Social Citizens and Their Right to Belong

Abstract

This chapter centers on migrants who were brought to the United States as children and who grew up here. Over time, children become embedded within U.S. communities, developing personal histories and social bonds as they reach adulthood. However, many of the young male interviewees found themselves caught up in a criminal and immigration enforcement system that they may not be able to exit. As undocumented Mexican youth in the United States, they may be subject to discrimination and labeled as “criminal aliens,” a racialized practice designed to confine and expel social undesirables, despite their strong connections to families, communities, and the nation. Focusing on claims of belonging and memories of apprehension, detention, and deportation among men in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, the chapter demonstrates how, over time, multiple structures of social, economic, and political marginalization in the United States result in the expulsion of Mexican nationals who identify as U.S. social citizens.