(Un)documented immigrant media makers and the search for connection online

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the grassroots digital media produced by young undocumented immigrants to reveal how these media both enable and restrain immigrants in processes of negotiating the effects of stigma affiliated with being undocumented, abating isolation, and advocating for immigration reform. I problematize the coming out process by revealing the ways digital communication may discourage heterogeneous perspectives, normalize free labor, facilitate hateful and xenophobic responses, and perpetuate confirmation bias. Foregrounding oral history interviews with 25 undocumented or formerly undocumented immigrants in New York City, this project advances understanding regarding the facility and limitations of digital media while simultaneously attending to an existing underrepresentation of undocumented immigrants in U.S. scholarship.

KEYWORDS:

• Undocumented immigration
• digital media
• advocacy

Notes on contributor

Sarah C. Bishop is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Baruch College at the City University of New York and is the author of the book U.S. Media and Migration: Refugee Oral Histories (Routledge, 2016). Bishop’s research considers the interactions of nationalism, citizenship, migration, and media. At Baruch, Bishop teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in Migration and Identity, Privilege and Difference, and Digital Media Culture.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the James W. Carey Urban Communication Grant from the Urban Communication Foundation; the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College; the Faculty Fellowship Publication Program at the City University of New York, and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation.