ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the individual and group determinants of naturalization. Traditionally, the United States has offered little encouragement to immigrants to naturalize, but has willingly accepted those who have sought to join the polity and accepted them with fewer expectations than many other countries. Congress became concerned that political machines naturalized ineligible immigrants. Congress addressed the classes of immigrants eligible for naturalization, excluding anarchists and polygamists. Joining polygamists, anarchists, and draft evaders were members of Communist organizations, immigrants who had served in the Nazi or Axis government or military, and those who advocated or taught that the US government should be overthrown. For the first century, US naturalization policy was characterized by local administration. At a more practical level, the state must question whether the narrow but widening difference in rights and responsibilities between citizens and noncitizens acts as a deterrent to naturalization.
