Precarious legal status trajectories as method, and the work of legal status

ABSTRACT Critiques of ‘fantasy citizenship’ include calls to migrantize the citizen and denationalize citizenship and migration studies. In response, this essay proposes ‘precarious legal status trajectories (PLSTs) as method’, with a focus on the work of legal status. This approach captures changes in sociolegal status trajectories, including illegalization, and builds a ‘thicker’ approach to trajectories. The work of status refers to effort, time, money, and other resources devoted to being present in a jurisdiction, and/or gain access to services and protections. The approach also considers work that does not produce changes and is not counted, and interactions with other actors. This contributes to understanding how precarious legal status trajectories are assembled and contribute to inequalities in citizenship and dynamics of differential inclusion. It migrantizes the citizen in a context where the share of citizens who were precarious noncitizens continues to rise, and when methodological nationalism occludes PLSTs.