title: Naturalization Ceremonies and the Role of Immigrants in the American Nation.
abstract: Although immigration is an essential element in the American national story, it presents difficulties for constructing national membership and national identity in terms of shared intrinsic values. In this paper, I analyze speeches made at naturalization ceremonies during two time periods (1950-1970 and 2003-present) in order to examine the evolving roles of immigrants, as articulated to immigrants themselves. Naturalization ceremonies are a unique research site because the usually implied nationalist content is made explicit to brand new members of the nation. I find a shift in the framing from immigrants as potential liabilities and weak links in the earlier period to immigrants as morally superior redeemers of the American nation in the later period. I discuss the significance of this shift and the relationship between the roles presented at naturalization ceremonies and the discourse found elsewhere in the public sphere.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Hermann-Föge-Weg 11 Göttingen 37073, Germany aptekar@mmg.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Sofya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aptekar
keywords: Bad Migrant; Good Migrant; Identity; Immigrant; Obligations; Social Construction