Educating "Good" Citizens: Imagining Citizens of the New Millennium

In this paper, the author argues that current notions of citizenship do not fully reflect the reality of increasing transnational migration and diversity within the United States. Under the rhetoric of national unity and security, transnational migrants are often treated as foreigners, outsiders, or even in some cases positioned on the opposite side of "good" and "desirable" citizens of the U.S. society. Due to governmental and civic attempts to build a unified national identity, transnational migrant students' issues of belonging have become ever more problematic. The author suggests the necessity of reexamining current notions of citizenship to reflect the diversity of transnational migrants in the United States and their social, economical, and cultural contexts of identity formation. The importance of discussing the notions of citizenship in relation to identity politics and its implications for and applications to education of transnational adolescent immigrants are discussed.