview,23 (Summer1991),973-99.
Moregenerally,
see MaryE. Becker,"The PoliticsofWomen'sWrongsand theBill ofRights:A BicentennialPerspective,"University
of ChicagoLaw Review,59 (Winter1992), 453-517.
14 See MichaelGrossberg,
America(Chapel
Century
theHearth:Lawandthe Familyin NineteenthGoverning
A Judgment
forSolomon:TheDHauteville Caseand LegalExperiencein AnteHill, 1985);MichaelGrossberg,
bellumAmerica(New York,1996); and KennethCmiel,A Home of AnotherKind: One ChicagoOrphanage
and the Tangleof Child Welfare
(Chicago,1995).
The Meanings
ofCitizenship
841
who had workedhardherein Californiaforwomansuffrage,
attemptedto vote,
shewasturnedaway.HerBritishhusbandoffered
to naturalize,butMacKenziedid
not thinkhe shouldhave to. She appealed to the UnitedStatesSupremeCourt;
shelost.Marriageto a foreign
man,theCourtheld,"is as voluntary
and distinctive
as expatriation
and itsconsequencemustbe consideredas elected."Not untilthe
mid-1930sweremostof the effects
of the 1907 law reversed.
Eventoday,it is not
clearthatthe adult childrenof native-born
womenwho wereexpatriated
before
1934can claimAmericancitizenship,
and immigration
law stillfilters
someclaims
forlegalimmigrant
statusthrougha spouse,disadvantaging
somemarriedwomen
and also people in same-sexpartnerships.15
Otherobligationsof citizenshiphavebeen experienced
differently
bymen and
of taxationhave been substantially
bywomen.Structures
different.
The Supreme
Courtdid notrulethatmen and womenwereequallyobligatedto serveon juries
until 1975 or thatperemptory
challengescould not be guided by considerations
of genderuntil 1994. Men and womenmay volunteerformilitaryservice,but
womenhaveneverbeen draftedformilitary
service.16
Race
Atitsfounding
moments,
theUnitedStatessimultaneously
dedicateditselftofreedom and strengthened
itssystemof racializedslavery.
It includedthe three-fifths
''compromise"
and the fugitiveslaveclausein the Constitution.
People of Africandescentwho werenot enslavedwereeverywhere
constrained
in systems
ofcastethathavebeenpubliclyunderacknowledged,
despitetheirdocumentationbymanyhistorians.
The firstNaturalization
Actof 1790was generous
in requiringonlytwoyearsofresidency,
proofof "good character,"
and an oath to
"supporttheconstitution
oftheUnitedStates."But thewelcomewasoffered
only
to "freewhitepersons."By racializingthe qualifications
fornewcomers,
the first
naturalization
statuterecalibrated
therelationship
to thepoliticalorderofthefree
blacksand freewhiteswhowerealreadyresidentin it and setstrictlimitson future
accessto citizenship.Onlyafter1870could people of Africanbirthor descentbe
17
naturalized.
15 See Kerber,
"Paradoxof Women'sCitizenshipin theEarlyRepublic."U.S. H.RJ. Res. 238, 55thCong. 2d
Sess. 30 Stat. 1496(1898);JohnL. Cable, DecisiveDecisionsof UnitedStatesCitizenship(Charlottesville,
1967),
41-42; MacKenziev. Hare, 239 U.S. 299 (1915). See Candice Dawn Bredbenner,
A Nationalityof Her Own:
Woman,Marriage,
and theLaw of Citizenship(Berkeley,
forthcoming);
Legomsky,
Immigration
Law and Policy,
1036-37;and RogersM. Smith,"'One UnitedPeople':Second-ClassFemaleCitizenshipand theAmericanQuest
forCommunity,"
YaleJournalofLaw and the Humanities,1 (1989), 229-93. Forthe persistence
of theseissues
intoourowntime,see Elias v. US. DepartmentofState,721 F. Supp. 243 (N.D. Cal. 1989);Adamsv.Howerton,
673 F.2d 1036(1982);JanetCalvo,"Spouse-BasedImmigration
Law: The Legaciesof Coverture,"
San Diego Law
Review,28 (Summer1993), 593-644; and FeliciaE. Franco,"UnconditionalSafetyforConditionalImmigrant
Women,"BerkeleyWomen'sLawjournal, 11 (1996), 99-141.
16 See EdwardMacCaffery,
TaxingWomen(Chicago,1997); and Linda K. Kerber,No Constitutional
Right
to Be Ladies. Womenand the Obligationsof Citizenshipin AmericanHistory(New York,forthcoming).
17 Ironically,
althoughDred Scottcould bringa suitin a federalcourt,theSupremeCourtruledthathe and
otherblackscould not enjoythe privileges
and immunities
of citizenship.Kettner,DevelopmentofAmerican
Citizenship,325.
December1997
TheJournalof AmericanHistory
842
j
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atalime
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18
Leon Litwack,Northof Slavery:The Negroin the FreeStates,1790-1860(Chicago,1961),31-40; David
in theUnitedStateswithDemocracyandthe FreeMarket
ofWorkers
TheExperience
CitizenWorker:
Montgomery,
ofCitizenship
The Meanings
843
to citizenship.In the
raciallybased barriers
Asianshaveencounteredextensive
statutesin Californiaand otherwesternstates,strengthlate nineteenthcentury,
fromcitizenship.
ened byfederallegislationin 1882,barredChineseimmigrants
These laws were expanded, sometimessilently,sometimesexplicitly.Chinese
-a more
had to provethattheywerenotprostitutes
womenseekingto immigrate
deforevidenceof good character
burdenthantheusual requirement
formidable
In the 1920s,the SupremeCourt"declared"various
manded of all immigrants.
groupsto be "non-white"and ineligibleforcitizenship:1922/Japanese;1923/
forNg
Hindus; 1925 /Filipinos.In 1925, burdensof genderand raceintersected
when
FungSing.Althoughshewasbornin theUnitedStates,shewasexpatriated
she marrieda Chineseman, and she was refusedadmissionto the UnitedStates
duringWorldWar
whenshe triedto return.These exclusionswereembarrassing
II; to expresssupportforourally,CongressexemptedtheChinesefromthem.Japanese womenwerenot eligibleto marryAmericansoldiersuntil the cautiously
thatpeople ofAsian
wordedSoldierBridesActof 1947.In short,the"citizenship"
wereable to claim- Chineseafter1943,Japaneseafter1952descentultimately
claimedbypeople
fromthecitizenship
different
and historically
waspsychologically
werereofEuropeandescentwho had neverbeen barredfromit. The differences
enemies
of
"alien
treatments
distinctive
inforced
duringWorldWarII bysharply
Germanaliensweremonitoredon theirownrecognizance(althoughthiscarried
its own ironies;manyrefugeesfromthe Nazis werelocatedas "alien enemies");
AmericancitizensofJapanesedescentas well as Japanese aliens wereinterned.Not
law.19
fullyremovedfromimmigration
until 1965 wereracialqualifications
Class
is whatit did not
elementsofthefederalConstitution
One ofthemostimportant
and immunideniedtheprivileges
sayabout class.The Articlesof Confederation
did not
to paupersand vagabonds,but thefederalConstitution
tiesofcitizenship
meansequal accessto socialand
repeatthephrase.The extentto whichcitizenship
economicinstitutions-what
fifty
yearsago the BritishsociologistT. H. Marshall
"the rightto shareto the fullin the socialheritageand
called socialcitizenship,
to live the lifeof a civilizedbeing accordingto the standardsprevailingin the
Americanhistory.
(ForMarshall,the charsociety"-has been at issuethroughout
is
of
forcivilcitizenship thecourt justice,forpoliticalcitizeninstitution
acteristic
duringthe NineteenthCentury(Cambridge,Mass.,1993), 19, 21. When theUnitedStatestookoverLouisiana,
maintaineda militia.See Ira Berlin,Slaves
claimedtherightsofcitizenshipand briefly
freeNegroesaggressively
withoutMasters:TheFreeNegroin theAntebellumSouth(New York,1975), 118-28.Fornotusingperemptory
476 U.S. 79 (1986); andPowersv. Ohio,499 US. 400 (1991).
challengeson thebasisofrace,seeBatsonv.Kentucky,
Law
and theShapingofModernImmigration
LawsHarshas Tigers:ChineseImmigrants
19 See LucyE. Salyer,
couldbe naturalizedas Britishsubjects.See ConstanceBack(Chapel Hill, 1995).In Canada,Chineseimmigrants
CenturyCanada,"Lawand HisRacismin EarlyTwentieth
house,"The WhiteWomen'sLaborLaws:Anti-Chinese
ImmitoryReview,14 (Fall 1996), 321.Exparte (Ng) FungSing 6 F.2d 670 (W.D. Wash. 1925). See Legomsky,
Borders,and
Immigrants,
to the Constitution:
grationLaw and Policy,1039; and GeraldL. Neuman,Strangers
FundamentalLaw (Princeton,1996), 37.
844
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
December1997
and socialsertheeducationalsystem
and forsocialcitizenship
shipthelegislature,
to sustainsocial
ofefforts
bylocaland nationalgovernments
vices.)The longhistory
standardscan be tracedfromthe use of the police powerto put ceilingson the
priceofbreadin thecolonialperiod,throughtheHomesteadActofthenineteenth
centeredon decentwork
century,
throughtheNew Deal's "secondBill ofRights,"
has longbeen defended
A fullrangeofsocialprovision
and broadsocialprovision.
wasestablished,amongotherthings,
on thegroundsthatthefederalgovernment
to promotethe generalwelfare.20
the abilityof an individualto claim
affected
But classlocationhas significantly
In thenineteenth
century,
theboundofcitizenship.
and immunities
theprivileges
and freedomwereroughenedbythephenomenonofindenariesbetweenslavery
of Ohio, Indiana,and Illinois
ture.Mastersbroughtslavesintothefreeterritories
that
vulnerableto punishments
servants,
and quicklyturnedthemintoindentured
includedwhipping;Illinoisenforcedsuch indenturesuntil 1850. Not untilthe
1820swas it clearthata freewhiteworkerwho signedan annual contractcould
and
quit withoutcriminalsanctions,and theentireargumenthad to be revisited
forfreedpeople afterReconstruction.21
refought
not onlyby racebut also
constrained
At the founding,votingwas everywhere
taxes
and poll
preventedpaupersfromvoting.
by class; propertyrequirements
the rightto travelwasrestrained
bystrictlocal
century,
Deep intothe nineteenth
in a townand in thatwaya claimon
whocould gaina "settlement"
lawsdefining
towncharity.Since the statusof her husbandwas ascribedto anyimpoverished
in anytown,shewould
ifhe did nothavea securesettlement
womanwhomarried,
forbothof themin the townof her birth.By
not be able to claima settlement
as a vagabonduntilshe
hermarriageshe would becomevulnerableto treatment
waswidowed.Not until 1941was the rightof the poorto travelfreelywithinthe
securedas a privilegeof citizenship.In
boundariesof theUnitedStatesexplicitly
forwelfarebenefits,
1969 the SupremeCourtinvalidatedresidencerequirements
to a substantialincreasein welfare
a movethatsome have seen as contributing
claims,the backlashagainstwhichwe are feelingtoday.22
The obligationnot to be perceivedas a vagranthas borneheavilyon the poor
20
and SocialDeT. H. Marshall,"Citizenshipand Social Class" (1949) in T. H. Marshall,Class,Citizenship,
see WilliamJ. Novak,
century,
1973),71-72. On the nineteenth
velopment:Essaysby T H. Marshall(Westport,
America(Chapel Hill, 1996).
Law and Regulationin Niketeenth-Century
The People's Welfare:
21 Neuman,Strangers
Federalism,
An Imperfect
Union:Slavery,
35-37; Paul Finkelman,
to the Constitution,
32. See RichardB. Morris,Government
CitizenWorker,
and Comity(Chapel Hill, 1981),92-100; Montgomery,
and labor in EarlyAmerica(New York,1946); and RobertJ. Steinfeld,The Inventionof FreeLabor: The EmploymentRelationin Englishand AmericanLaw and Culture,1350-1870(Chapel Hill, 1991).ForIndiana,we
Dependencyand theProblemofInequaltheRevolution:
"Resolving
Searle-Williams,
willbe indebtedto Bridgett
possession).
of Iowa (in BridgettSearle-Williams's
ityin EarlyIndiana,1795-1835,"draftPh.D. diss.,University
Forthe permeableboundariesbetweenslaveryand freedomin the upperMidwest,see Lea VanderVelde and
SandhyaSubramanian,"Mrs.Dred Scott,"YaleLawJournal,106 (Jan. 1997), 1037, 1047-50.
22 See Linda K. Kerber,Womenof the Republic:Intellect
America(Chapel
and Ideologyin Revolutionary
Hill, 1980), 142-43.On therightto travel,see MayorofNew Yorkv. Miln,36 U.S. (11 Pet.) 102, 142-43(1837);
23-31.
to the Constitution,
41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 539, 625 (1842); and Neuman, Strangers
Priggv. Pennsylvania,
see Shapirov. Thompson,394 U.S. 618
Edwardsv. California,314 U.S. 160 (1941). On residencerequirements,
(1969).
The Meanings
ofCitizenship
845
races.
calibratedformen and forwomenof different
and has been differently
Freedwomen
intoa societythatcountenancedsporadicwork
emergedfromslavery
to enterextendedwork
whitewomenbut expectedfreedwomen
byimpoverished
vagrancy
laws
Used selectively,
contracts
or be treatedas vagrantsor prostitutes.
could forcemen and womenwho wereout of workto choosebetweenprisonand
a peonage
Used widely,theycould reconstruct
workingfora particularemployer.
or
for
in 1867.23
had
been
outlawed
systemeventhoughwork imprisonment debt
The abilityof the New Deal coalitionfirmly
to establishsocialcitizenshipwas
New Deal legislation
underminedbyitsdependenceon votesfromsegregationists.
craftedto excludeAfricanAmericansin theSouthand women,
wasoftencarefully
thecountry.
It wasalso constructed
in conformity
with
blackand white,throughout
whiteAmericans'assumptions
about the dynamicsof a respectable
contemporary
familyand theirbeliefthatit was appropriatethatblackwomennot be shielded
fromthe obligationto work.By excludingfromthe originalSocial Security
legisin
many
occupations
heavand workers
lationall agricultural
and domesticworkers
ilydominatedby blacksand women,and by not requiringstatesto standardize
benefitsand forAid to Dependent Children,the
eligibilityforunemployment
of the originallegislationconveyedthe messagethatmillionsof people
drafters
notreallyworking
and thattheytherefore
werenotentitledto Social
were,in effect,
Securitybenefitsof theirown.24
as WilliamE. Forbathhas recently
arThese patternswould be strengthened,
ofmanyelementsofsocialprovision
-especially
gued, bythesubsequentfiltering
in union contractsin the
healthinsurance-throughemploymententitlements
as a systemofsocialprovisionthatfromitsori1950sand 1960s.25SocialSecurity,
to male wage
gins distinguishedbetweenpaymentsunderstoodas entitlement
femaleearnersand paymentsunderstoodas charitablesupportto "dysfunctional"
classesin different
relaheaded families,has placed men and womenof different
tionshipto the economicbenefitspaid forby all taxes.
23 See Kerber,
Rightto Be Ladies. See also WilliamCohen,At Freedom'sEdge: BlackMoNo Constitutional
bilityand the SouthernWhiteQuestforRacial Control,1861-1915(Baton Rouge, 1991);and TeraW. Hunter,
(Cambridge,Mass., 1997),
Livesand labors afterthe Civil WUar
To joy My Freedom:SouthernBlack WUomen's
227-32.
24 Becauseeligibility
benefits
was not standardizedfromstateto state,some people who
forunemployment
employment
in one statewouldbe regardedas refusing
and thusentitledto benefits
wereregardedas notworking
to create
in another.
requirements
JoanneGoodwinhas describedtheuse ofeligibility
and notentitledto benefits
mother."
AlthoughAid to DependentChildren/Aidto FamilieswithDependent
thecategory
ofthe"employable
weresupposedto keepmothersout oftheworkforce,southernstateadministrators
Children(ADC/AFDC)benefits
generallyblack mothersin seasonswhen whitefarmers
of thosebenefitsjudged some mothers"employable,"
some
wereavailable.As theoriginallegislationhad envisioned,
neededfieldhandsorwhenjobs doinghousework
statestreatedmostmothers'care of theirchildrenas work.But otherstatestreatedonlysome mothers'careof
SeeJoanneGoodtheirchildrenas work(and theytreatedpoorblackwomen'scareoftheirchildrenas non-work).
forWomenin
win,"'EmployableMothers'and 'SuitableWork':A Re-evaluation
of Welfareand Wage-Earning
JournalofSocial History,29 (Winter1995),253-74; AliceKessler-Harris,
theTwentieth-Century
UnitedStates,"
oftheSocialSecurity
of 1939,"in US. History
Amendments
"DesigningWomenand Old Fools:The Construction
and KathrynKish Sklar
as Women'sHistory:New FeministEssays,ed. Linda K. Kerber,Alice Kessler-Harris,
How RacismUnderminedthe Waron
(Chapel Hill, 1995), 87-106; and JillQuadagno, The Color of WUelfare:
Poverty(New York,1994), 157.
25 WilliamE. Forbath,
unpublishedessay,1997,89-96 (in WilliamE.
"Race,Class,and Equal Citizenship,"
Forbath'spossession).I am gratefulto WilliamForbathforsharingthispaperwithme.
846
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
December1997
In short,thedreamof an unrankedcitizenship
has alwaysbeen in tensionwith
routes,
the wakingknowledgeof a citizenshipto whichpeople came bydifferent
bounded bygender,race,and classidentities.
Borders
Citizens,Immigrants,
of an expansiveempire,dependentfortheirprosperity
on
Situatedon thefringes
theconstructors
ofAmericancitizenship
a steadystreamofEuropeanimmigrants,
to thestatein a globalcontext.In a century
ofinterunderstoodtheirrelationship
shifting
and American
nationalwarsin whichimperialboundarieswereconstantly
ser-adventurers, indentured
portswerecrowdedwithshipsbringingnewcomers
far
the
the
slaves
and
were
from
minds
of
foundborders
rarely
vants,
immigrants
of English
ing generation.The BostonTea Partywas set offby the recalibration
tradewithIndia. Amongthe "long trainof abuses"catalogedagainstGeorgeIII
in theDeclarationofIndependencewasthecomplaintthathe had obstructed
the
and failed "to encouragetheirmigration
laws fornaturalizationof foreigners
hither."26
oftheConstitution
JamesMadisonand AlbertGallatinheldthattheprotections
notjustcitizens.We knowfromearlycongressional
dewereavailableto "persons,"
of the Constitution
had been intendedfor"persons."
bates thatthe protections
in timeofwarbetween"alienfriends,"
whose
Greatcarewastakento distinguish
rightsas personswould be respected,and "alien enemies."27
The Dred Scottdecisionof 1857destabilizedthisunderstanding,
attachingthe
a chillinglinkageof
rightsofcitizensto whitepeople alone and also constructing
basicrightsto citizensratherthanpersons.In promising
that"all persons"areenofthelaw,theFourteenth
titledto equal protection
Amendment
wasintendednot
the Dred Scottdecisionbut also to meltthatlink.The pattern
onlyto overturn
it established
-that thenationbe one in whichbasicvaluesareavailableto all perof Americanlife
sons withinthe landscape- enduredas the majorcharacteristic
and tradition.
The principlewas testedin 1886, here in San Francisco,at a time when all
Chinesewereexcludedfromcitizenship.A cityhealthordinancerequiredthat
laundriesin woodenbuildingsbe licensed.All Chineselaundriesin thecitywere
in woodenbuildings;all weredenied licenses.(Virtuallyall laundriesownedby
rewhiteslocatedin woodenbuildingsreceivedlicenses.)Yick Wo,a laundryman,
fusedto pay whathe believedto be a discriminatory
fine,challengingthe courts
to considerthetensionsbetweenthe"privileges
and immunities"
thatcitizensmay
claimand the"equal protection
ofthelaws,"in whichaliensas wellas citizensparruledin his favor,holdingthat"aliens
ticipate.The SupremeCourtunanimously
withintheUnitedStates- includingthosewhoare unlawfully
presentarepersons
26
27
Declarationof Independencepara. 9 (U.S. 1776).
Neuman,Strangers
to the Constitution,
61.
The Meaningsof Citizenship
I
-
847
1K~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dred Scott,oil on canvas,unknownartist,probablymodeledon the woodcutfroma
takenforFrankLeslies IllustratedMagazinein 1857.
daguerreotype
HistorzcalSociety.
Collectionof The New,-York
entitledto constitutionalprotection. . . . the equal protectionof the laws is a
pledge of the protectionof equal laws.'"28
was not a chance event. Repeatedlythe Supreme Court
The decision in Yick Wlo3
sustainedthe rightof undocumented aliens to due process and to bring suits in
aliens were encourthe courtsof the United States. In some states and territories,
aged to vote even beforethey became citizens, sometimes with only modest residencyrequirements,sometimes with merelya declaration of intent to become a
28 YickW'ov. Hopkins,118 U.S. 356 (1886). Emphasis added. "Nor shall any State deprive any person of life.
libertyor propertywithout due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection
of the laws." U.S. Constitution, amend. 14.
848
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
December1997
citizensomeday.The practicedid not end untilWorldWar1.29Muchsignificant
New Deal legislation-theSocial SecurityAct of 1935 and the amendmentsof
1939,theFairLaborStandardsAct,theNationalLaborRelationsAct-was framed
in termsof personsand made no distinctions
betweenaliensand citizens.Other
practices
eased thetransition
to citizenship.
Untildeep intothetwentieth
century,
womenwhomarriedAmericancitizensautomatically
foreign
becamecitizensthemselves;theydid not evenhave to takean oath of allegiance.AfterWorldWarII
the WarBridesAct simplifiedthe naturalization
of foreignspousesof American
servicepeople. The Immigration
and NationalityAct of 1965 eliminatedracial
In 1982the SupremeCourtstruckdowna stateattempt
to immigration.
barriers
to denyfreepublic educationto childrenof undocumentedimmigrants.30
But thistradition
ofcapaciousdefinition
has been challengedbya skepticaltradition.The "exclusion
ofaliensfromtheUnitedStateson groundsoftheirpolitical
viewsor theirrace"waskeyto immigration
and naturalization
law forforty
years,
fromthe early1920sto 1965.31This skepticaltraditionhas been strengthened
by
long periodsof absoluteexclusionof Asiansand by the definition
of ethnicand
racialintermarriage
as miscegenation.
In 1914theSupremeCourtupheldtheright
of Pennsylvania
to forbidaliensto hunt;in 1923the Courtuphelda law limiting
the rightofJapanesealiensto own or rentland. Duringthe greatesttensionsof
theMcCarthy
era,suspicionofalienswasembeddedin theMcCarranImmigration
and NaturalizationAct of 1952. In thatera the SupremeCourtheld thataliens
who had not gottenfurther
thanEllis Islandwerenot entitledto due process.In
1953the SupremeCourtdeniedthe reentry
of an immigrant
who,afterlivingin
theUnitedStatesfortwenty
years,visitedhis dyingmotherin Romania.His time
in EasternEuropemade himan objectofsuspicion.The SupremeCourtsaid suspicionwas enough:"WhatevertheprocedureauthorizedbyCongressis, it is due
processas faras alien denied entryis concerned."
He spentmorethanfouryears
on EllisIslandbeforetheImmigration
suspendedin statelessness
and Naturalization Serviceallowedhim reentry.32
in the 1970s.When theSupremeCourtruledthatthe
wasrefreshed
Skepticism
Civil
United States
Service'sregulationsexcludingfromcompetitive
civilservice
29 WongWingv. US., 163 U.S. 228 (1896); Takahashi
v. Fishand Game Commission,334 U.S. 410 (1948);
to the Constitution,
Neuman,Strangers
63; Montgomery,
CitizenWorker,
21.
30 Social Security
Act,c. 531, 49 Stat. 620 (1935); FairLaborStandardsAct, c. 676, 52 Stat. 1060 (1938);
NationalLaborRelationsAct,c. 372, 49 Stat.449 (1935); Immigration
WarBridesAct,c. 591,59 Stat.659 (1945);
Fianceesof VeteransAdmissionAct,c. 520, 60 Stat. 339 (1946). GabrielJ. Chin, "The Civil RightsRevolution
Comes to Immigration
Law: A New Lookat the Immigration
and Nationality
Actof 1965,"NorthCarolinaLaw
Review,75 (Nov. 1996), 275. Chin reportsthatalthoughthe McCarranActset Asia'squota at 28,000,238,500
Asian immigrants
enteredbetween1953 and 1965 as refugees,
relatives,
or personswithspecialskills.Plylerv.
Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982).
31 Neuman,Strangers
to theConstitution,
14. LisaLowehasobservedthatin thetwentieth
century,
theUnited
Statesdefineditselfsubstantially
in Asianwars-in the Philippines,
by itsvictories
Japan,and Korea-while a
traditionoftheexclusionofAsiansfromnaturalization
and citizenship
has meantthatthe Americancitizenhas
" LisaLowe,Immigrant
"beendefinedoveragainsttheAsianimmigrant.
Acts:On AsianAmericanCulturalPolitics
(Durham, 1996),4.
32 PeggyPascoe,"Miscegenation
Law,CourtCases, and Ideologiesof 'Race' in Twentieth-Century
America,"
Journalof AmericanHistory,83 (June 1996), 44-69; PatrickJ. Bruer,"Alienageand Naturalization,"
in The
OxfordCompanionto theSupremeCourt,ed. KermitL. Hall (New York,1992),25. Shaughnessy
v. US. ex. rel.
Mezel, 345 U.S. 206 (1953).
The Meanings
ofCitizenship
849
positionsall personsexceptAmericancitizensand nativesofAmericanSamoa violated the due processclause of the FifthAmendment,PresidentGeraldR. Ford
reinstated
theexclusionbyexecutive
order.The exclusionwasupheldin thefederal
in law.In the 1970sand early1980s,somestates
courtsand subsequently
reframed
limitedstatecivilservicepositionsto citizensof the United States,and federal
statutesexpandedthe categoriesof privateemployers
who wereprohibitedfrom
hiringundocumentedworkers.33
Skepticismis again on the rise. "In a recentL.A. Timespoll, 86 percentof
Californians
describedillegalimmigration
as a majorormoderateproblem;52 percentsaythatevenlegal immigration
shouldbe cut drastically."34
California
voters
passed Proposition187, whichwould denypublic educationand nonemergency
publichealthcareto childrenofillegalimmigrants.
Recentwelfare
legislation
subdenies
to
as
well
as
to
undocumented
stantially
benefits legalimmigrants
ones,alcostsand discourageillegalimmigration
thoughhowmuchthiswillreducewelfare
is unclear.LastyeartheRepublicanparty,
itsownhistory
ofsponsorship
forgetting
it by denyingcitizenship
of the Fourteenth
Amendment,proposedto eviscerate
to childrenbornin the UnitedStateswhoseparentswereundocumentedaliens.
oftheearly
Meanwhilea mythology
has beenconstructed
abouttheimmigration
twentieth
a mythology
thatdepictstheimmigrants
ofthoseyearsas more
century,
witheach otherand withAmericancitizensthanthe
congruent
demographically
massofpeople comingtodayfromAsia,Africa,and LatinAmerica.But
confusing
the worrythatwe hear todaythatimmigrants
fromthe ThirdWorldcontribute
to a hostof culturalills also pervadedthe native-born
middleclassat the turnof
the century.
JaneAddamswalkedcitystreetspopulatedwithrecentimmigrants,
and she and hercolleaguesperceivedthemas a wide rangeof people. She made
PolishJews,and RussianJews,Bohemians
distinctions
among PolishChristians,
and Slovaks,Germansand Lithuanians.She did notsee Italians,butNeapolitans,
Sicilians,Calabrians,Venetians.She wouldnot have been dumbfoundedto hear
thatone hundredlanguagesarespokentodayin LosAngelespublicschools.When
Restriction
Act of
confusedwelcomegave wayto fear,we had the Immigration
and Work
1924; now we have Proposition187 and the PersonalResponsibility
Act of 1996.35
Reconciliation
Opportunity
and thetwentieth
comesto a close,we
As theCold Warfadesintohistory
century
of citizenare challengedto considerthe conceptsthatdefineour understanding
is experienced
or passiveobeas economicentitlement
ship.The morecitizenship
in civiclife,theharderit is to disdienceto law ratherthanan activeengagement
33Hampton v. MowSun Wong,426 U.S. 88 (1976); Exec.OrderNo. 11,935,41 Fed. Reg. 37,303(1976); Mow
Sun Wongv. Campbell,626 F.2d739 (9thCir.1980);cert.denied450 U.S. 959 (1981).See LindaJ.Wong,JohnE.
Poor:A LegalAnalysis,"
mimeographed
manual
Huerta,and MorrisJ.
Bailer,"The LegalRightsoftheImmigrant
1983(Library
ofUniversity
ofIowa
fromMexicanAmericanLegalDefenseand EducationalFund,San Francisco,
School of Law,Iowa City).
34 PeterSkerry,
"Bewareof ModeratesBearingGifts,"NationalReview,Feb. 21, 1994,p. 25.
35 Immigration
Restriction
Act,c. 190,43 Stat. 153 (1924).
850
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
December1997
tinguishbetweencitizensand noncitizens.
Of theeligibleUnitedStateselectorate,
60 percentdo not vote.In 1994, 65 percentof eligiblevoterstold pollstersthat
"publicofficials
don'tcaremuchwhatpeople likeme think."In 1993 lessthan 13
percentofthepublicdescribed"themselves
as belongingto groupsinvolvedin any
wayin politics."Whyis thatfigureso low?36
Manypersuasivereasonsare beingoffered,
someat thisannualmeeting.David
Thelen has pointedto the thousandsof thoughtful
lettersconstituents
wroteto
membersof Congressduringthe Iran-Contra
hearingsas evidenceof a desperate
effort
to construct
a "participatory
arena"forpoliticsin everyday
lifeand to resist
the managementof opinionbyspin doctors,pollsters,and advertisers.
RobertD.
Putnamand othershavepointedto socialdevelopments
thatunderminethebuilding of socialtrust:amongthemthe all-volunteer
armyand thefragility
of public
which
the
likelihood
of
cross-class
or
schools,
decrease
encounters
and friendships;
slumclearanceprojects,whichbulldozeclose-knit
or gatedcomneighborhoods;
munitiesand privateathleticclubs,whichpull theupperclassesout ofcontactwith
the middleclasses.37
To theseI wouldadd thesquanderingof publictrustin all agenciesof government thataccompaniedthe VietnamWar and fromwhichwe have not yetrecovered.Congressauthorizedeach phaseof thewar-fromtheTonkinGulfResolutionin 1964 throughthesecretwarin Laos, the invasionof Cambodiain 1970,
and thebombingofCambodiaafterthelastAmericantroopshad leftSouthVietnam-but it accompaniedeverything
it did withwhatthedistinguished
constitutionallawyer
Fromthe timewhen
JohnHartEly has called "studiedambiguity."
PresidentLyndonB. JohnsongaveSen.J. WilliamFulbright
"assurances. . . that
theTonkinGulfResolutionwas not goingto be used foranything
otherthanthe
TonkinGulf incidentitself"to the withdrawal
fromSaigon,when the United
Statesambassadorgave repeatedassurancesof sanctuaryto Vietnamesepeople
whoseliveswereat riskbecausetheyhad workedforthe UnitedStatesand then
in the frustraleftthembehind,everyone
was givenextensive
lessonsin distrust,
in theweaknessofthepromisesofcitizenship.
tionsand dangersofactivism,
Congressstagedan apparentdebateovertheGulfWarinJanuary1991,butbythetime
ofthedebate,Elyhas remindedus, "thePresident
had massedover400,000troops
in the area-the same order of magnitude as Vietnam at its peak.
. .
. There was
no doubtthattherewasgoingto be a war."The VietnamWar,wroteRussellBaker,
"turnedus intoa people who knowwe can'tbelieveanybodyanymore,
including
ourselves."
We spentan enormousamountof socialcapitaland socialtrustin the
years1965-1973,and it seemsto me clearwe have not yetrestoredit. Manyof
thequestionsraisedin thecontextofthenewmulticulturalism
aboutthemultiple
of civicobligation,of whatwe owe to a govmeaningsof citizenship,
particularly
36 David Thelen,BecomingCitizensin the Age of Television:
How AmericansChallengedthe Media and
SeizedPoliticalInitiative
duringtheIran-Contra
Debate (Chicago,1996),199;RobertD. Putnam,"BowlingAlone:
America'sDecliningSocialCapital,"Journal
ofDemocracy,6 (Jan. 1995),68. See GabrielA. Almondand Sidney
Verba,The Civic Culture:PoliticalAttitudesand Democracyin Five Nations(Princeton,1963), 261-99; and
MichaelWalzer,Obligations:Essayson Disobedience,War,and Citizenship(Cambridge,Mass., 1970), 224.
37 Thelen,BecomingCitizens,193-217;Putnam,"BowlingAlone,"73-77.
The Meanings
ofCitizenship
851
ernmentcapableofsuchmisuseofour trust,werefirst
raisedin thecontextofthe
VietnamWar.38
"Ifthecitizenis a passivefigure,"
observesMichaelWalzer,"thereis no political
The truth,however,
community.
is thatthereis a politicalcommunity
withinwhich
manycitizenslivelikealiens.They'enjoy'thecommonlibertyand seekno further
All too manyAmericancitizensnow live like aliens in theirown
enjoyment."39
land-passive, sour,anxious,suspiciousof civicengagement.It may be thatso
manyof us resentaliensbecausewe are so muchlike them.
PostnationalCitizenship
Do we need citizenship?
We areembeddedin postnationaland transnational
relathemeaningofcitizenship
tionshipsthatmaybe reconstructing
out ofrecognition.
The distinguished
anthropologist
ArjunAppaduraihas suggestedthattheUnited
frombeing"a land of immigrants"
to being"one node in a
Statesis in transition
postnationalnetworkof diasporas."Our worldis floodedwithrefugees:in 1983
"western
Europeanand NorthAmericanstatesrecordedsome92,000asylumapplications....
by 1991 theyhad nearly650,000." And that was six yearsago, before
the upheavalsin Bosnia,Rwanda,or Hong Kong. Appaduraipointsto "refugee
transnational
... refugee-oriented
camps,refugeebureaucracies
philanthropies
all
[of which] constituteone part of thepermanent frameworkof the emergent,post-
nationalorder."40
In sucha world,international
humanrightstakeon overwhelming
significance.
Forincreasing
numbersof us, writesYaseminNuhogluSoysal,theyhavereplaced
nationalrights:"therightsand claimsofindividualsare legitimatedbyideologies
groundedin a transnational
community,
throughinternational
codes,conventions,
and lawson humanrights,independentof theircitizenshipin a nationstate."In
sucha world,Appadurairemindsus, individualsneed to havemultiplememberships: "ChinesefromHong Kong buyingreal estatein Vancouver;Haitiansin
in France."
Miami,Tamilsin SriLanka,Moroccans
Theymaybe citizensofone counof anotheror people withdual citizenship.
trywho are legalpermanentresidents
areembeddedin postnational
Nationsthemselves
relationships,
notablyin western
in one EC [EuropeanCommunity]
Europe.There"citizenship
memberstateconfers
rightsin all oftheothers,"
citizensofmemberstatescan movefreely
acrossborders,
and citizensvotenotonlyin electionsin theirownstatebutalso in localEuropean
in a supernational
Union electionsforrepresentatives
thusbreaking,
legislature,
"linkbetweenthe statusattachedto citizenship
Soysalpointsout, the traditional
and nationalterritory."41
38 JohnHartEly,Warand Responsibility:
Constitutional
Lessonsof Vietnamand Its Aftermath
(Princeton,
1993), 12, 50. ForRussellBaker's1973 remark,see the epigraphto Ely.Ibid.
39 Walzer,Obligations,210.
40 ArjunAppadurai,
"Patriotism
and ItsFutures,"
PublicCulture,5 (Spring1993),423, 419; RobertMilesand
DietrichThranhardt,eds., Migrationand European Integration:The Dynamicsof Inclusionand Exclusion
(London,1995), 17.
41 Yasemin
NuhogluSoysal,LimitsofCitizenship:
Migrants
and Postnational
Membership
in Europe(Chicago,
1994), 142, 147; Appadurai,"Patriotism
and Its Futures,"
424.
852
TheJournal
ofAmerican
History
December1997
a land ofimThe UnitedStates,writesAppadurai,"alwaysin itsself-perception
findsitselfawashin theseglobal diasporas,no longera closedspacefor
migrants,
point,to
the meltingpot to workits magic,but yetanotherdiasporicswitching
but are no longercontentto leavetheir
whichpeople come to seektheirfortunes
homelandsbehind."42A taxi driverfromZaire recentlyexplainedto me that,
he had not becomea citizen,
althoughhe was gratefulformanyopportunities,
againstthe UnitedStatesforcomplicity
unable to overcomehis deep resentment
of PatriceLumumbain
thataccompaniedthe assassination
in the destabilizations
1961,whichhad forcedhis familyto flee.A womanfromGuatemalatold a National Public Radio (NPR) reporterlast yearthattakingthe oath of citizenship
to theUnitedStates,whereshe had
a commitment
meantforhersimultaneously
abandonmentofa dreamthatsomedayshewould
livedfordecades,and thewistful
run forofficein a democraticand stable Guatemala.These people look on the
Statueof Libertywitha decidedlybifocalgaze.
rightsto persons"obligenationconventions
thatascribeuniversal
International
in granting
civil,soon thegroundsof nationality
statesnot to makedistinctions
The UniversalDeclarationof Human Rights(1948) uncial, and politicalrights."
equivocallyassertsthat"all humanbeingsare bornfreeand equal in dignityand
rights."43
areneededin thispostnational
world,wherethere
Whatelementsofcitizenship
to enforce
ofrightsbutpreciousfewinstruments
declarations
areplentyofuniversal
ones.
buttheyalso need reciprocal
them?Individualsneed multiplememberships,
A citizenshipdefinedonlyby entitlement
is not resilient;it does not build the
in whichpeople understand
justice
socialcapitalthatsustainsvibrantcommunities
the morecitizenshipis equated withreceivingtangible,
to be done. Moreover,
fromthe state,themoreincentivecitizenshaveto denycitizenmaterialbenefits
freeriders,thatis, to drawa
ship to outsiderswhomtheyperceiveas prospective
In
worldwe willneed
line
noncitizens.
a
postnational
citizens
and
between
sharp
networks
of civicengagement.We will
morenot fewer,expandednot narrower,
in whatpoliticalscientists
call socialcapital,that
need muchgreaterinvestment
norms,
(of civicengagement),
suchas networks
of socialorganization
is, "features
and cooperationformutualbenefit...
and socialtrustthatfacilitate
coordination
If thereare answers
[and to] allowdilemmasof collectiveactionto be resolved."44
to myquestion,theywillnot be foundin modesofcitizenshipthatare so passive
thata citizencan be mistakenforan alien.
in the buildingof socialtrustand
We alreadyhavesomepowerful
experiments
citizenshipin a postcivicengagementin a transnational
world,an international
campaignnationalworld.We have seen withinthe last fiveyearsa successful
in Bosnia-Herzegovinato declarerapea warcrimeand
energized,alas, byhorrors
to expandthe boundariesof humanrightsto includewomen'srightto protection
againstviolence.In the last monthswe have seen a promisingcampaignto set
Appadurai,"Patriotism
and Its Futures,"
424.
Soysal,Limitsof Citizenship,145.
44 Putnam,"BowlingAlone,"67; RobertD. Putnam,MakingDemocracyWork:Civic Traditions
in Modern
Italy(Princeton,1993), 163-85.
42
43
The Meanings
ofCitizenship
853
of workers
It is not
corporations.
bymultinational
boundariesto the exploitation
of
knowthattheyare followingin the footsteps
clearwhetherall the organizers
century,
Leagueoftheearlytwentieth
FlorenceKelleyand theNationalConsumers'
intervention
relyon an expansionofthestrategies
butthesemodesofinternational
of traditional
organizations
and on familiartropesof local civicsociability.
evenin itsmostdevelopedforcivicliferemainsembryonic,
But transnational
the EuropeanCourtofJustice,or the
mations,as in the EuropeanCommunity,
UnitedNations.CitizensofEuropeanmemberstatesmaymovefromone stateto
and
another,buttheymustcontinueto relyon theirhomestatesforsocialsecurity
othersocialprovisions;theymaynot becomeburdensto theirhosts.It is not at
all clearthattheNationalConsumers'Leaguehas made a dentin theexploitation
in a global context.When FauziyaKassindjafledgenitalmutioffactory
workers
lationin Africalastyear,it was to theUnitedStates'snationalpracticeof asylum
thatshe appealed- aftermuchdelayand anguish,withsuccess- notto a courtof
humanrights.45
international
justiceor international
fromtheeraoftheAmerithatourinheritance
Longago HannahArendtstressed
of the
is simultaneously
an expandedunderstanding
can and Frenchrevolutions
"Rightsof Man" and a tightlinkageof humanrightsto nationalidentities.That
linkis moreelasticthanit was,but it remainsin place. WhatArendtwroteabout
as a descriptor
ofVietnamese
theimpactofWorldWarI retainsitsappropriateness
in the 1970sand 1980sand Rwandanrefugees
today:"Once theyhad left
refugees
theirhomelandtheyremainedhomeless,oncetheyhad lefttheirstatetheybecame
stateless;once theyhad been deprivedof theirhumanrightstheywererightless."
The nexttimeyou are boardingan international
flight,watchforthe difference
of
those
withinternational
"travel
in the treatment
of people withpassportsand
of ease or
The basicinternational
distinction
remainsthe experience
documents."
anxietyat the checkpoint.46
It is noteasyforme to be in San Francisco,
becausethe
I wantto end witha story.
citywillalwaysbe associatedforme witha classicordealof citizenship:The first
timeI sawitwasalmostexactly
thirty
yearsago whenmyhusbandshippedoutfrom
wereturned
Oaklandintoa warthatwebothbelievedwasdeeplywrong.Lastwinter
to Vietnamto visit,and thatwasnoteasy,either.Everywhere
people remindedus
allithatHo Chi Minhhad quoted the Declarationof Independenceand offered
and less fearful,
theysugance to HarryS. Truman;had we been moretrusting
withoutTim
gested,we could have made a historywithoutMy Lai, a literature
O'Brien'sGoingafterCacciato,a journalismwithoutMichaelHerr'sDispatches.47
I movedthroughVietnamcautiously,
troubledby much of whatI saw,and alnever
once made me feelas thoughit weremy
were
and
gracious
thoughpeople
45New YorkTimes,Oct. 12, 1996,sec. A, p. 1; ibid., Sept. 11, 1996,sec. A, p. 1.
(1951;New York,1967),267. Fora movingaccountof the
Hannah Arendt,The Omginsof Totalitarianism
ofModernConsciousIdentity:TheConstruction
ofstatelessness
today,see RashidKhalidi,Palestinian
experience
ness(New York,1997), 1-6.
47 Tim O'Brien, Going afterCacciato(New York,1978); MichaelHerr,Dispatches(New York,1977).
46
854
The Journalof AmericanHistory
December1997
selfwithme,awarethatin thatplaceAmerica
personalfault,I draggedmyyounger
had stoodformiseryand violence.
And then,towardthe end of myvisit,I foundmyselfin an English-language
onlyan open-endedintrocollegeclassroom.As we planned,the teacheroffered
KerberfromAmerica;practiceyourEnglish,askherquesduction:HereisProfessor
you like.
tions,anything
And therewasa silence-as therealwaysis a silence,teachersknowthatall too
well-and thena youngmanroseand said,"Wouldyoutellus, please,aboutfreedom of the press?"
Well, whatdid theywantto know?And it turnedout that- in a countryin
and radiostations(CNN, theCable NewsNetall television
whichthestatecontrols
channelsare fedonlyintohotelscateringto interwork,and otherinternational
and seniorparty
thehomesofforeigndiplomatsand residents,
nationaltravelers,
buy
all publicationsare censored,and tourists
virtually
officials),
and government
the
students
-what
dailywages
Herald Tribunefora worker's
the International
Theywantedthedetailsofhowfreedom
wantedto knowaboutwerethepractices.
of the pressworked.Yes, in theUnitedStatespeople withenormousamountsof
moneymightbuy a newspaperor a televisionstationto disseminatetheirviews.
But I couldgo to theXeroxshop(plentyofthemin Hanoi and Ho Chi MinhCity)
and sell it on thestreetcornerfora nickel,or I could give
and copymystatement
it awayfree.No censorwouldreadit in advance.No one wouldsayit wassafeor
did not
sayingthattheseprinciples
And thenI foundmyself
notsafeto distribute.
justhappen,thatfreedomofthepresshad to be enactedoutofengagedcivicwork,
to theseprinciples.WithoutplanningI launchedintothe
thattherewasa history
insistedthattruthwas
Zengercase of 1735,whena New Yorkeditorsuccessfully
and
wound
seditious
my way throughthe
libel,
a defenseagainsta chargeof
Schenckand Abramsfreespeechcasesof the WorldWarI era intothe Pentagon
startledat the multipleironiesof lecturing
PapersuntilI stoppedmidsentence,
audiencein whathad been Saigon.48
on the PentagonPapersto a transfixed
meanswhatwemakeitmean.Thismeetinghasbeena granddemonSo citizenship
if anywereneeded,thatthe meaningsof citizenshipare expansive,and
stration,
contextis as greatnowas
thatthe need to understandcitizenshipin itshistorical
thatthepersonaland political
It is in citizenship
at anytimein Americanhistory.
becausecitizenshipis abouthowindividualsmakeand remakethe
cometogether,
state,and it is throughthismakingand remakingthatwe will sustainthe great
thought
therightsthatBushrodWashington
revolutions,
idealsofthe democratic
werethe commonsenseof the matternearlytwocenturiesago: the rightto life
therightto travel
therightto pursueand obtainhappinessand safety,
and liberty,
to expectthatjusticewill be done.
and the rightconfidently
freely,
48 "The TrialofJohnPeterZenger,forLibel,New YorkCity,1735,"in American
StateTrials(St. Louis,1928),
XVI, 1-39; Schenckv. US., 249 U.S. 47 (1919);Abramsv. US., 250 U.S. 616 (1919);New YorkTimesCo. v. US.,
403 U.S. 713 (1971).