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 News from Around the Americas | October 2006 
Dual Citizenship has Appeal for Some Mexicans in U.S.
 Lennox Samuels - Dallas Morning News
| | Some Hispanics are pushing to be fully binational, with equal rights in Mexico and the United States and grounded in both societies. |
Chicago — The Mexican tricolor flaps on some verandas along Pulaski Road, while the U.S. flag takes pride of place on others.
The intersection of 26th and Pulaski is in the core of the Windy City, but by sights, sounds and smells, it could be in any town in Mexico. This is La Villita, "Little Village," where about 100,000 people live and work, maintaining the Spanish language, traditions and culture of Mexico.
As President Bush and others call for assimilation of Latino immigrants, some Hispanics in La Villita and other parts of the country are on what could be a collision course, pushing to be fully binational, with equal rights in Mexico and the United States and grounded in both societies.
"We're never giving up our Mexican roots," said Maria Cantu-Dougala, assistant vice president of Second Federal Savings and an American citizen. "That's where we're so different from other immigrants. We just can't give it up."
The U.S. must avoid Balkan-ization and has to maintain its national identity, common culture and common English language "or we will follow the path to the ash heap of history like the Roman Empire," said Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas.
"Arrogant nationalistic attitudes like this, which are blatant violations of American law, along with the uncontrolled mass migration and marching with Mexican flags have combined to push this country over the tipping point in favor of aggressive immigration law enforcement and strict border security," said Culberson, who has criticized White House immigration policy as lax.
Migration expert Jonathan Fox calls the phenomenon of Mexicans striving to be members of both U.S. and Mexican societies "civic binationality." It is one of several practices that suggest immigrants are finding new ways to integrate into the U.S., he said.
Many Mexicans want to go from being "less than a full member of either society to a full member of both societies," he said.
There are an estimated 42 million Latinos in the U.S., almost 60 percent of them of Mexican descent. The Pew Hispanic Center in Washington estimates there are about 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, a majority of them Mexican.
Dual citizenship an oxymoron?
Under Mexican law, Mexicans naturalized in the U.S. may keep their Mexican citizenship. And for the first time this year, Mexico allowed its citizens abroad to vote in its presidential election.
In the U.S., the growth in the number and sophistication of associations that link immigrants to their hometowns in Mexico has helped the immigrants participate more fully in American civic life while maintaining close relationships with the mother country, experts said.
Fox noted that in Los Angeles, noncitizens work the phones in efforts to get citizens to vote in local and state elections.
Some critics have questioned why more legal permanent residents do not seek citizenship.
"That process already exists for legal immigrants who seek to be naturalized in the United States. However, if illegal aliens want this right, then I suggest they go back to their countries of origin and proceed through the lawful steps in order to reach that goal," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.
Tancredo, a longtime immigration foe, said that even the notion of dual citizenship is "an oxymoron," and that being an American citizen means renouncing all prior allegiances and loyalties.
But the issue is not one of loyalty, said Paula Cruz Takash, a sociology professor at UCLA.
"Anyone who understands that we have to be thinking about global citizenship will appreciate this notion of civic binationality," she said. "Any country that understands and encourages the acquisition of not just one other language but maybe others will be at an advantage as globalization goes ahead." |
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