When searching for an article, I didn’t expect to see
something like this. An article about a
so-called “maternity mansion.” It is an upscale home in Chino Hills, CA where
citizens from China who are pregnant, come to live in order to give birth to
their child in America. There are
different packages offered on a website for purchase on a stay in the home, and
is considered “a ‘worthwhile investment’ in order to have an American
baby.” This is an unnecessary procedure,
because the “14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to all people
born or naturalized in the United States.”
So why are these families paying money, to hide their pregnancies
through airport security to gain visitor’s visas and having their child in
America, when they can just move here before and/or after the baby is
born? I believe it connects to the idea
of legal citizenship vs. racial citizenship.
Today, many of us would believe that there is slight difference in being
born 1st generation in America or moving to America as an infant or
a young age. Yet, one will gain
citizenship as soon as they are born in America where as the latter won’t
receive it until after the naturalization process. This will label the child not as a “natural
citizen” but a “naturalized citizen.”
Both are legal citizens, but the latter can be linked to racial citizenship
and to some may not fully be “American” because they were not born here in the
U.S.
This article is very interesting and surprising. I thought of Typical American as well as Gish Jen's personal life story. The difference between Ralph's adjustment to becoming American after being born in China, and Jen's experience being born in America. Both faced battles with becoming cultural citizens, and finding themselves as "Americans." I think some asian Americans, as well as other races, still struggle to feel completely American, even though they may be labelled as citizens.
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