Hidden in Plain Sight: How Unauthorised Migrants Strategically Assimilate in Restrictive Localities in California

Abstract

Both classic and revised theories of immigrant assimilation suggest that, over time, immigrants exchange their ethnic and cultural behaviours for the practices and norms of the receiving society. Despite a rise in restrictive subnational policies targeting unauthorised immigrants, the immediate legal context of destinations are absent in this logic, leaving the applicability of assimilation theory for newcomers in such localities an open question. Drawing on qualitative interviews and survey evidence, I find that in hostile receiving communities unauthorised Mexican immigrants present the culture of the dominant core population through their public, outer selves as a protective strategy rather than, as assimilation theory would have it, incorporating the dominant culture into their inner selves. To avoid detection, immigrants' presentation of self is a reactive, purposive and strategic process. Yet trying to pass as a non-suspect native may nevertheless have an assimilatory effect, as the unintended consequences of this practical strategy incrementally contribute to adaptation.

Immigrant Bodily Incorporation: How the Physical Body Structures Identity, Mobility, and Transnationalism

“…Existing scholarship highlights immigrants bodies as the target of disciplining (Ong 2003) and as craft-able symbols of social status (Kang 2010;Garcia 2014). In addition to its disciplining and performative aspects, the physical body also bears the imprint of the social structure in which it originated and with important implications for individuals' life chances (Bourdieu 1984).…”

“…This research notes that immigrants alter their dress and grooming practices to symbolize belonging (Choo 2006) and transnational ties (Lowe 2013). Immigrants also alter their comportment to avoid detection by immigration officials (Garcia 2014).…”

Law, Nation and Race: Exploring Law’s Cultural Power in Delimiting Belonging in English Courtrooms

“…By translating their worthiness into the language of the law, these defendants showed an ability to utilize the markers of neoliberal citizenship to contest their devalued identities (Menjívar 2011, García 2014. In turn, this strategic utilization of the law for claiming civic inclusion demonstrates the law's power in normative ordering.…”

Group Boundaries, Immigrant Inclusion, and the Politics of Immigrant–Native Relations

“…Political officials and citizens alike have also expressed hostility in the form of demonstrations, campaigns, vandalism, and even local laws (see Ebert & Okamoto, 2015;Flores, 2014;García, 2014;Larsen, 2007;Varsanyi, 2011). Yet local communities have also displayed public support for immigrants in the form of protests and advocacy efforts (Jones-Correa, 2011;Marrow, 2012).…”