Language, race, and illegality: indigenous migrants navigating the immigration regime in a new destination

Abstract

ABSTRACT Immigration scholarship has stressed the importance of language acquisition for immigrant integration. Simultaneously, sociolinguist scholars have shown the connection between language and power within societies. This paper investigates the intersections of race and language in the lives of Indigenous Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants in a new immigrant destination. I argue that Indigenous immigrants utilise language strategically to access information, migrate, get settled, and navigate the immigration regime. However, given the ongoing structures of settler colonialism, anti-Indigenous discrimination persists, leaving Indigenous migrants in vulnerable situations. I rely on Critical Latinx Indigeneities scholarship to better understand Indigenous migrants’ experiences in a geographical location where Latin Americans (Indigenous and mestizos) make up a smaller share of the population. I employ data of interviews with 34 Indigenous immigrants of Mixteco, Tlapaneco, and Chuj and K’iche’ Mayan origins and three years of ethnographic participant observation between 2016 and 2020 in Kansas. I argue that Spanish is a source of capital used to negotiate social institutions, gain access to economic opportunities, and navigate the immigration regime. However, Spanish remains a source of power and exploitation, creating divides among Indigenous and non-Indigenous migrants in the diaspora.