Doctoral Dissertation Research: Race, Identity, and Citizenship among Mexicans

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1031582 PI: Sandra Smith Co-PI: Jennifer Jones Institution: University of California, Berkeley This study employs extensive ethnographic field work to examine how race is produced through a case study that compares Afro-Mexicans and Mexicans migrating from new coastal sending regions to the receiving community of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This project investigates how race relations between blacks, whites and Latinos are impacted by these shifts. Contrary to previous studies, it is anticipated that a significant number of Afro-Mexicans and Mestizo Mexicans will express closeness to African-Americans. The experience of Mexicans in a new contemporary geographical and political context, in part, as a consequence of restrictive immigration policies, may move Mexicans toward a more minority based consciousness and political alignment. In this way, this study will help us understand both the openings for and barriers to community-level organization between and within racial and ethnic groups. Broader Impacts: This research will produce knowledge that can be used to help both scholars and policymakers think more critically and progressively about how to craft immigration policy at the local, state, national and international level in ways that can ameliorate some of their negative impacts on immigrants, as well as their sending and receiving communities.