Social Forces Colloquium Series: Tiffany Joseph, Northeastern

‘Race-ing’ Immigration and Citizenship: Life along the Racialized Documentation Status Continuum

In the past, immigration has often been framed as a clear binary with undeserving undocumented immigrants on one side and the deserving documented on the other. However, increasingly, public policy has facilitated what I call a “documentation status continuum,” with undocumented immigrants at one end and citizens at the other with various documentation statuses in between. Many immigrants are differentially and legally denied access to public benefits relative to citizens. As most immigrants are ethno-racial minorities, these policies are also racialized, doubly marginalizing immigrants of color and sometimes disenfranchising citizens of color. Thus, I demonstrate that life along the “racialized documentation status continuum” facilitates de jure and de facto discrimination for citizens and immigrants of color compared to white Americans.