The Road to Citizenship: What Naturalization Means for Immigrants and the United States

183 Pages·2015·2.308 MB·English

by  Sofya Aptekar

The
Road to
Citizenship
What Naturalization Means
for Immigrants
and the United States
SOFYA APTEKAR
The Road to Citizenship
CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1 The Roads to Citizenship 13
2 Citizenship and Inequality 46
3 Voices of Immigrants 61
4 Citizenship Ceremonies 83
5 Welcoming and Defining 106
6 Naturalization in Theory and Practice 130
Appendix 141
Notes 145
References 153
Index 165
vii

The Road to Citizenship
What Naturalization Means for Immigrants
and the United States
SOFYA APTEKAR
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Aptekar, Sofya, 1979–
The road to citizenship : what naturalization means for immigrants and the
United States / Sofya Aptekar.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 6954– 3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 6953– 6
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 6955– 0 (e- book)
1. Citizenship— United States. 2. Naturalization— United States. 3. Immigrants—
United States. I. Title.
JK1759.A58 2015
323.6'230973— dc23 2014021723
A British Cataloging- in- Publication record for this
book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2015 by Sofya Aptekar
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University
Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this
prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our website: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
To Ruslan Yuki

FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Number of immigrants naturalized in
the United Stastes from 1970 to 2010 47
Figure 2.2 Percentage naturalized among
foreign born, 1970 to 2010 48
Figure 2.3 Percentage naturalized among
immigrants by level of education 50
Figure 2.4 Percentage naturalized by year and
level of education, excluding immigrants
from Mexico and Central America 52
Figure 2.5 Percentage naturalized among immigrants in the
United States by detailed level of education, 2011 54
Figure 2.6 Percentage naturalized by income 55
Figure 2.7 Race/ethnicity and percentage naturalized 56
Figure 2.8 Percentage naturalized by major country of origin 58
ix