Abstract
This article argues that all conceptualisations of citizenship are vernacular. Drawing on ethnographic data from two related studies among Mexican immigrants in New York City, the author examines the lived meanings of citizenship and the centrality of (im)mobility in immigrant claims for the rights of citizenship. Citizenship is a contested notion in contemporary immigrant-receiving states. As the United States again debates immigration reform proposals, citizenship is cast as the ultimate prize, a privilege to be bestowed only on the most ‘worthy’. Immigrant rights groups advocate for the granting of citizenship and likewise elevate its value and importance in their discourse. Yet, its shifting meanings and manipulation mean that it is not a guarantee of inclusion or rights. The notion of citizenship can simultaneously critique and reinforce neoliberal notions of the relationship between citizen and subject.
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