Being a citizen of the United States presupposes that a person has specific responsibilities, duties, rights. It assumes that the country must provide social and economic support, protect, and defend its citizens’ rights. Freedom to express themselves and worship, the right to a fair trial, and the right to vote are associated with the civil rights of U.S. citizens. At the same time, every citizen has responsibilities to the country. The citizen’s responsibilities are to obey laws, respect the beliefs of others, pay taxes, as well as defend the country and the Constitution.
The long history of the formation of the U.S. is associated with various manifestations of racial and ethnic discrimination, white supremacy, oppression, and humiliation of minorities. These factors are deeply rooted and still manifest themselves in one way or another. Despite the fight against racism and injustice, many U.S. citizens still cannot fully exercise their full rights. Some people are members of social groups not of their choosing, like the Native Americans still living on reservations. The study of Huyser et al. (2018) argues that Native Americans experience more stress when living off-reservation than when living permanently on a reservation. It lies in socioeconomic inequalities, for example, high unemployment rates. It is wrong that people feel more secure and satisfied only on geographically limited reservations, not anywhere in the country they are citizens of.
Moreover, such a social group as immigrants significantly helped shape and define today’s U.S. Still, most immigrants or ethnic minorities do not identify themselves as American. It happens due to the same factors as discrimination, prejudice, condemnation of appearance, or skin color (Sorrell et al., 2019). As citizens of the United States, people do not feel that they belong to this state but, on the contrary, feel excluded and disadvantaged. Foreign-born people even face reproaches against them: allegedly, immigrant students negatively affect American native-born academic performance and achievement. Nonetheless, Silveira et al. (2019) conclude in their study that “all students, immigrant, and nonimmigrant students alike, benefit academically from more immigration.” America must strive to make every citizen feel that he has full civil rights and is protected by his state.
Ultimately, citizenship presupposes the existence of specific agreements between the state and the citizen, the observance of which gives advantages to both. The United States is a multi-ethnic and multicultural country, with American citizens representing many different ethnicities. America should be proud of its diversity and stimulate the emergence of American identity in all of its citizens. Every citizen should feel protected, regardless of race or ethnicity.
References
Huyser, K. R., Angel, R. J., Beals, J., Cox, J. H., Hummer, R. A., Sakamoto, A., & Manson, S. M. (2018). Reservation lands as a protective social factor: an analysis of psychological distress among two American Indian tribes. Socius, 4.
Silveira, F., Dufur, M. J., Jarvis, J. A., & Rowley, K. J. (2019). The influence of foreign-born population on immigrant and native-born students’ academic achievement. Socius, 5.
Sorrell, K., Khalsa, S., Ecklund, E. H., & Emerson, M. O. (2019). Immigrant identities and the shaping of a racialized American self. Socius, 5.