While the debate swirls(传得沸沸扬扬) around the estimated 2 millon illegal immigrants in the United States ,little attention is paid to the nearly equal number of foreign-born residents who are naturalized US citizens.
41 percent of the 537,151 new Americans in 2004 were from Asian countries, according to official immigration statistics .And while Mexico topped the list of home countries of new citizens, the next five home countries are in Asia: India, Philippines, Vietnam, China and Korea. Compare that with the makeup of the illegal immigrants in the United States in 2005:56 percent were Mexican, another 22 percent were from the rest of Latin America, while 13 percent were from Asia.
Bill Ong Hing ,a professor of Asian-American studies ,gives several reasons for more Asians and fewer Latinos becoming US citizens:
●Cultural differences lead Asians to place more value on US citizenship.
●Hispanics have a harder time with the immigration system because many have less education and come into the country illegally.
●The long distance from Asia drives a stronger desire to break ties with the home country, while the closeness of Mexico has the opposite effect.
Hing believes Asian culture drives more immigrants from that part of the world to become US citizens. “It became a tradition. It was something you did as an Asian immigrant,” said Hing ,who s Chinese-American .
David Lubell, director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, doesn’t buy the cultural difference argument. He blames the immigration system and the fact that low-skilled workers have less access to visas.
However, whatever reticence Mexicans and other Hispanics may have about becoming US citizens is likely to change ,Hing said. The anger that flowed from the immigration protects will lead more to seek citizenship, so they can exercise what the citizenship test calls an important American right: the right to vote.

当关于美国非法移民估计高达2百万的辩论正被传得沸沸扬扬时,却很少有人注意到,外国出生的美国居民的入籍数,也近乎与此等同.

2004年美国移民局官方统计数字显示,537,151个新公民中的41%来自亚洲国家.在新公民的故国名单上,墨西哥位列榜首,其后的五个国家分别为印度、菲律宾、越南、中国和韩国.相形之下,2005年美国非法移民的来源组成为:墨西哥人占56%，另有22%来自拉丁美洲的其他国家，剩余的13%来自亚洲。

针对亚洲人较拉丁美洲人入籍人数更多的现象,亚裔美国教授Bill Ong Hing经过研究之后，提出了如下几种可能的原因:

●文化差异导致亚洲人比拉美人更看重美国公民身份的价值.

●在现今的移民体系下,由于缺乏教育背景,以及非法移民的身份致使西班牙裔很难入籍.

●遥远的地域距离驱使亚裔抱有更为强烈的与故国切断联系的意愿,而近在咫尺的墨西哥人却与之相反.

Hing 认为,亚洲的文化促使来自那个地区的移民成为美国公民."这已经成了传统.那正是作为一个亚洲移民会做的事,"Hing现身说法,他自己就是一个华裔美国人.

作为田纳西州移民和难民权利联合会的会长,David Lubell却不同意这种文化差异的说法.他将之归咎于移民政策,低技能的工人难以获得签证是不争的事实.

但是,Hing 教授指出,墨西哥和其他西班牙裔移民转成公民的情况已然发生了变化.由于移民权益保护问题而导致的严重不满情绪,将会使得更多的人去寻求公民身份,这样,移民们才能够体验入籍测试时,被视作美国人所拥有的最重要的一项权利:表决权.