Description
What are the factors that influence a migrant’s understanding and development of citizenship as a sentiment in relation to the government and place in a community? Theories about citizenship emphasize the role of law and law enforcement as mediators of the dynamics between migrants and their feeling of citizenship. However, they often disregard or downplay the humanity in the development of one’s identity as a citizen or a non-citizen of a country. This paper approaches the study of citizenship through an autoethnography, which provides a unique opportunity to research and analyze the complexities of the process of one’s construction of citizenship in their journey for the United States. In studying the processing of interviews and poetry of migrants, the researcher analyzes four themes that influence one’s development of citizenship. Violence, as a force, borrowed time, as a sentiment, and the use of voice, as a reaction, create a product of networks of care that are critical outlets for living out citizenship. The researcher finds that networks of care in the migrant journey, such as shelters and other community organizations, become the solid foundation for one’s understanding of their citizenship. More concretely, these strategic networks are found to serve as essential to one’s development of identity and community specifically in both their process of arrival, and transition towards finding their citizenship within the United States.
Publisher
Providence College
Date
Fall 12-1-2022
Type
Article
Format
Text
Language
English
Included in
Cultural History Commons, International Relations Commons, Other International and Area Studies Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons
