Illegality and Citizenship in Mixed Status and Transnational Families

• In Event: 508 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Paper Session. Mixed Legal Studies and Transnational Families

Abstract

Illegality is the socially, politically, and legally produced condition of undocumented status. In the contemporary moment in the United States, we tend to think of it as applicable only to undocumented immigrants. In this presentation, I explore how illegality moves beyond purported targets of law to also shape the economic and emotional well-being of citizens. In particular, I examine how Salvadoran members of transnational families who reside in El Salvador experience citizenship and its limitations as a consequence of their parents' illegality in the United States. Among mixed-status families residing together in the United States, I also examine how young adult U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants experience illegality.

Author

• Leisy Janet Abrego, University of California-Los Angeles