Transnational alienage and foreignness: deportees and Foreign Service Officers in Central America

Abstract

The literature on transnationalism has emphasised the ways that citizenship practices can transcend borders, for example, enabling migrants to use resources acquired outside of their country of origin to engage politically within it. This literature has not, however, addressed how migrants fall outside of rather than transcend national boundaries. To analyse this condition, we develop the concepts of transnational alienage and foreignness and apply them to the experiences of two groups: (1) US Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) stationed in Central America and Mexico and (2) long-time US residents who were deported to El Salvador. Though positioned quite differently, there are also surprising intersections in FSOs’ and deportees’ social locations. These intersections shed light on the forms of citizenship and alterity created by the transnational security regimes in which both FSOs and deportees are situated. Our analysis draws on interviews conducted in the US, Mexico and Central America between 2008 and 2010.

Keywords:

• Central America
• transnationalism
• citizenship
• security
• alienage
• foreignness

Acknowledgements

Support for Connie McGuire’s research was supported by the University of California Center for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS); the National Science Foundation’s Law and Social Science Division [grant # 0851553]; the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation; the University of California, Irvine’s President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship. Susan Bibler Coutin’s research was funded by a grant from National Science Foundation’s Law and Social Sciences Program (Award #SES-0518011). She is grateful to Luis Perdomo, Jesus Aguilar, CARECEN Internacional, Homies Unidos, and Katie Dingeman-Cerda for assistance with interviews. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Humanitarianism and Migration” conference at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2011; the revised version benefited greatly from comments provided there. Both authors are grateful to Ulla Berg and Robyn Rodriguez, the anonymous reviewers, and Identities editors for helpful suggestions.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms are used throughout to protect the anonymity of our interlocutors.

2. While one of us – Connie – was conducting fieldwork, consulate workers in Juarez were murdered. More recently, two DEA agents were killed.

3. ‘Puchica’ is a difficult-to-translate Salvadoran expression meaning something like, ‘Damn!’ or ‘Shit!’

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Connie McGuire

CONNIE MCGUIRE is Postdoctoral Scholar with the Community Knowledge Project in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine.

Susan Bibler Coutin

SUSAN BIBLER COUTIN is Professor in the Departments of Criminology Law and Society and Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine.