International Immobility Across the Lifespan: How Undocumented Immigrants and Their Families Contend with the Golden Cage

• In Event: From Youth to Elders: The Social Worlds of Immigrants Across the Lifespan

Abstract

Over the past two decades, social scientists have sought to understand how “‘illegality’ is socially, culturally, and politically constructed” (Chavez 2007). In studying how “illegality” is experienced, social scientists have identified two pillars: the denial of rights that leads to exploitation and the threat of deportation. The denial of rights and the threat of deportation are indeed central in shaping experiences of immigrants with undocumented or liminal statuses. However, in my research I have found that there is a third pillar that is just as significant yet rarely theorized by social scientists: international immobility. I define international (im)mobility as the (in)ability to leave and re-enter a country at will.

In this paper, I examine how international immobility impacts undocumented immigrants differently depending on age at migration, family structure, and life course stage. Like other penalties impacting unauthorized immigrants, international immobility also impacts documented family members, especially U.S. citizen children, so I include discussion of international immobility as a multigenerational punishment (Enriquez 2015).

Author

• Kristina M. Fullerton Rico, University of Michigan