‘Felons are also our family’: citizenship and solidarity in the undocumented youth movement in the United States

ABSTRACT

The undocumented youth movement began in the United States in the mid-2000s. Drawing on qualitative research with undocumented young organisers in California, this article explores how relationships between undocumented youth, the wider undocumented population, and legal citizens have been understood in narratives of citizenship in the movement over time. It is argued that, paradoxically, the movement’s retreat from prioritising a pathway to legal citizenship for the most ‘eligible’, made visible historic and contemporary ties to the United States and its peoples that are obscured in hegemonic narratives of contemporary citizenship. In becoming more inclusive of the wider undocumented population, positions of solidarity with marginalised US citizens have also emerged. In the context of attacks on some racialised and other marginalised social groups during Trump’s presidency, such solidarity is even more vital.

KEYWORDS:

• Undocumented
• young
• immigrant
• citizenship
• United States

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Ala Sirriyeh http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8257-9559

Notes

1. People who migrated to the United States, but lack documentation authorising their presence there.

2. First names, full names, and pseudonyms are used. These various naming strategies are used to credit the intellectual work and acknowledge the voice of organisers, but protect anonymity where needed (Schwiertz 2016; Unzueta Carrasco and Seif 2014).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Leverhulme Trust: [Grant Number RF-2016-410\8].