De l’immigrant au citoyen : les dilemmes de la naturalisation pour les Mexicains et les Asiatiques depuis 1965

Today Asian immigrants regardless of their national origins have the highest naturalization rates in the United States and Mexicans the lowest, although the latter have been naturalized in increasingly greater numbers in the 1990s. Such difference can be partly accounted for by the higher socio-economic status of Asian entrants since the immigration reform of 1965, and by the Mexicans' tradition of cyclical migration. Other factors are the citizens' right of family reunification and the recent measures restricting public aid to both illegal and legal immigrants. Political motivations have to be relativized since Asians are among the least politicized groups in the U.S. Yet, as the result of a complex interaction of these factors, naturalization tends to become a strategy of defense that gives it a new political connotation in the context of a redefinition of American citizenship.Daniel Dominique. De l’immigrant au citoyen : les dilemmes de la naturalisation pour les Mexicains et les Asiatiques depuis 1965. In: Revue Française d'Etudes Américaines, N°75, janvier 1998. Immigration et citoyenneté aux Etats-Unis. pp. 62-75