Embodiments of Transnational Citizenship

2018 ◽  
pp. 101-135
Author(s):  
Adrián Félix
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Mexican State ◽  
Rural Mexico ◽  
Migrant Family ◽  
Transnational Citizenship

Chapter 4 turns to how Mexican migrants embody transnational citizenship by tracing the cross-border practice of repatriating the bodies of deceased Mexican migrants from the United States to their communities of origin in rural México. Far from being a strictly private transnational practice, migrants’ desire for a posthumous return and burial in their homelands is collectively expressed in the memories, music, and everyday exchanges of the Mexican diaspora. Drawing on a transnational ethnography of migrant mourning between Los Angeles, California, and Zacatecas, México, this chapter documents how the Mexican state has institutionalized this practice at the transnational, national, state, and municipal levels of governance. Next, the chapter discusses the role of migrant family and social networks in these repatriations. As an intimate ethnography, the chapter also critically reflects on my accompaniment of Mexican migrants as they navigate transnationalism in life and death.

Specters of Belonging

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrián Félix
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Mexican State ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Mexican Migrant ◽  
Transnational Citizenship

In the context of research on the “thickening” of borders, Specters of Belonging raises the related question: How does transnational citizenship thicken across the political life cycle of Mexican migrants? In addressing this question, this book resembles what any good migration corrido (ballad) does—narrate the thickening of transnational citizenship from beginning, middle, to end. Specifically, Specters of Belonging traces Mexican migrant transnationalism across the migrant political life cycle, beginning with the “political baptism” (i.e., naturalization in the United States) and ending with repatriation to México after death. In doing so, the book illustrates how Mexican migrants enunciate, enact, and embody transnational citizenship in constant dialectical contestation with the state and institutions of citizenship on both sides of the U.S.-México border. Drawing on political ethnographies of citizenship classrooms, the first chapter examines how Mexican migrants enunciate transnational citizenship as they navigate the naturalization process in the United States and grapple with the contradictions of U.S. citizenship and its script of singular political loyalty. The middle chapter deploys transnational ethnography to analyze how Mexican migrants enact transnational citizenship within the clientelistic orbit of the Mexican state, focusing on a group of returned migrant politicians and transnational activists. Last, the final chapter turns to how Mexican migrants embody transnational citizenship by tracing the cross-border practice of repatriating the bodies of deceased Mexican migrants from the United States to their communities of origin in rural México.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Adrián Félix
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Face ◽  
Transnational Citizenship

The opening chapter of Specters of Belonging introduces the theoretical framework informing the ethnography presented throughout the book—namely, the thickening of transnational citizenship and diasporic dialects across the arch of the migrant political life cycle. Just as the US and Mexican states have thickened their borders, escalating the racialized policing of migrants, so too have migrants thickened their transnational claims of political belonging. These specters of belonging are best captured by the concept of diasporic dialectics—the process by which migrants are in constant political struggle with the state and its institutions of citizenship on both sides of the border. Mexican migrants enunciate, enact, and embody these diasporic dialectics in the face of imperial citizenship in the United States and clientelistic citizenship in Mexico, facing the ever-present danger of domestication. Thus, the introduction raises the political potentialities and pitfalls of diasporic dialectics as migrants negotiate transnationalism in life and death.

Knights and Caballeros

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-271
Author(s):  
Julia G. Young
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican State ◽  
Politically Active

This article reconstructs and analyzes the role of the Knights of Columbus in Mexico’s Cristero War. Founded in Connecticut in 1882, the Order quickly expanded into Mexico, establishing its first chapters there in 1905. Within two decades, the Mexican Caballeros de Colón had become one of the country’s most prominent and politically active Catholic lay organizations. During the Cristero War (1926–1929), the Mexican and U.S. Knights collaborated in order to resist the anticlerical Mexican state. In the process, the organization connected and politicized Catholics who supported the Cristero cause. By tracing the expansion of the Knights of Columbus from the United States into Mexico, and then following the Mexican Knights back into exile in the United States, this article demonstrates how transnational political activism shaped the lives of Catholics on both sides of the border. Este artículo reconstruye y analiza el papel que jugó la orden llamada Knights of Columbus en la Guerra Cristera de México. Fundada en Connecticut en 1882, dicha orden se expandió rápidamente a México y estableció sus primeros capítulos ahí en 1905. En el lapso de dos décadas, los “Caballeros de Colón” mexicanos se convirtieron en una de las organizaciones católicas laicas más prominentes y con mayor actividad política del país. Durante la Guerra Cristera (1926–1929), los Caballeros mexicanos y estadounidenses colaboraron con el fin de resistir al Estado mexicano anticlerical. En este proceso, la organización conectó y politizó a los católicos que apoyaban la causa cristera. Al rastrear la expansión de los Caballeros de Colón de los Estados Unidos a México y al seguir sus pasos de regreso al exilio en Estados Unidos, este artículo demuestra cómo el activismo político transnacional conformó las vidas de los católicos a ambos lados de la frontera.

Enunciations of Transnational Citizenship

2018 ◽  
pp. 19-55
Author(s):  
Adrián Félix
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Discrimination ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Political Ethnography ◽  
Transnational Citizenship ◽  
The Moment

Chapter 2 examines how Mexican migrants enunciate transnational citizenship as they navigate the naturalization process in the United States. This chapter treats naturalization—the so-called political baptism of migrants—as the first stage of the migrant political life cycle insofar as this is the moment where migrants contest state scripts of singular loyalty. Drawing on a political ethnography of the naturalization process and the citizenship classroom, this chapter captures Mexican migrants’ mythologies of citizenship as they collectively expose the central contradictions of U.S. citizenship and constitutionalism. The bureaucratic arbitrariness and institutional discrimination that Mexican migrants perceive throughout the naturalization process infuse their mythologies of citizenship and inform their alternative enunciations of transnational political membership and belonging. When naturalization is sought in response to an antimigrant context, the so-called political baptism of Mexican migrants may in effect mark the political birth of transnational citizens.

Immigrant Voting in Home-Country Elections: Potential Consequences of Extending the Franchise to Expatriate Mexicans Residing in the United States

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico A. Marcelli ◽  
Wayne A. Cornelius
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Residency Status ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Immigrant Voting

Despite widespread interest in the effects of expanding expatriate Mexicans' ability to vote in the 2006 Mexican presidential election, no systematic estimates of potential participation currently exist. Applying logistic regression techniques to 2001 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Residency Status Survey data and 2002 Current Population Survey data, we find that 125,000 to 360,000 (1.5–4.2 percent of ) expatriate Mexican migrants residing in the United States may vote in 2006. Migrants who are less well integrated in the United States, have a Mexican political party affiliation, or attend religious meetings more frequently are estimated to be more likely to vote. And although a minority of expatriates is likely to vote for the PAN candidate in 2006, the expatriate vote is not likely to exceed one percent of the total Mexican vote; state and local, rather than national, electoral outcomes are more likely to be influenced. Still, instituting an absentee ballot and facilitating cross-border mobility could significantly expand expatriate participation in future Mexican elections. Pese al gran interés en torno a los efectos que tendría la capacidad de los expatriados mexicanos para votar en la elección presidencial de 2006, no existen estimaciones sistemáticas de una participación potencial. Al aplicar técnicas de regresión logística a los datos que arroja el estudio del estatus de migratorio de los mexicanos en el Condado de los Ángeles, así como al Censo de Población, encontramos que entre 125,000 y 360,000 (1.5 a 4.2 por ciento) de los expatriados mexicanos que viven en Estados Unidos, podrían votar en 2006. Los migrantes que no se hallan del todo integrados en Estados Unidos, que tienen una filiación política, o bien, que asisten a congregaciones religiosas son más propensos a votar. Y, aunque resulta plausible que una minoría de expatriados vote por el candidato del PAN en 2006, el voto no excederá un punto porcentual del voto mexicano total; los resultados estatales y locales, más que nacionales, son los que se revelarán susceptibles de influencia. Aún así, la instauración de una boleta para votar a distancia, o bien, de facilidades para el cruce de la frontera podría extender la participación de los migrantes de forma significativa en las futuras elecciones mexicanas.

California’s Regulatory Leadership: Broader Implications

2019 ◽  
pp. 231-244
Author(s):  
David Vogel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Pacific

This concluding chapter reviews the key themes of the book and explores some of the broader implications of this analysis of California's regulatory leadership. Three points are particularly critical: the importance of the local dimension of environmental policies, the role of business in environmental politics, and the limits of environmental regulation. The chapter then discusses the increasingly important role states are playing in environmental protection in the United States and shows how California has economically benefited from its environmental policy leadership. One important reason why California has been able to consistently adopt more stringent regulations than those of the federal government and other states is that many of its improvements in local and state environmental quality have been a source of competitive advantage. The improvements it has made in air quality—most notably in Los Angeles—its protection of the trees in the Sierras and along the Pacific, and its land use controls along the coast and around the San Francisco Bay have all made California a more attractive place to move to, invest in, and visit.

scholarly journals Neuroethics of death in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikaela Sifuentes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Inheritance Law ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Definition Of Death ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Universal Definition ◽  
Definition Of

The search for a universal definition of death is a relatively new objective in human history, framed by complex biological, technological, and socio-political factors. While it is widely understood that “life” and “death” describe inverse states of being, what separates these two states has been vigorously debated by scientists, ethicists, and theologians. Far from merely an academic distinction, the definition of death has implications that extend to end-of-life healthcare, organ transplantation, and inheritance law. This review explores the historical and current definitions of death in the United States, the role of technological advances, and the resultant social and legal applications.

scholarly journals Role of a Japanese Market for New Japanese Migrants in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Aki Yamada
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
The United States ◽  
Japanese Market ◽  
Multiple Generations ◽  
Japanese Immigrants ◽  
Main Component

<p><em>This research paper seeks to provide a clearer understanding of contemporary Japanese migration to the United States through a case study examining the role of one Japanese market, Nijiya Market, in Sawtelle, Los Angeles. This study identifies the main roles that this particular market serves, as evidenced by oral interviews and intensive site observation fieldwork. The findings reveal that the ethnic market is very important to the creation and maintenance of ethnic identity across multiple generations of new Japanese immigrants and migrants living in the United States. Furthermore, as a main component of many Japanese communities, the ethnic market enables Japanese to maintain aspects of their homeland lifestyle and culture, even while living abroad. Perhaps most importantly, they provide these Japanese with a way to extend a bridge between their lives in the United States and their lives in Japan. </em><em></em></p>

scholarly journals Neuroethics of death in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikaela Sifuentes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Inheritance Law ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Definition Of Death ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Universal Definition ◽  
Definition Of

The search for a universal definition of death is a relatively new objective in human history, framed by complex biological, technological, and socio-political factors. While it is widely understood that “life” and “death” describe inverse states of being, what separates these two states has been vigorously debated by scientists, ethicists, and theologians. Far from merely an academic distinction, the definition of death has implications that extend to end-of-life healthcare, organ transplantation, and inheritance law. This review explores the historical and current definitions of death in the United States, the role of technological advances, and the resultant social and legal applications.

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