I just saw this video talking about a "maternity mansion" in Chino Hills, CA. Pregnant women from China pay thousands of dollars to come to America and stay in this house until they give birth. Their children then become US citizens, or "anchor babies." This demonstrates the concept of American exceptionalism, which is the idea that America is better than all the other countries. The fact that the women are paying thousands of dollars for their kids to be born citizens shows that American citizenship is seen as the ideal goal. America is seen as a place with opportunities that don't exist anywhere else, and these mothers want that for their children.
http://www.aol.com/video/residents-protest-maternity-mansion-in-california/517561498/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl7%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D240866
I think a maternity house like this is a great example of legal versus cultural citizenship. Because of naturalization laws, that baby would be a legal citizen, while the mother is not. However, from a cultural citizenship point of view, neither would be immediately accepted as citizens. The mother would be seen as an illegal immigrant, and the child would be viewed as the cause of problems to "real" citizen children.
ReplyDeleteThe law might accept that the child is American, but the actual people who see this child will not identify him or her as such.
There is also something else that I see in this picture: a false sense of security. So many people from other countries currently have a view, because of the portrayal of American items and America in general across the world, that American things or American land is the perfect place to be, is the safest and most opportunistic place in the world. There is still the same feeling that immigrants had from decades before in the 1960-90's, that once one found the land of America, they were going to be okay and be well off for the rest of their lives. In other words, Americans made sure that the racism, the cultural citizenship, or cultural shock and tensions that existed domestically were not exposed to the outside world, and revealed only the good sides of America, or the "ideal" America to the rest of the world.
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