Ayaan Answers: You Cannot Restore the West Without Restoring Citizenship

To renew the West, citizenship must once again mean belonging, not merely access.

In this conversation for Restoring the West, Ayaan Hirsi Ali examines the meaning of citizenship, national identity, and the moral foundations necessary to renew the West.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is Chief Editor of Restoring the West and a leading writer on freedom, religion, and Western civilization. After fleeing Somalia to escape a forced marriage, she built a life in the Netherlands and served as a Member of Parliament before moving to the United States. Her journey from Islam to atheism and ultimately Christianity shapes her perspective on faith, family, and the future of the West.

This conversation explores why citizenship must be understood as loyalty, belonging, and commitment rather than as a merely instrumental legal status. Ayaan reflects on national sovereignty, mass immigration, divided loyalties, and the way Christian faith informs a healthy understanding of nationhood and civic responsibility.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

RtW: How would you define citizenship, and what is its importance to restoring the West?

AHA: Being an American citizen is a core part of who I am. Of course, I have other identities—I’m a woman, I’m 5’7”—but my national identity shapes where I belong. That sense of belonging brings with it solidarity and loyalty. For me, it means knowing which society I would live and die for, something many people overlook when they talk about citizenship.

The importance is that we have to restore that particular meaning of citizenship and move away from citizenship as an instrument. For some, citizenship can become little more than a practical arrangement—a way to escape hardship in a country of origin, build a life somewhere else, and gain the benefits of stability and mobility without any real sense of commitment or belonging. A person may continue to see his or her original national identity as more important than their American identity, while valuing an American passport mainly for the access and convenience it provides. Even the simple appeal of living in America can be understood in primarily utilitarian terms. But citizenship has to return to its original meaning, which is bound up with national identity—and we have to restore it to that meaning.