Citizenship Policy from the Bottom-Up: The Linguistic and Semiotic Landscape of a Naturalization Field Office

Abstract

This article follows a bottom-up approach to language policy (Ramanathan, 2005; Wodak, 2006) in an analysis of citizenship in policy and practice. It compares representations of citizenship in and around a regional branch of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with a focus on citizenship swearing-in ceremonies for adults and children, discourse of a USCIS field officer, and the linguistic landscape and social semiotics inside and surrounding the USCIS building. These local meanings of citizenship are contrasted with top-down, national meanings of citizenship that are enforced through Immigration and Naturalization Act policy, the naturalization test, and official discourse. Findings indicate that while the de jure citizenship policy of the local field office is to provide informational assistance to its community, its de facto practices suggest that help is prioritized for certain members of the population, in systematic and visible ways.

Notes

¹ The relationship between language policy and linguistic landscapes is not unidirectional, for there is always a push and pull between policy and practice.

² There are also two notifications about Haitian nationals from 2010, one in French and one in Haitian Creole.

³ Due to the restrictions inside the government building, the interview and child ceremonies could not be recorded and the indoor signs could not be photographed.

⁴ This name is a pseudonym.

⁵ I exclude borrowed words such as “taqueria” and “patisserie” from the sample.

⁶ It is arguable that “privileges” refers to the privilege of voting, a more active role of citizenship, but while encouraged, it is not required to be a citizen (in the 2010 Congressional election it is estimated that 37% of the voting-age population cast votes [U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2012]).

⁷ The two ceremonies observed were the last two held in this manner; due to budget cuts the monthly ceremonies were abolished in early 2012, and now the oath is individually administered to each petitioner after passing the interview.

⁸ There are two examples for every theme, one from each ceremony.

⁹ Although Mr. George's responses are marked in quotes, this is based on my memory of the conversation, immediately transcribed, because recording devices are not allowed into the USCIS building. Direct quotes are indicated by a single quotation mark within the larger passage.

¹⁰ There is a toll free number for USCIS, but it is nationwide; no number is available for local field offices.

¹¹ The Japanese sign uses characters that are the same in Mandarin.