Nov 3, 1954 - Ellis Island officially closes and declares itself ‘excess federal property’. This blip of American history is courtesy of the Center for Immigration Studies. Hat tip to Madison’s Vicki McKenna 1310 AM for the link.
Much has changed in the 51 years since Ellis Island shut their doors but America is still a land of immigrants, most of whom came here because they wanted to participate in the economic opportunities and individual liberty unique to this country. In time, the various populations found a way to believe they were Americans. There is pride in citizenship despite the real prejudice, poverty and inequality. Stanley Renshon writes a lengthy analysis of the concept of loyalty to land, culture and rulers in the new mobil global environment.
Dual Citizenship and American National Identity: In 1916, writing against what he saw as the excesses of the Americanization program for new immigrants, the journalist and cultural essayist Randolph Bourne called for a "Trans-national America." He envisioned us as a country populated by nationals with strong emotional ties to their countries of origin or, for immigrants, their home countries. In this new world, we would be united as Americans primarily by the fact that we were "international citizens." In recent decades, Bourne's vision appears to be on the verge of being realized.The essence of the American political experiment is the idea that the people are citizens rather than subjects. Citizenship and nationality both imply membership in society and loyalty to the institutions and culture, but they are distinct and different terms.
Citizenship is a political term. It draws its importance from the political, economic, and social rights and obligations that adhere to a person by virtue of having been born into, or having become a recognized or certified member of a state. … Nationality, on the other hand, refers primarily to the attachments of members of a community to each other and to that community's ways of viewing the world, practices, institutions, and allegiances.Renshon argues that the assimilation behind the economic success of America came about because immigrants were willing to adapt to the operational norms of society. In other words, they wanted to be Americans. As Muslim Populations Riot in France, the world is seeing what happens when immigrant populations have no desire to adapt to the host country.
