Undoing citizenship. Undocumented queer activism and practices of rights

Mara Pieri

doi:10.1590/1980-85852503880004808

Abstract

Abstract Within the emergence of migrant activism, the experience of UndocuQueers developed in San Francisco from 2011 challenges common assumption about practices in migrant movements through the intersections between queer and migrant claims. In order to understand their peculiarities, I will first analyse some of the salient characters of UndocuQueer activism. Then, I will focus on the web-series “Undocumented and awkward”, in order to discuss the intersectionalities proposed by the movement. In the third part, I will discuss how the series may be framed as examples of groundbreaking practices of citizenship. I will finally argue that UndocuQueer movement and its cultural production offer a ground-breaking example of political practices of rights and propose a promising perspective for a critical engagement with citizenship issues.

Highlights

In the last decade, immigrant activism emerged as a fundamental form of struggle in the European and North-American political scenario
Within the emergence of migrant activism, the experience of UndocuQueers developed in San Francisco from 2011 challenges common assumption about practices in migrant movements through the intersections between queer and migrant claims
In order to understand their peculiarities, I will first analyse some of the salient characters of UndocuQueer activism

Summary

Introduction

Immigrant activism emerged as a fundamental form of struggle in the European and North-American political scenario. Intersections between undocumented and queer identity resound with connections between scales and practices of rights and citizenship: the episodes of “Undocumented and Awkward” bring the multiple nuances of these intersections to a visible and explicit level, as they give a face, a voice, a set to the ways they take shape in everyday life.

Results

Conclusion