What that citizenship contest reality show gets right

The proposed reality TV show "The American" aims to highlight the path to U.S. citizenship, despite criticism and uncertainty about its future.

Howard Husock is the author of "The Poor Side of Town: And Why We Need It" (Encounter Books). He is a senior fellow in domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He served on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from 2013-17. 

In other words, it’s being cast as citizenship Hunger Games – though all the contestants would wind up on the fast track to naturalization. But that misses what’s fundamentally positive about it: the focus on citizenship itself as the goal. 

It’s a focus that’s been missing in all the attention rightly paid to the illegal and undocumented – the fact that citizenship is on offer to those who work hard and play by the rules and should be encouraged, just as it was once the case a century ago, when America assimilated its last big wave of newcomers.