Socially Undocumented Horizons
This chapter completes the argument that “being socially undocumented” entails having a real, visible social identity by exploring possible aspects of a socially undocumented interpretive horizon. It argues that the socially undocumented interpretive horizon can be characterized in terms of resistance to a “double bind” in which socially undocumented people often find themselves. On the one hand, they often have no choice but to perform under-valued labor in the United States; failure to do so could very literally result in starvation and death. On the other hand, socially undocumented people with and without legal authorization to be in the United States are “read” as “illegals,” and subjected to demeaning, immigration-related constraints, on the very basis of performing and being associated with such labor. They are, then, faced with two highly constraining options. This chapter explores ways in which socially undocumented people take innovative action to respond to this double bind.