Papers by Cecilia Menjivar
Violence against women, Jan 27, 2015
This qualitative research study examines the experiences of immigrant women crossing the U.S./Mex... more This qualitative research study examines the experiences of immigrant women crossing the U.S./Mexico border and the proliferation of "drop houses" in Arizona as a new phenomenon, one that is often marked by kidnappings and sexual assault. Little research has been published on the violence women face on their journey, and the drop houses have almost completely escaped scholarly analysis. We argue that the drop houses must be seen as a consequence of a "state of emergency" declared by policy makers that led to changes in U.S. national and local immigration policies that fueled what we call a "chain reaction of violence."
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
A s EDELMAN (1984a: 25) OBSERVES, OFFICIAL CUES ARE A KEY INFLUENCE IN ,A ,public opinion on soci... more A s EDELMAN (1984a: 25) OBSERVES, OFFICIAL CUES ARE A KEY INFLUENCE IN ,A ,public opinion on social issues. Public officials' discourse on immigrant-related issues can thus powerfully affect the lives of immigrants. The debate over immigration in print media such as news dailies-the issues introduced, their definition and presentation, and the policies called for-has often been inscribed in language that portrays immigrants and immigration in negative terms. Media studies have amply demonstrated the use of overtly biased language in politically charged debates. In this article, we focus on language that is not as openly negative, but is ultimately as exclusionary as the more explicitly negative discourse. To speakto many groups, politicians mustbe flexible in theirrange of language use (Moosmtiller, 1989). We argue that when liberal public officials attempt to be sympathetic to the plight of immigrants, their compassionate language can mask divisive tactics that effectively deny immigrants vital resources. This is not the case for every public official or for each instance in which they discuss immigrant-related issues in a benevolent manner. It occurs when such rhetoric is used to criminalize immigrants' behaviors instead of proposing viable alternatives to improve the conditions being condemned. When the benevolent rhetoric of public officials is based on law and order, this restricts immigrants' actions and effectively substantiates the more restrictionist language (and actions) of opponents of immigration. We focus on public officials' use of subtle exclusionary language because their words often translate into actions with potentially detrimental consequences.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, 2009
Page 1. SECURING BORDERS: PATRIOTISM, VIGILANTISM AND THE BRUTALIZATION OF THE US AMERICAN PUBLIC... more Page 1. SECURING BORDERS: PATRIOTISM, VIGILANTISM AND THE BRUTALIZATION OF THE US AMERICAN PUBLIC Sang H. Kil, Cecilia Menjı´var and Roxanne L. Doty ABSTRACT Purpose This is an examination of ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Social Justice, Mar 22, 2002
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The purpose of this chapter is an examination of how border policies become intertwined with patr... more The purpose of this chapter is an examination of how border policies become intertwined with patriotic expressions that result in an atmosphere that is conducive to border vigilantism. We use content analysis broadly defined to analyze how vigilantes target sources of immigrant ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
International Migration, 2005
Many migration studies emphasize the settlement process and more recently transnational attachmen... more Many migration studies emphasize the settlement process and more recently transnational attachments and identities, but less consideration is given to the idea of return. This article focuses on first-generation Guatemalans and Salvadorans in the United States and examines the varying degrees of migrants' desires to return home versus actual return. Specifically, the paper highlights the persistence among these migrants, who live and work in Phoenix, Arizona, of a “diasporic” or “transnational” tendency to think of home. This emphasis is important because we do not assume that migrants have clear-cut options about their migration movements. Additionally, it allows us to consider migrants' social imaginary - the divergent ways in which men and women in our study imagine their return and express their intents to return, which in turn, may influence their responses toward migration. For heuristic reasons, we identify three distinct conceptual categories of longings to return - assertive, ambivalent, and no desire to return. Drawing from narratives of Guatemalan and Salvadoran migrants' experiences in Phoenix gathered through in-depth interviews, the paper reveals that all three kinds of expressions outlined demonstrate the significance that the location of immediate family, particularly children, seems to have in ultimately shaping longings to return back home. These considerations highlight the fundamentally social nature of immigrants' seemingly most individual motivations and desires - to return or to stay.L'ENVIE DE RENTRER AU PAYS : GUATÉMALTÈQUES ET SALVADORIENS INSTALLÉS À PHOENIX, EN ARIZONADe nombreuses études sur la migration ont insisté sur le processus d'installation et, plus récemment, sur les identités et attachements transnationaux, mais les chercheurs se sont moins penchés sur l'idée du retour au pays. Cet article porte sur les Guatémaltèques et les Salvadoriens de première génération installés aux États-Unis; il examine l'envie de rentrer au pays, les différents degrés de cette envie, par opposition aux retours qui ont effectivement lieu. L'article souligne la persistance, chez ces migrants qui vivent et travaillent à Phoenix (Arizona), d'une tendance « diasporique » ou « transnationale »à penser au pays d'origine. Cette persistance est importante car nous supposons que les migrants n'ont pas d'options claires en ce qui concerne leurs mouvements migratoires. Elle nous permet en outre de prendre en compte l'imaginaire social des migrants – les façons divergentes dont les hommes et les femmes de notre étude imaginent leur retour au pays et expriment leur intention de rentrer, ce qui, par voie de conséquence, peut influencer leur décision en la matière. À des fins heuristiques, nous déterminons trois catégories conceptuelles d'attitudes à l'égard du retour au pays : ferme, ambivalente, aucun désir de rentrer. À partir des récits de l'expérience des migrants guatémaltèques et salvadoriens établis à Phoenix, recueillis grâce à des entretiens en profondeur, l'article montre que les trois formes d'expression exposées montrent l'importance que semble avoir le lieu de résidence de la famille immédiate, notamment les enfants, dans le désir de rentrer au pays. Ces considérations mettent en évidence le caractère fondamen-talement social des motivations et de l'envie apparemment les plus individuelles des immigrants, celles de rentrer ou de rester.REVELANDO EL DESEO DE RETORNAR: LOS GUATEMALTECOS Y SALVADOREÑOS EN PHOENIX, ARIZONAMuchos estudios sobre la migración ponen de relieve el proceso de reasentamiento y, recientemente, los lazos transnacionales y las identidades, pero no tienen debidamente en cuenta la idea del retorno. Este artículo se centra en la primera generación de guatemaltecos y salvadoreños en los Estados Unidos y examina los distintos grados de deseo de los migrantes de retornar a sus hogares con relación al retorno real. Concretamente, este artículo pone de relieve la persistencia entre estos migrantes que viven y trabajan en Phoenix, Arizona de una tendencia “de diáspora” o “transnacional” de añoranza de la patria. Esto es sumamente importante dado que no se asume que los migrantes tienen opciones definidas en cuanto a sus movimientos migratorios. Adicionalmente, permite que podamos considerar la imaginación social de los migrantes, las maneras divergentes en que los hombres y mujeres que participaron en este estudio conciben su retorno y expresan su deseo de retornar, lo que a su vez, puede incidir en sus respuestas de cara a la migración. Por razones heurísticas se identifican tres categorías conceptuales distintas en el deseo de retornar: afirmado, ambivalente e inexistente. A partir de las narraciones de las experiencias de los migrantes guatemaltecos y salvadoreños en Phoenix, acopiadas en entrevistas exhaustivas, este artículo revela que las tres expresiones esbozadas demuestran la importancia de la localización de la familia inmediata, particularmente de los hijos, que determinan el deseo y aspiración de retornar al país. Estas consideraciones ponen de relieve principalmente el carácter social de las motivaciones y el deseo, aparentemente individual, de retornar o permanecer en los Estados Unidos.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Does the undocumented status of 1.5-generation Latinos (those who migrated at a young age) in the... more Does the undocumented status of 1.5-generation Latinos (those who migrated at a young age) in the United States affect their political, civic, and public selves? Our approach to this question begins with a theoretical framework based on the concept of abjectivity, which draws together abject status and subjectivity. We argue that the practices of the biopolitics of citizenship and governmentality—surveillance, immigration documents, employment forms, birth certificates, tax forms, drivers’ licenses, credit card applications, bank accounts, medical insurance, car insurance, random detentions, and deportations—enclose, penetrate, define, limit, and frustrate the lives of undocumented 1.5-generation Latino immigrants. We examine data from a random-sample telephone survey of 805 Latinos and 396 whites in Orange County, California, to provide general patterns that distinguish 1.5-generation Latino immigrants from their first-generation counterparts and to suggest the contours of their lives as undocumented immigrants. We then examine in-depth interviews with 80 respondents also in Orange County who provide extensive qualitative information and personal narratives. The analysis shows how abjectivity and illegality constrain daily life, create internalized fears, in some ways immobilize their victims, and in other ways motivate them to engage politically to resist the dire conditions of their lives.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 2001
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
International Migration, 2005
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Increasingly restrictive immigration laws powerfully shape experiences of Latina immigrant mother... more Increasingly restrictive immigration laws powerfully shape experiences of Latina immigrant mothers in the U.S. These laws impede mothers and children from migrating together, cause and prolong family separations, and create a real and constant fear of
deportation. Based on ethnographic observations and dozens of in-depth interviews conducted between 1998 and 2010 with Guatemalan, Mexican, and Salvadoran immigrant mothers and their children, we contend that the implementation of contemporary U.S. immigration laws are a form of legal violence. These laws restrict immigrant women’s ability to mother their children and bring suffering to women when they try to fulfill their parental responsibilities. As we demonstrate, the current system separates families, blocks access to dire social services, and harms documented, undocumented, and liminally legal Latina mothers alike.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
American Journal of Sociology, 2012
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Violence against women, Jan 27, 2015
This qualitative research study examines the experiences of immigrant women crossing the U.S./Mex... more This qualitative research study examines the experiences of immigrant women crossing the U.S./Mexico border and the proliferation of "drop houses" in Arizona as a new phenomenon, one that is often marked by kidnappings and sexual assault. Little research has been published on the violence women face on their journey, and the drop houses have almost completely escaped scholarly analysis. We argue that the drop houses must be seen as a consequence of a "state of emergency" declared by policy makers that led to changes in U.S. national and local immigration policies that fueled what we call a "chain reaction of violence."
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, 2009
Page 1. SECURING BORDERS: PATRIOTISM, VIGILANTISM AND THE BRUTALIZATION OF THE US AMERICAN PUBLIC... more Page 1. SECURING BORDERS: PATRIOTISM, VIGILANTISM AND THE BRUTALIZATION OF THE US AMERICAN PUBLIC Sang H. Kil, Cecilia Menjı´var and Roxanne L. Doty ABSTRACT Purpose This is an examination of ...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Sociological Inquiry, 2014
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, 2013
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 2001
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers by Cecilia Menjivar
deportation. Based on ethnographic observations and dozens of in-depth interviews conducted between 1998 and 2010 with Guatemalan, Mexican, and Salvadoran immigrant mothers and their children, we contend that the implementation of contemporary U.S. immigration laws are a form of legal violence. These laws restrict immigrant women’s ability to mother their children and bring suffering to women when they try to fulfill their parental responsibilities. As we demonstrate, the current system separates families, blocks access to dire social services, and harms documented, undocumented, and liminally legal Latina mothers alike.
deportation. Based on ethnographic observations and dozens of in-depth interviews conducted between 1998 and 2010 with Guatemalan, Mexican, and Salvadoran immigrant mothers and their children, we contend that the implementation of contemporary U.S. immigration laws are a form of legal violence. These laws restrict immigrant women’s ability to mother their children and bring suffering to women when they try to fulfill their parental responsibilities. As we demonstrate, the current system separates families, blocks access to dire social services, and harms documented, undocumented, and liminally legal Latina mothers alike.
crossing the U.S./Mexico border and the proliferation of “drop houses” in Arizona as
a new phenomenon, one that is often marked by kidnappings and sexual assault. Little
research has been published on the violence women face on their journey, and the
drop houses have almost completely escaped scholarly analysis. We argue that the
drop houses must be seen as a consequence of a “state of emergency” declared by
policy makers that led to changes in U.S. national and local immigration policies that
fueled what we call a “chain reaction of violence.”