{"id":10761,"date":"2018-08-24T13:21:36","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T19:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=10761"},"modified":"2018-08-24T13:31:13","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T19:31:13","slug":"in-which-i-attend-a-naturalization-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2018\/08\/in-which-i-attend-a-naturalization-ceremony.html","title":{"rendered":"In which I attend a naturalization ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Longtime readers will know that my husband grew up in Germany; he came here for grad school, we met, and he stayed, not so much because America is the Land of Milk and Honey as that it was clearly far easier for him to integrate into the U.S. (in terms of job opportunities, language, etc.) than the reverse.\u00a0 For many years, though, he had chosen to stay with the Green Card because the German government required that anyone naturalizing elsewhere, give up their German citizenship, and he didn\u2019t want to lose the ability to travel freely or even return to Germany for a longer stay; several years ago, the German government established a process of retaining citizenship if you could demonstrate a good reason for having both citizenships, so he worked through this process, then started the naturalization process, and a little under a year later, took his oath of citizenship yesterday.<\/p>\n

So let me tell you about the ceremony.<\/p>\n

We arrived at the scheduled start time and were directed to a room that served as a waiting room for the ceremony as well as for naturalization interviews.\u00a0 The future new citizens were directed to one section of chairs, family and friends to a second section, and then, row by row, they directed the future new citizens to the auditorium, where, one by one, they showed their documents, turned in their Green Cards, and were seated in the same order.\u00a0 After this was complete (it took an hour or more) they called family and friends in, who sat in a separate section.\u00a0 Then the director of the ceremony gave some opening remarks, and the ceremony started.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the agenda, framed and hanging as you enter the room:<\/p>\n

\"\"
naturalization agenda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cFaces of America\u201d video was, in fact, a video of new immigrants, from Ellis Island onward.\u00a0 The National Anthem was a recording with lyrics on the video screen to which the audience was (to put the best face on it) too self-conscious to sing along to.\u00a0 Then we had a few congratulatory remarks, and the presentation of candidates, in which she called out names of countries of origin and asked everyone to stand and remain standing \u2014<\/p>\n

which was very interesting because, much as the Mexican friends and family were the only ones to cheer (like the, er, nonconformists at a school graduation), there were actually surprisingly few Mexicans.\u00a0 There were more Poles, and Eastern Europe, in general, was quite well represented, along with the Middle East and Asia, and the odd duck Canadian and Brit.\u00a0 Given that Mexicans make up, as of 2014 (the most recent data<\/a> I could easily find) 15% of all newly naturalized citizens, and no Eastern European country has more than 1%, this seems odd, but may just indicate that Chicago simply does have a disproportionate number of these immigrants, and the Mexican\/Hispanic immigration is relatively newer (or less legal) in Chicago.\u00a0 Apparently, too, Mexicans are<\/a> much less likely than other immigrant groups to naturalize.<\/p>\n

So anyway, we then had the Oath of Allegiance.\u00a0 And as a minor tidbit, there were three rows\u2019 worth (maybe a dozen) of people there with interpreters.\u00a0 Some were older, though I was really surprised that others they met the criteria for eligibility for an interpreter<\/a> (age 50 with 20 years of residence or age 55 with 15 years of residence); maybe I\u2019m just not good at judging ages.\u00a0 In any event, the director told them, \u201cinterpreters, you have a job to do.\u00a0 They have to say the oath; I want to see mouths moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up was the pledge of allegiance, and then the Video Presentation, which consisted of two parts:\u00a0 a \u201cwelcome video\u201d by the president, and God Bless The USA with a naturalization-themed video.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the welcome video (from youtube):<\/p>\n