BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FOR AMERICAN SAMOANS: TRADITION VERSUS NATIONALISM?

Abstract

This paper critically examines the legal history of American Samoa as the only
United States (U.S.) territory where residents hold the political status of U.S.
nationals rather than citizens. The territory faces a contentious struggle between
individualistic legal attempts within the continental United States vying for a
changed status from U.S. nationals to citizens by birth for American Samoans.
The fundamental collectivistic cultural systems of the fa‘amatai and fa‘asamoa
based on the customary land tenure system are interwoven into the socio-cultural
fabric of the modern American Samoan hybrid system of governance. This paper
explores these systems and the legal protections within the contemporary identity
of national status for American Samoans. This work argues that conferred
automatic birthright citizenship is detrimental to the fa‘amatai and fa‘asamoa
systems based on the customary land tenure system and denial of political
autonomy for American Samoans.