Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era

Description

Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era provides readers with the everyday perspectives of immigrants on what it is like to try to integrate into American society during a time when immigration policy is focused on enforcement and exclusion. The law says that everyone who is not a citizen is an alien. But the social reality is more complicated. Ming Hsu Chen argues that the citizen/alien binary should instead be reframed as a spectrum of citizenship, a concept that emphasizes continuities between the otherwise distinct experiences of membership and belonging for immigrants seeking to become citizens. To understand citizenship from the perspective of noncitizens, this book utilizes interviews with more than one-hundred immigrants of varying legal statuses about their attempts to integrate economically, socially, politically, and legally during a modern era of intense immigration enforcement. Studying the experiences of green card holders, refugees, military service members, temporary workers, international students, and undocumented immigrants uncovers the common plight that underlies their distinctions: limited legal status breeds a sense of citizenship insecurity for all immigrants that inhibits their full integration into society. Bringing together theories of citizenship with empirical data on integration and analysis of contemporary policy, Chen builds a case that formal citizenship status matters more than ever during times of enforcement and argues for constructing pathways to citizenship that enhance both formal and substantive equality of immigrants. Cover Contents Acknowledgments 1 Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era PART I . INSTITUTIONAL SHORTCOMINGS 2 Unequal Citizenship: Gaps in Formal and Substantive Citizenship 3 Winding Pathways to Citizenship PART II. STORIES OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION DURING ENFORCEMENT 4 Barriers to Formal Citizenship 5 Blocked Pathways to Full Citizenship PART III. A WAY FORWARD 6 Constructing Pathways to Full Citizenship Appendix: Research Methods and Data Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y