Perpetual foreigner
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The perpetual foreigner, forever foreigner,[1] or perpetual other[2] stereotype is a racist or xenophobic form of nativism in which naturalized and even native-born citizens (including families that have lived in a country for generations) are perceived by some members of society as foreign because they belong to a minority ethnic or racial group.[3] When citizenship has been granted and yet the group of people is persistently viewed as foreign, the term alien citizen has been also used to in some scholarship describe these groups.[4]
The term perpetual immigrant has been used for cases of migration, forced displacement, or other reasons for relocation, where no citizenship is possible despite the individual's long-term residency, wish to become a citizen, and even (though not necessarily) birth in the land.[5] Furthermore, noncitizen nationals, or persons who hold nationality but not citizenship, have also been argued to fall under this stereotypical image.[6] Naturalization laws vary, and some countries follow a rule of jus sanguinis in various forms. For example, Myanmar nationality law regards the Rohingya people as foreign.
Some countries have many refugees or other
Ancient history
Athens
Like other
"What makes this habit curious is that the Republic's narrative frame actually presents the idea that one's political "kind" (genos) expresses a pregiven, stable nature as a regulatory fiction. In these scenes, Socrates contrives the noble lie as an "artifice" (mēchanē) by which regimes, including the Athens of the dialogue's setting, found and reproduce membership status as a naturalized category."[8]
Roman Empire
In the context of the
However, this is not to say that Romans were immune from distinguishing themselves on the basis of certain characteristics.
United States
Recent scholarship and analysis of immigration and citizenship law in the United States is reckoning with the historical construction of citizenship in the country and its effects on different populations,[11] most especially in the gap between the perception of foreignness compared to actual foreignness (when discussed as a process within current psycho-social theories such as in-group and out-group hypothesis can also be referred to generally as "othering" or "the process of othering"[12]). In the work Making Foreigners: Immigration and Citizenship Law in America, 1600-2000,[13] Kunal M Parker writes:
"The special powerlessness of the immigrant has its source, we are wont to think, in the fact that the foreigner comes from elsewhere. The foreigner's origins outside the community supposedly make it possible and permissible for the community to deny his or her claims upon it. An entrenched constitutional tradition in the United States under-girds this view. Political theorists have offered elaborate arguments defending it. My own particular experience of the powerlessness of the immigrant seeking admission led me to wonder exactly what it is about an individual's coming from elsewhere that makes it possible to deny his or her claims on the community. I turned to the archives, if not for definitive answers, then at least for ways to transcend my own experience by learning about the experiences of others. What I discovered was that the experience of foreignness – and of the powerlessness associated with it – has never been unique to those coming from outside the United States. Over the centuries, Americans have named and treated like foreigners not only immigrants from outside the country, but also Native Americans, blacks, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, women, the poor, and political minorities. Designation as foreign is not a function of coming from the territorial outside. It is a political strategy that has been used inside and outside the country and to multiple ends."[14]
The early history of the United States was marked by a period of ethnic and racially-based naturalization laws. The first naturalization act was passed by Congress on March 26, 1790, stated:
"That any alien, other than an enemy alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof, on application to any common law court of record in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least..."[15]
The law was updated on January 29, 1795, to a length of five years,
Scholarship studying
In 1909
"...Western Asiatics have become so mixed with Europeans during the past twenty-five centuries that it is impossible to tell whether they are white or should come under the statutes excluding the inhabitants of that part of the world and usually applied to the yellow race."[21][20]
Notably George Washington wrote in 1790 to the Hebrew Congregations of Newport, Rhode Island stating that the United States "gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance".[22][23] It should not be overlooked either that Jews have occupied a place where they've been considered white on one hand, yet not on another in the history of the United States.[24]
In 1898, Wong Kim Ark, who was born in the United States, was denied re-entry in the United States after a brief visit to China, prompting a landmark decision in the United States v. Wong Kim Ark case where the Supreme Court declared the denial unconstitutional. American actress Anna May Wong, despite having been a third-generation American and born in the United States, was issued a special "Certificate of Identity", signed by an immigration officer that was required to be carried by all "Chinese persons" as of its issuance in the 1920s.[25]
During the late 1800s there was a series of mob massacres of persons of
For
A survey conducted in 2005 notes that the implicit stigma that ‘white’ equals American persists to this day.[28] This correlation was also observed in a pop culture experiment where the American actress Lucy Liu was perceived as less American than the European actress Kate Winslet.[29] Notably, all groups deemed less ‘American’ have all been denied ‘’citizenship’’ status at one time or another during United States history. Additionally, naturalization barriers between ‘whites’ and other groups continue to persist. According to a study in 2022, non-Hispanic whites are still more likely to be granted citizenship status compared to all other persons, although studied in particular with respect to African, persons from Muslim-majority countries, and Hispanic immigrants, when seeking naturalization.[7]
This stereotype has been popularly discussed as a negative
Furthermore, comments such as these also affect Indigenous Americans. In 2017 during a protest, "go back to where you came from" was shouted at Indigenous protestors.[34] American Cree comedian Charlie Hill was recorded as saying, "A redneck told me to go back to where I came from, so I put up a tipi in his backyard!"
The
Post-Soviet states
Crimean Tatars are an indigenous people of Crimea with clearly established pre-Golden Horde Scythian, Greek, and Goth roots, but authorities and nativists long have treated them as perpetual foreigners. When Crimean Tatars who had been forcibly exiled in the Stalin era attempted to return to Crimea before perestroika, they were frequently met with severe hostility by officials who took violent measures to keep them out and had orders to prevent them from returning to their native land. Meanwhile, Russian publications referred to deported Crimean Tatars returning to the places of their birth as foreigners.[38][39]
Haitians in the Dominican Republic
Before 2010, the Constitution of the Dominican Republic generally granted citizenship to anyone born in the country, except children of diplomats and persons "in transit".[40] The 2010 constitution was amended to define all undocumented residents as "in transit".[40] On September 23, 2013, the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court issued a ruling that retroactively applied this definition to 1929,[41] the year Haiti and the Dominican Republic formalized the border.[42][43] The decision stripped Dominican citizenship from about 210,000 people who were born in the Dominican Republic after 1929 but are descended from undocumented immigrants from Haiti.[42] Many Haitians born in the Dominican Republic do not have Haitian citizenship and have never been to Haiti;[44] hence the decision rendered them at least temporarily stateless.[40][41][45]
Other uses
In work done by
Critical responses
The Asian American Education Project, founded in 2005 by
A wide variety of art forms including but hardly limited to literature, music, film, and photography have also attempted to grapple in small ways with this stereotype (among others) and provide a place to rework the script of identity and belonging. Some examples include
Covering the topic of the complexity of identity in then French North Africa during World War II, the French film Days of Glory by the director Rachid Bouchareb depicts the struggle of North Africans who were fighting for a country they had never seen, were a part of yet separate within the structure of colonial rule, and not given the same privileges as other French soldiers, including the continued denial of war pensions until at least partial recognition after the film's release.
In her review of the film
"While constant reminders that I am not a 'real' American are exhausting and dangerous because they feed anti-Asian racism and xenophobia, the flipside is that God and I both know my belovedness doesn't rely on how American or white I become but rather on how God sees me... The practices of communal worship, communion, and even prayers that are spoken in different languages across the ages bind us together and tell a story of faith. We pray words that Jesus spoke more than 2,000 years ago, and in doing so we embrace, remember, and build our lives on the lived experiences of a Jewish refugee, and that matters – or at least it should."
— Kathy KyoungAh Khang
The Canadian YouTube video essay channel Accented Cinema has commented on this stereotype in some videos, most notably in his video essay on the blockbuster American movie
Furthermore, as noted in the video essay When Hollywood Speaks Chinese, I Cringe on the topic of the use of
"We've previously talked about the perpetual foreigner trope on this channel and much of the Chinese language stereotypes stem from this trope. Chinese languages are perceived as 'foreign' and 'exotic'. It makes people, including filmmakers, less likely to want to understand it. But just as Chinatown is an iconic part of many US cities, the collection of Chinese languages is also a significant part of US culture... Chinese Americans developed their own accents with their own American identities. Treating languages with respect isn't just good film-making, it also better reflects the diversity of the American people and culture. So, here is my plea to all Hollywood film makers. The United States is a very colorful place. Its complexity is precisely why it is beautiful."
— Accented Cinema
In China, growing animosity towards Americans has equally affected Americans of Chinese heritage as much as other Americans, where "go back to where you came from" is becoming an increasingly common insult, viewed as equally foreign in China as in the United States.[68]
Following the
Beginning in the 1950s and ending roughly in 1984,
See also
- Allosemitism
- Armenian genocide
- Nuremberg Laws
- Joseph Stalin and antisemitism
- Koreans in Japan
- Laowai
- Pendatang asing
- Right of return
- Citizenship
- Nationality
- Rootless cosmopolitan
References
- ISBN 9781668900505.
- ^ "Allosemitism (noun) - Jews as the perpetual 'other'". Jewish Journal. August 7, 2008.
- ^
Dei, George J. Sefa; Hilowle, Shukri (2018-12-04). Cartographies of Race and Social Difference. Springer. p. 40. ISBN 9783319970769.
Concurrent with the "model minority" stereotype is the view of Asian Americans as "perpetual foreigners" who are permanent outsiders to the norms of North American culture and the dominant inner circle. As argued by Omi (2008), "this image is reflective of the process of racializing people in terms of their presumed affiliation with foreign places" (par. 7). This perpetual foreigner view is demonstrated in a survey by Kang (2001) which showed that 28% of Americans believed that Chinese Americans were more loyal to China than the United States. ... This example serves to demonstrate that the "perpetual foreigner" stereotype is not just applied to recent Asian immigrant groups but also to fourth-generation Asian immigrants who have gained a certain level of economic success in Canada.
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- ^ Woolf, Greg (September 21, 2021). "An empire of many colours? Race and imperialism in Ancient Rome". OUPblog. Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
- ^ "DNA testing on 2,000-year-old bones in Italy reveal East Asian ancestry". Science Daily. February 2, 2010. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
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- ^ Curle, Clint (January 24, 2020). "Us vs. Them: The process of othering". Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
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- ^ "H. R. 40, Naturalization Bill, March 4, 1790". U.S. Capital Visitor Center. 4 March 1790. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
- ^ Bolger, Eilleen (2013). "Background History of the United States Naturalization Process". Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU Libraries Social Welfare History Project. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
- ^ "Reconstructing Citizenship". National Museum of African American History & Culture. Smithsonian Institution. n.d. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
- ^ OCLC 56686376.
- ^ Nadal, Andrea (November 16, 2020). "Exotification: minimizing the individual". The Tacoma Ledger. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
- ^ a b Ghoogasian, Aram (August 29, 2017). "How Armenian-Americans Became "White": A Brief History". Ajam Media Collective. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
- ^ "Citizenship for Armenians. Circuit Court Declines to Bar them on Government's Plea". New York Times. December 24, 1909.
- ^ "Antisemitism Uncovered: Antisemitism in American History". New York, NY, USA: Anti-Defamation League.
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- ^ Kaur, Harmeet (April 4, 2023). "What does it mean to be Jewish in the US?". CNN. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
- ^ Blue, Victoria (May 10, 2022) [March 30, 2021]. "Chinese American Actress's Story Illustrates 'Othering' of Immigrants". National Archives News. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
- ^ Staff (July 9, 2021). "The Dawes Act". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
- ^ Weaver, Jace (November 29, 2022). "Native Americans: Befriending, Resisting and Enduring". Teaching American History. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
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- ^ Hines, Bea L. (July 19, 2019). "I was told to 'Go Back to Africa.' Here's why I'm not going anywhere, Mr. Trump". Miami Herald. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ Gallup News Service (2001-07-10). "Majority of Americans Identify Themselves as Third Generation Americans". Gallup.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ Estes, Nick (November 4, 2019). "Go Back to Where You Came From". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Retrieved September 24, 2023.
- ^ Silverstein, Jason (July 17, 2019). "U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission specifically lists "go back to where you came from" as example of discrimination". CBS News. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
- ^ Rogers, Katie (July 16, 2019). "The Painful Roots of Trump's 'Go Back' Comment". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
- ^ Wu, Frank H. "Where are you really from? Asian Americans and the perpetual foreigner syndrome." Civil Rights Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 2002, p. 14.
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- ^ "Власти Крыма считают крымских татар диаспорой". Комментарии Украина (in Russian). 2012-05-30. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
- ^ a b c Semple, Kirk (17 October 2013). "Dominican Court's Ruling on Citizenship Stirs Emotions in New York". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Archibold, Randal C. (24 October 2013). "Dominicans of Haitian Descent Cast Into Legal Limbo by Court". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Rojas, Ricardo (12 October 2013). "Dominican court ruling renders hundreds of thousands stateless". Reuters.
- ^ Kushner, Jacob (4 September 2015). "Birthright Denied". Moment Magazine. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- ^ "Haitians Face Deportation From Dominican Republic As Deadline Nears". NPR. 17 June 2015.
- ^ "DR Court Strips Citizenship from Dominican-born Haitians".
- ^ Staff (May 17, 2022). "How does FEMA define non-citizen national and qualified non-citizen?". FEMA. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
- ^ "About Us". the Asian American Education Project. n.d. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
- ^ Bellamy-Walker, Tat (January 18, 2022) [January 7, 2022]. "Schools are starting to mandate Asian American Studies. More could follow suit". NBC Asian America. NBC News. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
- ^ Yam, Kimmy (May 17, 2023). "DeSantis criticized for mandating Asian American history while banning courses on 'systemic racism'". NBC Asian America. NBC News. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
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- ^ roonleng. "Wandering Chinaman: Chris Kando Iijima, Joanne Nobuka Miyamoto, "Charlie" Chin". Genius. Lyrics.
- ^ APA Staff (March 20, 2009). "Striking a Cord". International Institute. University of California, Los Angeles.
- ^ Kim, Sojin. "A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Smithsonian Folkways Magazine. Smithsonian Institution.
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- ^ Tham, Dan Q. (May 27, 2021). "'Perpetual foreigner': Photos explore Asian American belonging in everyday spaces". Hyphenated. CNN. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
- ^ Tam, Arthur (August 11, 2021). "This Powerful New Photo Series Reflects on the Asian American Experience". AnOther. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
- ^ Fulleylove, Rebecca (June 9, 2021). "Photo series Perpetual Foreigner reflects on the Asian American experience". Creative Review. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
- ^ Khang, Kathy KyoungAh (February 18, 2021). "Journeying with "Minari": a reflection on the film". Christians for Social Action. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
- ^ Accented Cinema (September 15, 2021). Shang-Chi and the Perpetual Foreigners. YouTube.
- ^ Accented Cinema (January 5, 2022). When Hollywood Speaks Chinese, I Cringe. YouTube.
- ^ Eje, Jefbeck (July 18, 2023). "Cantonese Accent: 10 Unique Regional Differences To Know". Ling. Retrieved September 7, 2023.
- ^ Wang, Selina (April 10, 2021). "Too Chinese for the US, too American for China. Where can Asian Americans like me call home?". CNN. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
- ^ Klug, Brain (September 16, 2021). "Symposium on the Arab and Jewish Questions". Contending Modernities. University of Notre Dame Keough School of Global Affairs. Section 2 "Europe and the Jewish Question". Retrieved September 6, 2023.
- ^ a b c AFP (February 21, 2019). "'Paradise on Earth': Ghost of N. Korea propaganda still haunts". Bangkok Post. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
- ^ Park, Eun-jee (October 11, 2012). "'Our Homeland' a story of repatriation, reunion". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
Further reading
Academic books
- Kasimis, Demetra (2018). The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press. S2CID 158074459.
- Parker, Kunal M. (5 September 2015). Making Foreigners: Immigration and Citizenship Law in America, 1600-2000 (1st ed.). New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 904400075.
- Kılınç, Ramazan (September 2019). Alien Citizens: The State and Religious Minorities in Turkey and France. Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics. Cambridge University Press. S2CID 204426327.
- Lawrance, Benjamin N.; Stevens, Jacqueline, eds. (February 2017). Citizenship in Question: Evidentiary Birthright and Statelessness. Duke University Press. OCLC 945583033.
- Frost, Linda (2005). Never One Nation: Freaks, Savages, and Whiteness in U.S. Popular Culture, 1850-1877. University of Minnesota Press. OCLC 56686376.
- Thananopavarn, Susan (Mar 19, 2018). LatinAsian Cartographies: History, Writing, and the National Imaginary. Latinidad: Transnational Cultures in the United States. Rutgers University Press. OCLC 982445252.
- Ben Rafael, Eliezer (2014). "2 Antisemitism and Allosemitism". Confronting Allosemitism in Europe: The Case of Belgium Jews. Brill. pp. 18–35. OCLC 879947711.
Online readings
- Klug, Brain (September 16, 2021). "Unasking Europe's Jewish Question". Contending Modernities. Symposium on the Arab and Jewish Questions. University of Notre Dame Keough School of Global Affairs.
- "Allosemitism (noun) - Jews as the perpetual 'other'". Jewish Journal. August 7, 2008.
Background
- Curle, Clint (January 24, 2020). "Us vs. Them: The process of othering". Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Children's books
- Loh-Hagan, Virginia (January 1, 2022). What is the Forever Foreigner Stereotype?. 21st Century Skills Library. Cherry Lake Publishing. ISBN 9781668900505.
External links
- "Perpetual Foreigner". Asian American Education Project.