Undocumented Youth Challenging Borders: Detentions, Deportations, and Family Separations in the 21st Century

Author

Rafael A. Martinez, University of New Mexico - Main CampusFollow

Publication Date

Spring 4-15-2020

Abstract

My dissertation project explores the rise of undocumented youth social movements in the U.S. in the early 21st century. Undocumented youth have increasingly drawn on their own social capital to produce forms of activism that highlight and critique increasingly repressive forms of state control and violence. This inquiry is particularly generative in relation to how immigrant bodies are erased, contained and imagined as ‘aliens’ or ‘illegal’. I argue that undocumented youth and their activism represent a disruption to the social imaginary of the U.S. nation-state and rigid nationalist formations.

Language

English

Keywords

Immigration, Immigrants, Undocumented, Youth, Social Movements

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

American Studies

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

American Studies

First Committee Member (Chair)

Irene Vásquez

Second Committee Member

Antonio T. Tiongson Jr.

Third Committee Member

Bárbara O. Reyes

Fourth Committee Member

Ray Hernández-Durán

Recommended Citation

Martinez, Rafael A.. "Undocumented Youth Challenging Borders: Detentions, Deportations, and Family Separations in the 21st Century." (2020). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds/102