Asserting Citizenship in Precarious Times

• In Event: 3483 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 01. Citizenship and Immigration Policy in the United States

Abstract

This article examines undocumented immigrant parents’ narratives of citizenship during the legal contestation and loss of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans & Legal Permanent Residents (DAPA). To date, no studies expose parents’ own voices in this contestation process. I draw from a larger qualitative longitudinal study of DAPA and Latino undocumented 1st-generation immigrant parents in Los Angeles with observational and interview components. Data suggest a clear disconnect across parent own perceptions of their presence and others’ perceptions; in fact, they vocalize a fulfillment of political obligations, in complete opposition to perceptions of them as criminals and burdens. I find that they deploy counter-narratives of law-abidingness and morality, contribution (civic and economic), and moral obligation to parent U.S.-born and U.S.-socialized children, and through these narratives of fulfilled parental and political obligation they claim citizenship in a season of contention.

Author

• Lizette G Solorzano, University of Southern California