Description

Lessons of Belonging and Citizenship Among Hijas/os de Inmigrantes Mexicanos

Moreno examines the power associated with conceptions of citizenship offered by U.S.-born university educated daughters and sons of Mexican immigrants living in the borderland areas of California. The author draws on the ethnographic histories of a group of young adults that come to know themselves as citizens in relationship to their family’s social, cultural, and legal citizenship. By using a cultural citizenship framework, this study highlights broad lessons about negotiations of citizenship surveillance, straddling multiple citizenship ideologies, and cultural contradictions regarding national citizenship within family. It illustrates that citizenship is not a simple question of being or not being a legal citizen with individual rights. Rather, it emphasizes that citizenship is about the everyday politics surrounding citizenship practices and identity associated with U.S.-Mexican families and community members with varied citizenship statuses.

belonging, cultural citizenship, college Latinas/os, normalized citizenship, citizenship surveillance, U.S.-Mexican families

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 35, No. 1 (2008): 50-75