When Pericles points out that Athens constantly opens its doors to immigrants and foreigners when it comes to “any opportunity of learning or observing,” he purposefully avoids mentioning the point that immigrants and foreigners were not granted citizenship status in his speech. To explain, within Athens, not all people qualified for citizenship, which entailed the rights and responsibilities of participating in government and becoming an active member of Athenian community. In Athenian society, one had to be a male, own land, be a free man, and be native born in order to become a citizen. As a result, foreigners and immigrants were exempted from receiving citizenship status within Athenian society, and were therefore unable to participate
