Disenchanting citizenship: Mexican migrants and the boundaries of belonging by Luis F.B. Plascencia
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Dis enchanting c itiz ensh ip: Me x ic a n m igra nts a n d th e b o u n d a r i e s of b e l o n g i n g Luis F.B. Plascencia Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 2012, 252pp., $25.95, ISBN: 978-0813552804 (paperback)
Latino Studies (2014) 12, 148–150. doi:10.1057/lst.2014.11
Luis Plascencia posits several arguments in Disenchanting Citizenship, most prominently that the subjectivity of Mexican migrants who undergo naturalization in the United States is conditioned by multiple discourses of citizenship, that citizenship “simultaneously fosters exclusion and inclusion,” (7) and that the meaning of citizenship is contestable. Plascencia draws upon both the documentary record, such as legislation, court cases and newspapers, and upon his direct observations and interviews, including conversations with his students in citizenship classes, open-ended interviews with officials and community leaders, and attendance at naturalization ceremonies. It is especially through his direct observations and interviews that he contributes to our understanding of citizenship discourse, Mexican migrants’ hopes and expectations regarding naturalization, and the “disenchantment” that many migrants feel after becoming US citizens. Plascencia suggests that the allure of naturalization derives not only from the promise to participate politically, for example, through voting, but also from the “overlap with parallel discourses” apparent in rituals such as weddings, schooling and graduation ceremonies (4). Particularly through their focus on “fidelity,” he
argues, such rituals prepare migrants to declare loyalty and accept the state’s conditions for naturalization, though many are assertive about their interests and critical about certain aspects of the process (see below). He suggests, further, that a variety of agencies and individuals serve to mediate naturalization and foster fidelities to the state, and that migrants seek citizenship because its overlaps with their own needs and desires. These may include hopes for economic opportunity and/or to become full members of the social and political community of the United States. The book’s early chapters establish the theoretical and historical framework for the discussion of Mexican migrants’ experiences in later chapters. Plascencia reviews relevant scholarship and presents a history of citizenship and naturalization, focusing on the different permutations and open-ended meanings of the concept. He identifies three discernable, but overlapping, “discursive fields” in the United States, ranging from its most narrow legal implications (“juridical” citizenship), its “sociopolitical” aspects, and its “everyday uses,” which he suggests scholars have most neglected. It is within everyday discourse that individuals and groups establish “feelings of belonging, of being part of the community,” while simultaneously elaborating
© 2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1476-3435 Latino Studies www.palgrave-journals.com/lst/
Vol. 12, 1, 148–150
Book Review
the grounds to exclude certain people from
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