In many ways, Lalami’s work is an attempt to define “citizenship,” as the basic definition would simply be a person who is legally recognized as a subject within a country. A citizen could be native, meaning they were born in that country, or naturalized, meaning that they immigrated to the country and completed the necessary steps to be legally recognized as a citizen. Conditional Citizens, though, explores the effective meaning of citizenship for the people who live it, specifically in America. Citizens in the US are afforded rights that are codified in law and more broadly laid out in the Constitution. Federal, state, and local legislatures create laws and policies that are intended to maximize citizens’ enjoyment of their freedoms while protecting them against wrongdoing. American citizens are represented in government by elected officials.

Lalami questions what it means to have freedoms and rights as a person of color, as a woman, as a Muslim, and as an immigrant because these traits place restrictions on her enjoyment of the freedoms that should be afforded to all Americans. She is subject to suspicion and detention due to her skin color and religion, subject to harassment and even assault because she is a woman, and subject to criticism and scorn because she is an immigrant.