Guamanian citizenship and nationality
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Guam is an island in the Marianas archipelago of the Northern Pacific located between Japan and New Guinea on a north–south axis and Hawaii and the Philippines on an east–west axis.[1] Inhabitants were Spanish nationals from 1521 until the Spanish–American War of 1898, from which point they derived their nationality from United States law.[2] Nationality is the legal means in which inhabitants acquire formal membership in a nation without regard to its governance type.[3] In addition to being United States nationals, people born in Guam are both citizens of the United States and citizens of Guam.[4][5] Citizenship is the relationship between the government and the governed, the rights and obligations that each owes the other, once one has become a member of a nation.[6] Though the Constitution of the United States recognizes both national and state citizenship as a means of accessing rights,[7][Notes 1] Guam's history as a territory has created both confusion over the status of its nationals and citizenship and controversy because of distinctions between jurisdictions of the United States.[12]