“Becoming Legal is a captivating book about a deeply troubling and inhuman process facing millions of working-class Latinos. Everyone should read this document to understand our flawed immigration system and how it affects millions of people. By combining individual cases and voices with explanations of the complex legal dimension, Gomberg-Muñoz is able to provide a clear picture of this heartbreaking process. Enrique C. Ochoa, California State University, Los Angeles Gomberg-Muñoz highlights how immigrants with mixed immigration status in the United States experience immigration processes very differently depending on their place of origin, gender, race, and sexuality. Second, it confirms that the criminal justice system is closely linked to the immigration system, since immigration categories are not arbitrary, but are imposed on certain immigrants who are considered unacceptable. [End page 98] Undocumented Mexican immigrants – those who crossed the border illegally and those who crossed their visas – argue that not only do they work very hard to make a living, but they also create and maintain social and intimate networks in their new communities. They form transnational families that have members with mixed immigration status, thus problematizing and reconceptualizing what the “family” is in the United States. Gomberg-Muñoz concludes by showing that immigration policies and practices are neither unidirectional nor static, but are constantly challenged by these social and family networks.
Gomberg-Muñoz points out in Chapter 3 how the labyrinth of exploitation of expensive forms and the demand to collect many official documents – some in the United States, but others in Mexico – are reinforced by the dehumanizing procedural labyrinths that immigrants go through, with many Mexican families undergoing the process of “legalization/justification” of their existence in the United States, fragmenting and draining emotionally. The financial impact on families in the process of legalization is striking and problematic, but to add another insult to the violation, many people must undermine themselves and their ethnic/racial origin, as well as devalue and condemn their country of origin and communities of origin. One of the vignettes, which recounts the agony of a couple as they try to appeal their immigration status, illustrates how the documents, including visual images, are influenced by court proceedings: “To improve their case, Jane`s lawyer asked for photographic evidence of the difficulty of life in Mexico” (104). The couple felt they should take advantage of diminishing and harmful stereotypes about Mexico and the Mexican population. In this unique academic approach to the functioning of immigration processes, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz questions, defines and articulates the close relationships that emerge between immigration policies and practices and families of Mexican origin who have decided to settle in the United States. On the cover of the book, a young man holds an emblem with the inscription “We want our mother here!” The phrase is ubiquitous in the book, emphasizing the reunification of families whose mixed migration status in the United States has become complex and dangerous. The signal also highlights the lack of humanity embedded in immigration laws specifically targeting people of Mexican descent. Gomberg-Muñoz deals head-on and without excuse with the cynicism and hypocrisy of civil society when it deals with general issues about illegal immigration. Questions such as “Why don`t undocumented people wait for them to enter the United States legally?” and “Why don`t they legalize their status once they have relatives with U.S.
citizens?” show “convenient naivety.” But Gomberg-Muñoz nevertheless answers these questions, bringing two main arguments about immigration and transnational studies. To humanize her reasoning and in an effort to dedemonize her themes, the author begins her chapters with proven anecdotes (name changes and some information to protect her subjects) that slowly highlight the financial barriers, emotional despair, and cruel social and intimate humiliation that families with mixed immigration status experience when undergoing immigration processes in the United States. Gomberg-Muñoz opens his analysis by providing a concise historical overview of how overlaps in race, class, gender, and nationality relate to immigration laws that have adopted racist and misogynistic ideologies since the border with Mexico was first tightened in the 1920s. While some undocumented immigrants may have entered the United States with their parents when they were minors, others may have crossed the line with an intermediate person – a coyote; Still others may have crossed the border while walking in the desert or mountains. The only ethnography that examines family legalization from the perspective of the families who conduct it “Becoming legal will be a classic text for introductory courses on globalization and migration, the U.S. immigration system, and the “immigrant experience.” No other book I know of examines the history of our current immigration control system and how it systematically punishes Mexican immigrants. It is well written, well argued and accessible. Sarah Horton, University of Colorado, Denver About eleven million undocumented people live in the United States, and most of them have family members who are U.S. citizens.
There is a common perception that marrying a U.S. citizen puts undocumented immigrants on a quick and easy path to U.S. citizenship. But for people who have entered the United States illegally and live here undocumented, the path to legal status is neither short nor easy, even for those who have spouses who are in the United States. Citizen. Becoming Legal: Immigration Law and Mixed Status Families follows mixed status couples on the long and bumpy path of immigration processing. It explores how they navigate every step of the way, from the decision to proceed with legalization, to the immigration interview in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to efforts to set up a case of “extreme distress” so that the undocumented family member can return. Author Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz also discusses families` efforts to rebuild their lives after immigration processing – both for those who are successful and those who are not. Ruth Gomberg-Munoz is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Loyola University Chicago.
She is the author of two books, Becoming Legal (2016) and Labor and Legality (2011), as well as articles in journals such as American Ethnologist, American Anthropologist and Human Organization. Customer reviews, including reviews of product stars, help customers learn more about the product and decide if it`s the right product for them. Becoming Legal: Immigration Law and Mixed-Status Families was written by Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz and published by Oxford University Press. Digital ISBNs and eTextbooks to become legal: immigration law and mixed-status families are 9780190276027, 0190276029 and printed ISBNs are 9780190276010, 0190276010. Save up to 80% compared to printing by going digital with VitalSource. “; var newstr = document.getElementById(printpage).innerHTML; var oldstr = document.body.innerHTML; document.body.innerHTML = headstr+newstr+footstr; window.print(); document.body.innerHTML = oldstr; renvoyer false; } i{ color:#6699cc!important; } .shareLink i { margin-right:10px; } .sharingTools hr { border:0; border-bottom:1px solid #A7A9AB; margin:0; margin-bottom:10px; margin-top:10px; width:50%; } .shareLinkIcon{ margin-right:5px; } .shareLinkIcon i{ transition:500ms; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease; transition-timing-function: ease; } .shareLinkIcon:hover i{ transform:scale(1.25); transition:500ms; -webkit-transition-timing-function: leichtigkeit; transition-timing-function: leichtigkeit; -webkit-backface-visibility: versteckt; -webkit-transform: translateZ(0)-Skala(1.25, 1.25); } ]]> Legalisierung werden: Einwanderungsrecht und Familien mit gemischtem Status.
