Doctoral Dissertation Research: Central American Immigration on Mexico's Southern Border: Embodiments of Power, Citizenship, and Gender

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

As embodiments of the state, low- to mid-level "officials," such as bureaucrats, educators, and border guards, possess the power to regulate immigrant citizenship and belonging through their everyday actions. In the Mexico-Guatemala border city of Tapachula, Chiapas, the growing inflow of Central American immigrants and the subsequent creation of immigration policies have led to increased interactions between low- to mid-level officials and immigrants. Very little is known, however, about how these officials working on the ground interpret and implement their powers on an everyday basis; how their actions impact immigrant experience and exercise of social and political citizenship rights; and how immigrants respond to and negotiate interactions with these officials. Because of their power, low- to mid-level officials can affect immigrants' vulnerability to exploitation, domestic violence and other human rights violations that are increasingly prevalent in the region. This doctoral dissertation research project will describe low- to mid-level officials' everyday actions in implementing and interpreting migration policy, and it will demonstrate how low- to mid-level officials support or contradict official migration policies and understand the institutional norms that influence these actions. Additional objectives of this project are to understand and describe Central American immigrants' experiences with low- to mid-level officials, including how their experience varies across gender, ethnicity, race, and class, and to describe Central American immigrants' feelings of political citizenship and belonging as a result of their interactions with officials. The doctoral student will draw upon and contribute to theories on the micro-scale operations of state power in feminist geopolitics, feminist migration studies, and citizenship studies in geography. The project will employ a qualitative, multi-method approach based on in-depth interviews with officials and Central American immigrants; participatory workshops with immigrants; and participant observation of officials' interactions with immigrants in institutional spaces. All of these components will contribute to the construction of an institutional ethnography describing how officials and immigrants negotiate state power. This project will broaden and deepen basic understanding regarding how migration policies are implemented and enforced on the ground as well as the resulting responses of immigrants. The project will contribute to academic theory and understandings of migration, and it will provide information and insights that will contribute to efforts to improve relationships between officials and immigrants. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.