Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States

By Hiroshi Motomura

Book Overview

In Americans in Waiting, Motomura discovers in our national past a simple yet powerful approach to immigration and citizenship. Rewriting the conventional story, Motomura uncovers how for over 150 years, many immigrants were immediately put on track to U.S. citizenship. They were entitled to overseas diplomatic protection and eligible to homestead land on the western frontier. Citizens-to-be were even allowed to vote. In sum, immigration was assumed to be a transition to citizenship, and immigrants were future citizens--Americans in waiting. Once central to law and policy, this view has all but vanished. Beginning in the early twentieth century, the United States began to treat its immigrants in one of two ways: as signatories to a contract that sets the terms of their stay in this country, or as affiliates who can earn rights only as they become, over time, enmeshed in the nation's life. Immigration is now seen too often as a problem to be solved, rather than a pillar of our nation's strength.

A panoramic history of the past 200 years of immigration and citizenship in the United States, Americans in Waiting offers a clear lesson: only by recovering this lost history of immigration can we ensure that both current and future citizens share in the sense of belonging that is crucial to full participation in American life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195163451
• ISBN13: 9780195163452
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 9.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Americans in Waiting: Legal Immigrants on a Path to Naturalization

Americans in Waiting blends a thorough analysis of the turbulent history of U.S. citizenship and immigration with a normative legal theory of what ought to be done. Motomuro, a leading immigration law scholar, evades overly obfuscating legal jargon in lieu of style that can be enjoyed by any reader from all degrees of background knowledge. Motomuro breaks legal immigration down into three views: immigration as contract, immigration as affiliation, and immigrants in transition, or what he otherwise terms as "Americans in Waiting." The third category is what Motomuro is most concerned with, hence the title of the book. Americans in Waiting are legal immigrants who are on a path to citizenship, but who have not or cannot naturalize yet (i.e: either they have not met the legal naturalization waiting period of 3-5 years for Legal Permanent Residents, administrative backlog, etc). While Motomuro argues that rights should be extended to this status of persons, such as voting, access to public benefits, and family reunification rights, he still believes there is reason for Americans in Waiting to remain a separate category from full-citizens. One categorical difference he believes should remain in tact is deportability for criminal acts. By recapturing key court cases, Motomuro traces the development of alienage law as we know it today and he also provides good reason for why his articulation is desirable for America and its future as a people. I have been studying U.S. immigration and citizenship quite thoroughly for about a year now, but it was not until reading this book that so many key terms and distinctions between different statuses became so coherent. Motomuro sheds much clarity and insight onto a highly complex and vital social and political issue. Excellent all around!

history must be understood

more people should read this well written piece of non fiction. the trouble is that few of our generation honestly know the details about America and rely on the telegraphic info of Fox news instead of gaining true knowledge.