. . . . captioning performed by vitac but even naturalized citizens don't have the same protections as american born sit stens have when it comes to issues of deportation, at least that has been true in the past if it's not currently true. i'll defer to the people who know immigration law better than i. >> there's a section of presumptive naturalization but it's the courts decimated that particular section of law. but you're correct. >> courts decimate things and und undecimate them. there's a hand over here. >> thank you very much. it's very interesting topic. i hope i haven't missed something earlier. what i was curious about, how many of the 300 million people in the united states are immigrants at this point? do we have an idea of what our percentage is and how much? >> does someone know? i don't have that number in front of me. >> 40 million -- >> from many decades ago. >> they would be from many decades ago. again, the -- you know, mr. trump's wife, for example is now a naturalized citizen, i believe but she's an immigrant. so we have lots -- we have lots of immigrants in the country now and most of them have come in the last 30 years. >> i read recently it's 10 to 14%, which would be 40 million that i think since 1910 or 1920. >> it would be higher than that in 1920. it would have been much higher. but again, from 1924 to 1965, the number of immigrants is truly a trickle compared to what had had been and what it has been since. >> thank you. >> other questions? yes, two hands over here. last minute. yes, yes. do i hear once, twice? go ahead. >> actually, i don't know if this is just a question or observation, i work for the u.s. capital historical society. i was looking around the room at the different faces in this room and thinking about myself, i'm adopted and only found out like five years ago that my grandparents -- my grandparents are from russia outside of the pale and my grandfather came to philadelphia first and then the rest of the family, including the sibs came over and one was my mother. the house is still standing in south philadelphia with the house where they lived on the top and butcher shop on the bottom. the only reason he was in the outside of the pale was because he had a trade. he was a butcher. and so he was, you know, he wasn't put in the ghetto. i was thinking about this while you were talking. it's more an observation of immigration and how it affects people down the line, you know. like, sometimes i grew up -- people asked me where i was from all my life. i'm not an immigrant per se, not first generation, but i have the -- >> actually if your mother came over you are first generation. >> i am? >> you are -- if your mother was an immigrant you are the child of an immigrant, your first generation american. yeah. >> how do you like that? >> makes you no different than say marco rubio. ted actually is an immigrant from canada but that's a different question. >> i feel the need to clear up the naturalization issue. >> please feel free, i knew you would. >> she practices immigration law so i defer to her on everything. >> a person who is a naturalized citizen has the same rights as everyone born a u.s. citizen. the only issue is that the government can bring a federal suit to take the naturalization away if it was obtained unlawfully but the government carries the burden of proof. you're right, it very rarely happens. in fact, i think most of the time with the nazis who have been deported and had their citizenship taken -- anyway. that's my story. >> that's fine. but that of course is it a -- that is of course a difference. that is we could have two individuals, one of whom is an american who went somewhere and became a war criminal and the other is a war criminal who and they both come back to the united states and the foreign born war criminal becomes a citizen. and can lose citizenship, the american war criminal cannot. >> they can't. although, just to really go off the reservation, it's been kind of interesting to watch after 9/11 how some u.s. sit zens have voluntarily as part of the deal given up u.s. citizenship. >> yeah. >> they weren't forced to because they were born but did give it up as part of deal. >> okay. >> the brave new world of citizenship. one question in the back. >> talking about statistics, have you seen the new -- in the smithsonian museum of american history in the basement, they have an innovation wing about talking about immigration and places of invention and a lot of -- it's decade by decade. and it's -- i just wanted to say in the basement of american history, it's worth seeing. innovation wing, american history. >> again, smithsonian is always worth seeing. there's fabulous stuff there. and it's -- you know, again, what's important is is that almost anywhere you go in this country, there are museums that deal with immigration. we are as i started a nation of immigrants and -- how we come to terms with that, that is -- it's fascinating. and of course, some people don't recognize the immigrant status because it was seven or eight or ten generations ago. but it's still always interesting to -- i mean, i suppose for me the weirdest encounters are the people who are the children of immigrants and want to shut the door behind them as they come in. and i always find that to be the weirdest or the people who are the grandchildren of immigrants and don't want -- now, that may be, by the way, that may be another phenomenon when i have not talked about here and that is that of course, many people who become americans or who are the children of americans want to as much as people meld into the system and disappear. they want -- again, a -- when i thought about speaking here, i thought that i might just do a litany of name changes in american history. and the way people -- because part of the golden door is that you reconfigure yourself as something else. [ inaudible ] >> even beyond that, the names you take and there are all kinds of first name naming patterns fascinating among ethnic groups trying to be americanized. and then of course there are the people who change names because they want jobs and in order to get the job, you have to pretend you're not who you are. i believe -- and i could be wrong about this and there may be other exceptions, but for example, when barbra streisand became a famous singer, everyone told her she needed to change her name because that last name wouldn't make it in america. you know. >> one last question. >> there's one behind you, let me take two. this one and the guy behind you. go ahead and then the guy behind you. >> i just saw a comment on generations at the immigration historian hanson's law that the third generation wants to remember what the second generation wants to forget. >> yes. >> it's consistent. my question is about the concept of naturalization. my sense is naturalization meant something different in the 18th century than what it means today. there was more an economic, had to do with tiered economic rights as opposed to citizenship and political rights or am i wrong? >> it has to do with everything. there are certain economic rights that come with naturalization but it might surprise some americans to know at various times noncitizens have been allowed to vote in both natural elections and local elections but in other times only citizens could vote. if you wanted to be in the political process, you became naturalized, certain economic rights came with naturalization but the other piece of it is and i think this is very important is naturalization is also a symbolic and personal accomplishment. i mean, my grandparents had their naturalization papers framed on the wall. and i suspect that was very common for hundreds of thousands and indeed millions of immigrants who became citizens and were fiercely proud of becoming citizens because it gave them a place of belonging and gave them a place to be where they were. >> that's my point. is there always the concept of citizenship in the colonies? they are not really citizens per se. >> yeah, they are, i mean, and that's why in the 1740, there's an imperial law -- for instance, in the 1740 law allows protestants and others to become citizens and you read this, what are the others? the others turn out to be quakers and jews. now we know who can't become citizens which were catholics. yes, so in the 1740s, you could my great to the american colonies and become a citizen of the british empire and that meant a great deal. that meant you were part of something and protected and if you were a merchant seamen you were protected by the british navy. if you were -- went abroad, you could get a passport. there are huge advantages to being a citizen as well as you could participate in the political and cultural process. >> so jews in colonies often were not allowed to hold public office. >> that's true. >> they could naturalize and that would give them economic rights but not complete political -- >> lots of people didn't have complete political rights. and that's true. but they could also serve on juries. and jury service for the average american in the 18th and 19th century, jury service is a lot more important than whether you'll be elected alderman. and with that is militia service, jury service and voting means you are part of the community. >> well, you're only talking about men -- >> of course. >> just saying. >> yeah, yeah. well, actually though, not entirely because inheritance rights would affect -- there are places where you could not inherit land if you're not a citizen. and so a widow might not be able to inher it, if somebody writes a will and writes you end, you have to inherit the land. there are substantive issues for women as well. >> a lost citizenship issues -- they couldn't naturalize. >> there was one question over here. >> i don't really have a question. it's more of a little amusing anecdote. several years back i met a fellow named dick theis and he explained his ancestor from elis island with a name tag that said vus. that's how he got his new name in the country. thank you all very much. [ applause ] >> everyone who can will join us tomorrow morning. it's going to be in the russ set senate office building and the instructions are on the piece of yellow flyer outside. look forward to seeing you tomorrow. we've got more road to the white house with hillary clinton explaining at the florida state fairgrounds in tampa. c-span will have live coverage at 4:30 evening she won the primary with more than 64% of the vote and takes 141 of the delegates to monday's convention. live coverage from florida begins at 4:30 eastern. first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee. >> at the democratic national convention in philadelphia, hillary clinton becomes the first woman nominee of a major political party for president of the united states. live coverage of every minute of this historic convention begins monday on c-span. the c-span radio app and c-span.org. >> next on american history tv, author andrew gyory explores the chinese exclusion act and how popular culture helped shape negative stereo types, part of a two-day symposium on the history of immigration. it's about 50 minutes. >> thank you, chuck. before i go further, i want to acknowledge the co-director emeritus, don canon who this conference would not be same without don. i'm glad he's here to give us stability and historical memory. and thank you all for coming. i know some of you had subway issues today and yesterday there were taxicab issues and who knows what we will have. i'm visiting professor at the university in sas ka toon where it was 25 degrees warmer when i left than it is in washington, d.c. and this proves obviously in case you don't know, sas ka toon is about 300 miles north of the montana border, way up there. and on the great plains of canada, spectacularly beautiful place. since it's 25 degrees warmer than washington, which as we all know has always been in the south part of the united states, it just shows there's absolutely no global climate change going on whatsoever. it's just how it's going to be. and anyways, it's a delight

Related Keywords

United States , Canada , Montana , Tampa , Florida , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Washington , China , Russia , United Kingdom , Americans , America , Chinese , American , British , Dick Theis , Marco Rubio , Ka Toon , Barbra Streisand , Hillary Clinton ,