Doctoral Dissertation Research: Central American Immigration on Mexico's Southern Border: Embodiments of Power, Citizenship, and Gender

作为国家的化身，中低级别的“官员”，如官僚、教育工作者和边防警卫，拥有通过他们的日常行动来规范移民公民身份和归属感的权力。在墨西哥-危地马拉边境城市恰帕斯州的塔帕丘拉，中美洲移民的不断涌入和随后的移民政策的制定导致了中低级别官员与移民之间的互动增加。然而，人们对这些在当地工作的官员如何在日常基础上解释和实施他们的权力知之甚少；他们的行为如何影响移民的经历和社会和政治公民权利的行使；以及移民如何回应和与这些官员谈判互动。由于他们的权力，中低级别官员可以影响移民易受剥削、家庭暴力和其他在该地区日益普遍的侵犯人权行为的影响。本博士论文研究项目将描述中低级别官员在执行和解释移民政策方面的日常行动，并将展示中低级别官员如何支持或反对官方移民政策，以及了解影响这些行动的制度规范。该项目的其他目标是了解和描述中美洲移民与中低级别官员的经历，包括他们的经历在性别、种族、种族和阶级之间的差异，并描述中美洲移民在与官员的互动中对政治公民和归属感的感受。该博士生将借鉴并对女性主义地缘政治、女性主义移民研究和地理学公民研究中国家权力的微观运作理论做出贡献。该项目将采用一种定性的、多方法的方法，以与官员和中美洲移民进行深入访谈为基础；移民参与讲习班；以及参与观察官员在制度空间中与移民的互动。所有这些组成部分将有助于建立一个制度人种学，描述官员和移民如何谈判国家权力。该项目将扩大和加深对移民政策如何在当地实施和执行以及移民的反应的基本理解。该项目将有助于学术理论和对移民的理解，并将提供有助于改善官员与移民之间关系的信息和见解。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

As embodiments of the state, low- to mid-level "officials," such as bureaucrats, educators, and border guards, possess the power to regulate immigrant citizenship and belonging through their everyday actions. In the Mexico-Guatemala border city of Tapachula, Chiapas, the growing inflow of Central American immigrants and the subsequent creation of immigration policies have led to increased interactions between low- to mid-level officials and immigrants. Very little is known, however, about how these officials working on the ground interpret and implement their powers on an everyday basis; how their actions impact immigrant experience and exercise of social and political citizenship rights; and how immigrants respond to and negotiate interactions with these officials. Because of their power, low- to mid-level officials can affect immigrants' vulnerability to exploitation, domestic violence and other human rights violations that are increasingly prevalent in the region. This doctoral dissertation research project will describe low- to mid-level officials' everyday actions in implementing and interpreting migration policy, and it will demonstrate how low- to mid-level officials support or contradict official migration policies and understand the institutional norms that influence these actions. Additional objectives of this project are to understand and describe Central American immigrants' experiences with low- to mid-level officials, including how their experience varies across gender, ethnicity, race, and class, and to describe Central American immigrants' feelings of political citizenship and belonging as a result of their interactions with officials. The doctoral student will draw upon and contribute to theories on the micro-scale operations of state power in feminist geopolitics, feminist migration studies, and citizenship studies in geography. The project will employ a qualitative, multi-method approach based on in-depth interviews with officials and Central American immigrants; participatory workshops with immigrants; and participant observation of officials' interactions with immigrants in institutional spaces. All of these components will contribute to the construction of an institutional ethnography describing how officials and immigrants negotiate state power.This project will broaden and deepen basic understanding regarding how migration policies are implemented and enforced on the ground as well as the resulting responses of immigrants. The project will contribute to academic theory and understandings of migration, and it will provide information and insights that will contribute to efforts to improve relationships between officials and immigrants. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.