Spiritual Citizenship: Immigrant Religious Participation and the Management of Deportability1

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 404-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Guzman Garcia
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Moral Character ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Religious Organizations ◽  
Religious Participation ◽  
Undocumented Migrants

This article advances the concept of spiritual citizenship to examine how some religiously active migrants employ religion to see themselves as, and to try to become, less deportable. Drawing from ethnographic observations and interviews with Central American and Mexican immigrants in the United States, I find that undocumented migrants use religion to redefine their own sense of self and to position themselves as spiritual citizens of “good moral character.” This research examines how the priorities of religious organizations can operate in relation to and through a neoliberal context. While religion supports migrants as they endure criminalization, my discussion of spiritual citizenship shows how the benefits of religious participation can also depend on migrants’ willingness to become deserving neoliberal citizens.

Debacles on the Border: Five Decades of Fact-Free Immigration Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 684 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Durand ◽  
Douglas S. Massey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Undocumented Mexican Migration ◽  
Trump Administration

Since 1987, the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) has compiled extensive data on the characteristics and behavior of documented and undocumented migrants to the United States, and made them publicly available to users to test theories of international migration and evaluate U.S. immigration and border policies. Findings based on these data have been plentiful, but have also routinely been ignored by political leaders, who instead continue to pursue policies with widely documented, counterproductive effects. In this article, we review prior studies based on MMP data to document these effects. We also use official statistics to document circumstances on the border today, and draw on articles in this volume to underscore the huge gap between U.S. policies and the realities of immigration. Despite that net positive undocumented Mexican migration to the United States ended more than a decade ago, the Trump administration continues to demand the construction of a border wall and persists in treating Central American arrivals as criminals rather than asylum seekers, thus transforming what is essentially a humanitarian problem into an immigration crisis.

Double Disadvantage

2016 ◽  
Vol 666 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Durand ◽  
Douglas S. Massey ◽  
Karen A. Pren
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Illegal Migrants ◽  
Secondary Sector ◽  
Substantial Decline

From 1988 to 2008, the United States’ undocumented population grew from 2 million to 12 million persons. It has since stabilized at around 11 million, a majority of whom are Mexican. As of this writing, some 60 percent of all Mexican immigrants in the United States are in the country illegally. This article analyzes the effect of being undocumented on sector of employment and wages earned in the United States. We show that illegal migrants are disproportionately channeled into the secondary labor market, where they experience a double disadvantage, earning systematically lower wages by virtue of working in the secondary sector and receiving an additional economic penalty because they are undocumented. Mexican immigrants, in particular, experienced a substantial decline in real wages between 1970 and 2010 attributable to their rising share of undocumented migrants in U.S. labor markets during a time when undocumented hiring was criminalized.

scholarly journals De migrantes a desamparados. Estudio de los migrantes indocumentados en la frontera Petén-Tabasco. [From migrants to dismissed. Study of undocumented migrants at the Petén-Tabasco border]

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-103
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Bolio Ortiz ◽  
Héctor Joaquin Bolio Ortiz ◽  
Kiry Rebeca Vences Solis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Central America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Central American ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Derechos Humanos

El presente artículo presenta la situación de los migrantes centroamericanos hacia México y los Estados Unidos. El estudio se centra en el caso de la frontera Petén- Tabasco, bajo la perspectiva de los Derechos Humanos y a través del trabajo de campo, se constata la situación de vulnerabilidad en la que se encuentran los migrantes, quienes con el sueño de mejorar su situación económica terminan pasando por diversos obstáculos en su recorrido.Palabras clave: Migración, Centroamérica, derechosAbstractThis article presents the situation of Central American migrants to Mexico and the United States. We focus on the case of the Petén-Tabasco border, from the perspective of Human Rights and through fieldwork, we can see the situation of vulnerability in which migrants find themselves, who with the dream of improving their economic situation end up passing for various obstacles in its journey.Keywords: migration, Central América, rightsResumoEste artigo apresenta a situação dos migrantes da América Central para o México e os Estados Unidos. Focamos no caso da fronteira Petén-Tabasco, na perspectiva dos Direitos Humanos e através do trabalho de campo, podemos ver a situação de vulnerabilidade em que os migrantes se encontram, que com o sonho de melhorar sua situação econômica acabam passando por vários obstáculos em sua jornada.Palavras-chave: Migração, América Central, direitos

US migrant fiasco will have long-term implications

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Central American ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Family Services ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adequate Care ◽  
The Us

Significance The remarks follow an international outcry over the separation of undocumented migrant children from their parents at the US border. An abrupt U-turn by US President Donald Trump on June 20 marked the end of the controversial policy, but the reunification of families will be easier said than done, and Washington’s continued hardline stance on undocumented migrants will have serious repercussions for Latin America. Impacts More migrants may claim refugee status in an attempt to avoid criminal prosecutions. US childcare and family services, overwhelmed by the surge in separations, will struggle to provide adequate care. The increased difficulty of reaching the United States undetected will make people trafficking more lucrative. Central American migrants deterred from heading to the United States will stay in Mexico, exacerbating social problems there.

scholarly journals Ante la indiferencia: Representaciones visuales que reafirman cómo la decepción utópica se vuelve distópica

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Hólmfríður Garðarsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Unaccompanied Children ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Forms Of Violence

Faced with indifference: Visual representations that endorse utopian expectations turning dystopic. Every year, in an attempt to reach the United States, hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants from Central America cross Mexico atop freight trains that are referred to by names such as “The Beast” or “The Train of Death.”  Driven by extreme economic conditions, civil unrest and violence in their home countries, and, in some cases, the desire to reunite with relatives already living in the United States, adult individuals, families, and even unaccompanied children and adolescents embark on this perilous journey. In doing so, they risk falling victim to abuse, extortion, sexual assault, and other forms of violence at the hands of brutal gangs, organized crime, and corrupt officials. Many lose their lives.  This study examines various aspects of the passage of undocumented Central American migrants through Mexico, viewing the situation from the perspective of human rights violations and social exclusion. It addresses the specifics and realities of the migrants’ dangerous journey north, and reviews the main factors that lead these people, who are mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, to leave their home countries in search of better conditions and a chance to live what they regard as the American Dream. The experiences of Central American migrants have been the subject of several documentary films which provide both a narrative and visual representation of the journey north through Mexico. This study will analyze a series of documentaries as well as the feature films Sin nombre (2009) y La jaula de oro (2013) and consider whether the films accurately illustrate the harsh realities that undocumented migrants face while attempting to reach the United States and the extent to which they provide insight into their lives and experiences.

Pathways to Legalization: Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in the US/Mexico Borderlands, 1942–1956

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Elizabeth Rosas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Immigrant ◽  
Agricultural Laborers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Contract Laborers

In the 1940s, curbing undocumented Mexican immigrant entry into the United States became a US government priority because of an alleged immigration surge, which was blamed for the unemployment of an estimated 252,000 US domestic agricultural laborers. Publicly committed to asserting its control of undocumented Mexican immigrant entry, the US government used Operation Wetback, a binational INS border-enforcement operation, to strike a delicate balance between satisfying US growers’ unending demands for surplus Mexican immigrant labor and responding to the jobs lost by US domestic agricultural laborers. Yet Operation Wetback would also unintentionally and unexpectedly fuel a distinctly transnational pathway to legalization, marriage, and extended family formation for some Mexican immigrants.On July 12, 1951, US president Harry S. Truman’s signing of Public Law 78 initiated such a pathway for an estimated 125,000 undocumented Mexican immigrant laborers throughout the United States. This law was an extension the Bracero Program, a labor agreement between the Mexican and US governments that authorized the temporary contracting of braceros (male Mexican contract laborers) for labor in agricultural production and railroad maintenance. It was formative to undocumented Mexican immigrant laborers’ transnational pursuit of decisively personal goals in both Mexico and the United States.Section 501 of this law, which allowed employers to sponsor certain undocumented laborers, became a transnational pathway toward formalizing extended family relationships between braceros and Mexican American women. This article seeks to begin a discussion on how Operation Wetback unwittingly inspired a distinctly transnational approach to personal extended family relationships in Mexico and the United States among individuals of Mexican descent and varying legal statuses, a social matrix that remains relatively unexplored.

Psyche and Soul in America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Abzug
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The United States ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Relationship

Rollo May (1909‒1994), internationally known psychologist and popular philosopher, came from modest roots in the small town Protestant Midwest intending to do “religious work” but eventually became a psychotherapist and in best-selling books like Love and Will and The Courage to Create he attracted an audience of millions of readers in the United States, Europe, and Asia. During the 1950s and 1960s, these books combined existentialism and other philosophical approaches, psychoanalysis, and a spiritually-philosophy to interpret the damage bureaucratic and technocratic aspects of modernity and their inability of individuals to understand their authentic selves. Psyche and Soul in America deals not only with May’s public contributions but also to his turbulent inner life as revealed in unprecedentedly intimate sources in order to demonstrate the relationship between the personal and public in a figure who wrote about intimacy, its loss, and ways to regain an authentic sense of self and others.

El tú como un “mask”: Voseo and Salvadoran and Honduran Identity in the United States

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Woods ◽  
Susana V. Rivera-Mills
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Central American ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
American Spanish ◽  
Linguistic Attitudes

AbstractThis sociolinguistic study explores linguistic attitudes of Salvadorans and Hondurans living in the United States towards the use of voseo, a distinguishing feature of Central American Spanish. Using sociolinguistic interviews and ethnographic observations, the Central American experience in Oregon and Washington is examined regarding linguistic attitudes toward voseo and tuteo and how these influence Salvadoran and Honduran identity in U.S. communities that are primarily Mexican-American. Initial findings point to participants developing ethnolinguistic masks and an expanded use of tú as a strategic approach to integration into the established Mexican-American community, while at the same time maintaining a sense of Central American identity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document