By Sofya Aptekar
As the U.S. military struggles through the worst recruitment crisis in 25 years, it has redoubled efforts to recruit from immigrant communities. Immigrants who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents are eligible to join the armed forces – and have done so since the beginning of U.S. history.
Service in the military means an expedited path to U.S. citizenship, and many assume that the desire to get U.S. citizenship is what pushes immigrants to enlist. I interviewed 72 noncitizens from 28 countries who enlisted in the U.S. military for my book, “Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat.”
I learned that the fast track to citizenship is not as important in explaining immigrant enlistments as economic factors like poverty and debt, and cultural factors, such as valuing warrior masculinity and legitimization of war.
The immigrant twist on the poverty draft
The U.S. military has not had a draft since 1973 and instead has relied on marketing and recruiters to attract people into its ranks.
Lack of a high school diploma or GED, low scores on military entrance tests and failure to meet physical and medical requirements disqualify most youths in the U.S. from enlistment. Along with college aspirations and living in an area with military presence, lower socioeconomic status is positively associated with enlistment. That youths from poorer backgrounds are more likely to join the military has been termed the “poverty draft” by critics of military recruitment.
Young Americans who want to go to college are attracted to the educational benefits of military service. Those with no plans to attend college see the military as a steady, nonstigmatized job with benefits.
Immigrants, too, are subject to this poverty draft.
This is not surprising given that earnings of immigrants are on average lower than those of the U.S.-born workers.
The criminalization of immigrants can also play a role. For example, I interviewed a veteran who had enlisted in large part for the US$10,000 signing bonus after her family was financially devastated by a legal fight to stop the deportation of her brother.
Joining to be a real man
The military is highly valued in American society.
This is evident in U.S. movies like “Top Gun: Maverick,” video games and even sporting events. A crucial element of this culture of militarism is militarized masculinity, the idea that military labor is a way of embodying a superior and unassailable type of masculinity.
In my research, I found that many immigrants reported that warrior masculinity was a key element in attracting them to the U.S. military. Whether or not they grew up in the United States, immigrants were drawn to the U.S. military as children because of American movies and video games.
The enlistment of women has done little to disturb the hierarchical culture of masculinity in the U.S. military, as women’s and gender studies scholar Cynthia Enloe has shown.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
While some immigrant women I interviewed remembered worrying about coping with male-dominated cultures, others enlisted to get an opportunity to prove themselves alongside men.
Not just citizenship papers
Immigrants who serve in the U.S. military go through the same naturalization process as civilians but are eligible to apply sooner. But I found that naturalization was rarely a major reason they gave for enlisting, and many immigrants said that they did not think much about citizenship when they joined the military.
The exception was immigrants who enlisted through a special and now-discontinued program for temporary visa holders, who otherwise faced decades of waiting for a chance to become citizens.
But citizenship mattered in the broader sense.
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
For some immigrants, military service could be a tool for gaining a sense of belonging unavailable through citizenship papers alone. This is how the military gave Michael, a Kenyan immigrant, access to belonging:
“If I go to a store in uniform, people don’t see that I’m a Black man or I’m from Africa. Or I have an accent. People see a U.S. Army soldier and then you get treated differently. People just see you as a human being. And my thing is like, ‘Why don’t people just see me as that without the uniform?’ With the uniform I feel like, ‘Wow. I belong.‘”
Immigrants can and do feel love for country even though they were born elsewhere.
Some of the immigrants I interviewed said they enlisted out of patriotism. Others said they felt that military service was a way of paying back the United States. I also spoke to immigrants who expressed reservations about becoming U.S. citizens because they were reluctant to give up their other citizenship.
In the end, fast-tracked citizenship will continue to play a role in immigrant enlistment.
But my research indicates that this special incentive overshadows the commonalities between immigrants and U.S.-born people: They enlist because of economic insecurity and cultural norms that value masculinity grounded in war and violence.
Sofya Aptekar is Associate Professor of Urban Studies at the City University of New York.
The Conversation arose out of deep-seated concerns for the fading quality of our public discourse and recognition of the vital role that academic experts could play in the public arena. Information has always been essential to democracy. It’s a societal good, like clean water. But many now find it difficult to put their trust in the media and experts who have spent years researching a topic. Instead, they listen to those who have the loudest voices. Those uninformed views are amplified by social media networks that reward those who spark outrage instead of insight or thoughtful discussion. The Conversation seeks to be part of the solution to this problem, to raise up the voices of true experts and to make their knowledge available to everyone. The Conversation publishes nightly at 9 p.m. on FlaglerLive.
Jimbo99 says
Try not to overthink it, 1st off it’s a Government job with full benefits. Afterwards and an honorable discharge, the military is a few points towards yet other government jobs. Does it beat the heck out of working for a fast food restaurant that doesn’t want to own a benefits package for employees ? When it’s the best deal they may ever get in their lifetimes, they belong to an elite club that few do. VFW and whatever other associations that come with it. Military discounts apply. It’s not an easy life, but they will travel to places and the US Government picks up relocation at the lowest positions. If traveling to Europe or stationed in Hawaii is on one’s bucket list, it’s free travel & relocations. 20 years in there’s a decent retirement package for a pension based upon rank as well. It’s another reason some are police officers & firemen. Nobody entered into any of those occupational careers to die, unless you’re a victim of a Biden screw up of a pullout in Afghanistan. If you’re lucky, you can go 20 years without America actually deploying to a war zone as a front line. As for immigrant, if that’s the shortest way to citizenship, it’s almost a no-brainer.
Ray W. says
My youngest son, after JROTC in high school, enlisted in the Navy to become an air traffic controller. Finishing first in his class at Pensacola, he had his choice of assignments. He chose Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. After that three-year assignment, he served on the U.S.S. Boxer, based in San Diego, for the last year of his enlistment. He enjoyed living in both communities, but a flat-bottomed light carrier designed to off-load Marine amphibious transports sailing in heavy seas was not his cup of tea.
He now says his decision to enlist was the best decision he could have made.
He became a train dispatcher after his honorable discharge, working for BNSF in Fort Worth. Airports came after trains, so early air traffic control language borrowed from long-established train dispatching language; he was hired almost immediately after leaving the Navy and BNSF paid him during the mandatory training period; apparently BNSF valued ex-military. After years of working hard and saving up, he decided to use the last three years of eligibility for the GI Bill; he is in college now attending full-time toward a degree in finance.
Done right, the military can be beneficial to immigrants and citizens alike.
Atwp says
JimBo99, at least Biden had the courage to pull the troops from Afghanistan. At least he had the guts to finish the job Bush started. Good job Biden.
Brian Riehle says
How about he 800o U.S. Service members killed by the George W. Bush screw up ?
Greg says
America needs to bring back the draft. We all got our draft notice right after high school. It made men of us. America could use more men, rather than the cupcakes it is producing now.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Greg, You are 100% right. Are young men today are soft, & lazy!
Ray W. says
You both present as the picture of soft and lazy thinking.
Once again, our founding fathers viewed reason as something to be followed; it was not to be contorted to fit their preconceived beliefs. Thomas Jefferson wrote to a nephew of his belief that reason was a gift from heaven. The nephew had just graduated from college, so Jefferson knew that his nephew had been trained in the three Scottish Enlightenment forms of reason. Jefferson exhorted his nephew that it was time for him to use his skills as a reasoning human being to decide for himself whether God existed or not. The nephew was to be led by reason. Jefferson advised that the nephew not rely on other people’s beliefs, because that might interfere with the reasoning process. The decades before, during and after the Revolution are now known in academia as the Age of Reason.
My two boys are extraordinarily hard-working. Both of my sons-in-law are extraordinarily hard-working. I know many other hard-working, not-so-very-soft young men, including a couple of nephews. You both should apologize for your failures as men. Since neither of you exercise much in the way of intellectual rigor in these comments, just how soft and lazy have your thoughts become?
The problem with the both of you just might be innumeracy, which is the inability to understand numbers, just like illiteracy is the inability to read or write. We have 330 million citizens in this country. The ability to pluck a few slackers from that number is easy. The ability to infer from those selected slackers that a whole generation of young men is soft and lazy is easy, too, at least for the both of you.
All my life I have heard and read of the mantra that the next in a long line of young generations is soft and lazy. The Nazi government believed that democracies had produced a generation of soft and lazy men; it thought the democracies could not stand up to the strength of the will of the hardened German people. We were behind the Soviets in the math side of education, producing a generation of supposedly soft young people who could not compete. We had a hippie movement in the ’60’s, allegedly producing a generation of soft and lazy young men. We had a generation exposed to too much TV, allegedly producing a generation of soft and lazy young men. Now, it is the computer-dependent that is allegedly producing more soft and lazy young men. From reading a biography of John Adams, largely compiled from the contents of his letters, he, too, referred to the dissolute and slackers of his generation. Alcoholism was a significant problem in the colonies, with all its deleterious effects. Prohibition was another example of young people falling victim to slacking while drunk.
Here’s a test for the both of you. The weekly application for unemployment insurance numbers were released today: 221,000. Dating from 1968, the average number of people applying for unemployment insurance each week is around 386,000. The average number of people applying each week for unemployment insurance over the last two years has always been below the 55-year average. What does that tell you? Try letting reason guide you, instead of contorting reason to fit your preconceived beliefs. To me, it has little to do with Biden or Trump and much to do with hard-working Americans. When they lose jobs for whatever the reason, they go out and find new ones, without applying for unemployment insurance. After all, people are still being laid off or fired, as they always have been. We still have just under 10 million posted unfilled job openings. Unemployment rates are at historic lows, as they were during the early years of the Trump administration. Our economy needs millions of additional workers and young people are out there working in record numbers.
Atwp says
Ray, that is good writing. They are saying young men are soft and lazy. Wonder who built the building they are living in? All of the men were not soft and lazy.
Laurel says
Ray W.: Bazinga! :D
Tony Mack says
Ray W — Your words of logic and reason will fall upon the ground like raindrops as far as the two you counselled are concerned. They are hard in the ways of their hate for those in disagreement with them. Having read some of their previous comments, we know who they despise, and we know their solution — eliminate all those with other thoughts and ideas about how this Nation should fulfill its commitment of “Liberty and Justice for all.”
But keep up with your missives; they are both informative and enjoyable.
Ray W. says
Thank you,, Tony Mack.
I wish to build on your expression of hope in our nation’s commitment to “Liberty and Justice for all.”
In Albion’s Seed, Oxford University Press (1989), the author focuses on four emigration pathways from England to different early American colonial regions. Each occurred during a unique yet often overlapping period of time. Each drew from different regions of Great Britain.
The Puritans settled in New England. The Cavaliers in Virginia. The Quakers in Pennsylvania. And the frontiersmen settled up and down the Shenandoah Valley into the mountains of West Virginia, North Carolina and north Georgia. These last were commonly Scots, Irish, and Scots-Irish, as opposed to Englishmen, though many northern Englishmen also contributed to this emigration pathway. The frontiersmen also settled in western New York and expanded into the mountains around Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
According to the author, each emigration pathway carried with it from the Old World a different concept of “liberty.”
The author writes as follows:
“The persistence of regional cultures in America is more than merely a matter of antiquarian interest. Regional diversity has created a dynamic tension within a single republican system. It has also fostered at least four different ideas of liberty within a common cultural frame.
“These four libertarian traditions were not forms of classical republicanism or European liberalism — even as those alien ideologies were often borrowed as rationales. American ideas of freedom developed from indigenous folkways which were deeply rooted in the inherited culture of the English-speaking world.
“Considered in ethical terms, each of these four freedom ways began as a great and noble impulse, but all at first were limited in expression and defective in their operation. The Puritan idea of ordered freedom was no sooner brought to Massachusetts than it became an instrument of savage persecution. The cavalier conception of hegemonic freedom, when carried to Virginia, permitted and even required the growth of race slavery for its support. The Quaker vision of reciprocal freedom was a sectarian impulse which could be sustained only by withdrawal from the world. The backcountry belief in natural freedom sometimes dissolved into cultural anarchy.
“But each of these four libertarian traditions proved capable of continuing growth. New England’s Puritan faith in ordered freedom grew far beyond its original limits to become, in Perry Miller’s words, ‘a constellation of ideas basic to any comprehension of the American mind.’ Virginia’s cavalier conceit of hegemonic freedom transcended its association with inequalities of rank and race and gender to become an ethical idea that is relevant to all. Pennsylvania’s Quaker inspiration of reciprocal freedom developed from a fragile sectarian vision into a libertarian creed remarkable for toughness of mind and tenacity of purpose. Border and backcountry notions of natural freedom evolved from a folk tradition into an elaborate ideology.
“Each of these four freedom ways still preserves its separate existence in the United States. The most important fact about American liberty is that it has never been a single idea, but a set of different and even contrary traditions in creative tension with one another. This diversity of libertarian ideas has created a culture of freedom which is more open and expansive than any unitary tradition alone could possibly be. It has also become the most powerful determinant of a voluntary society in the United States. In time, this plurality of freedoms may prove to be that nation’s most enduring legacy to the world.” Pgs. 897-98.
This raises one possible question. Has today’s Republican Party devolved into a form of the colonial Virginia cavalier hegemonic freedom tradition, based on inequalities of race, rank and gender? There does, on the surface, appear to be a form of freedom inhering in today’s Republican Party, in only a limited type of freedom that expands its umbrella so far as to protect only those who closely follow an ever-more narrow set of beliefs.
Has American liberty stopped being a form of pluralistic freedoms? Is it unitarian in focus now, excluding vast segments of Americans who accept the other three American freedom traditions?
Tony Mack says
Ray — Granted all that you relate here regarding the “Pathways” and their regional or geographic evolvement. Now further, I wonder what effect the mobility of our society had on those pathways as well as the effect on WWII had on the country in the last 75 years given that people from each of these various pathways, out of necessity, needed to interact for survival, thus, perhaps, learning from one another.
Yet, the Neo-modern Republican party has followed a platform of dividing those alliances because they see the advantage in pitting one societal segment against the other (North vs South), (Rich vs Poor), and now — Christians vs all others.
From late, modem history — think German in the Thirties. Same pattern.
Ray W. says
Hello Tony Mack,
Great point about national migratory patterns and the possible dilution of the various British liberty traditions.
I agree with you about the dramatic changes brought about by WWII. The GI Bill educated millions of American soldiers, many of whom would never have been able to attend college without it. For example, my father, a combat airman in WWII, used the GI Bill to eventually attend Stetson’s law school, which was in DeLand at that time; he and my mother never returned to live in their home state of North Carolina.
Yes, Flagler County in large part was developed by ICDC, a subsidiary of ITT, starting in the 60’s, so that true locals, many born into multi-generational farming families, comprise a quite small portion of the overall population. The folkway traditions of these early settlers are now dwarfed by other traditions brought by the newcomers to the area.
Since I accept the ideas behind the Hegelian triad of hypothesis, antithesis and synthesis, I am of the belief that it is the human condition to engage in a pattern of division. The concept of checks and balances relies on political parties opposing one another. To me, the difference is one of malice, which in law has been defined as ill will directed to the person or property of another. When Madison wrote in his final paragraph of Federalist Paper #37 of the “pestilential” nature of political partisanship, he was not referring to all political partisans; he was referring to the malicious political partisan. And the pestilence of his day was smallpox, plague, polio, typhus and the many other virulent diseases of the day. The virtuous political partisan of that time, trained in the three forms of reason, was admired and respected. Think of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton.
Tony Mack says
Ray W. — We definitely are on the same page as far as “malice” in the political system is concerned. I worked on the Hill as a Press Secretary for a Democratic Representative in the early Seventies after my Air Force serve, and at the DNC Headquarters in the Watergate during that fiasco.
I had many friends on the other side of the aisle, as they say, and although we disagreed on many issues, especially the Vietnam War which was still ongoing, no one to my recollection was overly contentious or so dogmatic that we couldn’t communicate and resolve differences.
Things changed dramatically with the arrival of Lee Atwater and then Newt Gingrich. Between them, they established the Republican playbook that no Democrat was “American” enough for them, the attacks again Nixon was pure politics and had nothing to do with Constitution duties therefore — the only course was to maneuver to do away with the entire Democratic Party. I believe that movement still is underway.
All that being said and more relevant to this discussion, Why the malice? Some thoughts to parallel your direction — humans, like all animals, I believe, tend to form into groups of similarity, or clans, if you will. Wolves, for example, form wolf packs with an Alpha male at the lead. Similarly, lions, elephants, even fish swim in “schools.” They hunt together, feed together, raises their young, together (for the most part) and most importantly, they “protect” the group, sometimes fiercely.
My point –political groups or parties, if you will, are of the same sort, except we humans have found a way to marginalize our opponents, even conjure ways to destroy them for the sake of an individual clan or group. In our country, as you noted, people and populations have shifted in location, age groups, religious affiliations and ethnicity to such an extent that I fear there can never be a true American society with all people being equal as the Founders anticipated and hoped for.
There’s more but enough for now. Always enjoy reading your comments. Thanks.
Tony Mack says
Interesting Ray W. — I had an extensive post in response to you but it has disappeared. No trace, no “Holding for Approval”…just vanished. Too lengthy and wordy to reconstruct. Such a pity as I thought it was pithy. Oh well…
Laurel says
Ray W.: Oh my gosh, you have actually helped me understand myself by leaving out a group: Independents.
My great grandparents came over from Norway, and headed straight for the coldest, rockiest state of North Dakota. They built a sod shack, with a dirt floor (which never swept clean, lol) to live in. They were constantly working their behinds off, fighting blizzards in winter and growing crops in the summer. Eventually they moved to Wisconsin among other hardworking Norwegian transplants. Then, when the Great Depression came along, they came to their senses, sold the farm, and moved to Miami Beach…thank goodness! My grandmother started a business.
What ideas they brought with them was white food: potatoes, flour, sugar cookies, ludefisk (ick), vanilla ice cream and Wisconsin tea.
How does this effect me? My relatives, and others of Norwegian decent, were always too damned busy working to have time to mess with other people. They were always independent. I’m independent, and a registered NPA.
How’s that for history! ;)
Ray W. says
Actually, Laurel, your extremely distant relatives established a legal system in Iceland that included jury trials.
Decades ago, I read a few of the many Icelandic Sagas. One involved the trial of men accused of murdering a farming family. I looked up a summary of that saga, known as Bjorn Njals Saga Trial, which is believed to have occurred around 1012. Long on procedure, the trial had 36 judges and nine jurors. Rules upon rules. In the end, the trial devolved into violence and many Norsemen were killed and wounded before order was restored. The trial resumed and the murderers were convicted and exiled.
From the existence of the Norse Sagas, and in recognition that people thought them important enough to preserve over the many centuries, it can be inferred, however weakly, that your Norwegian immigrant ancestors brought their own freedom pathway to America, adding its unique creative tensions and liberty traditions to the British ones described in Albion’s Seed.
As an aside, you did not mention the most important of the white foods: cheese. Wisconsin is the cheese state, after all.
Ray W. says
Once, while driving from Elkhart Lake to Madison, I traveled through a small part of the Kettle Moraine district. One of the most beautiful farming regions I have ever seen.
Geezer says
Ray W.
I tip my hat to you.
You are among the very finest of commentators on Flaglerlive.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
Ban the GOP says
If a migrant in florida cant get a drivers license and if their friend or relative drives them somewhere they can now be charged with felonies. How are they allowed to join the military? So you dont care if they fight and die for you as long as they cant vote? Dont we spend millions of tax dollars using rons donors planes to send them to another state anyways?
We should have a draft to put people in wars they dont support? Sounds like youd prefer authoritarianism . Gotta love old people acting like they had it rough and todays youth are lazy. Todays youth are more educated and more empathetic than previous generations. People today are a hundred times more productive than they were back then but the money went to the top only. I heard more divisive hate from “conservatives” than anyone else. Conserving the hate of the past I suppose.
Todays youth watched republicans sell their collective futures so big oil can make more money and take away human rights in the middle of the night others spent decades fighting for. or Maybe they dont see the value of working endless hours just to be able to have a roof over their head so some other guy can live like a god. Pensions, unions, and job security hardly exist anymore which were the backbone of the middle class. Money is made up today and poor people only exist cause we want them to. 3 americans today have more money than 200,000,000 americans combined and yet pay literally no taxes.
Was it rough back when you could work at the gas station and support a whole family and purchase a house lol? Try living in poverty it charges interest and is way more difficult in every way than having wealth. (what happens if you dont pay your electric on time?late fees, reconnection fees?) In fact lower income people live on average 12 years less than people with substanial resources (in merica’). We are the ONLY developed nation on the planet without healthcare for its citizens. I know the old bootstrap story but in todays world companies will straight up take advantage and exploit your commitment and hard work and rarely does it benefit that individual. Hense overtime exemptions, and minium wage exemptions for tipped employees, exemptions for ag, or truck drivers, ect. Work 20 hours a day you wont make dime more. Its funny how the oldies use their medicare and cash their social security checks and vote for republicans and talk about how democrats are socialist.
Average rent in Flagler county = 1742 per month or 20,904 per year
$12 per hour * 40 * 52 weeks = 24960 per year before tax thats 21,815 after taxes
This doesnt include food, health insurance, utilities, transporation, child care, loans or literally anything else.
52,000,000 mericans make less than 15 per hour. As of June 2023, there were 135.86 million full-time employees in the United States. So more than 1/3 of all full time working people are forced to live in poverty and dont make enough to cover basic necessities?
Since 1938 the minimum wage has been increased “23 times” and was raised 21 times during Democratic congresses, and only twice during Republican ones
So whats more important that people have a shelter or that others can make profit off that shelter?
I have a feeling sometime soon we will learn that the “economy” wasnt the most important thing for our futures. Profits over people isnt sustainable.
Feddy says
Great post Tony.
Pogo says
@This is the best that the Republican Party has ever done for a “G.I.”
Nothing is too good for you, so here’s nothing
https://www.google.com/search?q=hoover+and+the+bonus+veteran