Citizenship Policy from the Bottom-Up: The Linguistic and Semiotic Landscape of a Naturalization Field Office

Abstract

This article follows a bottom-up approach to language policy (Ramanathan, 2005 Ramanathan, V. (2005). Rethinking language planning and policy from the ground up: Refashioning institutional realities and human lives. Current Issues in Language Planning, 6(2), 89–101.[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]; Wodak, 2006 Wodak, R. (2006). Linguistic analysis in language policies. In T. Ricento (Ed.), An introduction to language policy: Theory and method (pp. 170–193). Malden, MA: Blackwell. [Google Scholar]) in an analysis of citizenship in policy and practice. It compares representations of citizenship in and around a regional branch of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with a focus on citizenship swearing-in ceremonies for adults and children, discourse of a USCIS field officer, and the linguistic landscape and social semiotics inside and surrounding the USCIS building. These local meanings of citizenship are contrasted with top-down, national meanings of citizenship that are enforced through Immigration and Naturalization Act policy, the naturalization test, and official discourse. Findings indicate that while the de jure citizenship policy of the local field office is to provide informational assistance to its community, its de facto practices suggest that help is prioritized for certain members of the population, in systematic and visible ways.

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