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

作为国家的化身，官僚、教育工作者和边防警卫等中低级“官员”有权通过他们的日常行动来规范移民的公民身份和归属感。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以及随后制定的移民政策增加了中低级官员与移民之间的互动。然而，关于这些在实地工作的官员如何解释和日常行使他们的权力；他们的行动如何影响移民体验和行使社会和政治公民权；以及移民如何回应这些官员并与他们谈判互动，人们知之甚少。由于其权力，低至中级官员可以影响移民易受剥削、家庭暴力和其他侵犯人权行为的脆弱性，这些行为在该地区日益普遍。这一博士论文研究项目将描述中低级官员在执行和解读移民政策时的日常行为，并将展示中低级官员如何支持或反对官方的移民政策，并了解影响这些行为的制度规范。该项目的其他目标是了解和描述中美洲移民与中低级官员的接触经历，包括他们的经历如何因性别、族裔、种族和阶级而异，并描述中美洲移民由于与官员的互动而产生的政治公民意识和归属感。博士生将在女权主义地缘政治、女权主义移民研究和地理学公民研究中借鉴和贡献国家权力的微观运作理论。该项目将采用定性的多方法方法，其基础是对官员和中美洲移民的深入访谈；与移民的参与性讲习班；以及参与观察官员与移民在机构空间的互动情况。所有这些组成部分都将有助于建立一种机构人种学，描述官员和移民如何谈判国家权力。这一项目将扩大和加深对移民政策在当地如何执行和执行以及移民的反应的基本了解。该项目将有助于学术理论和对移民的理解，并将提供信息和见解，有助于努力改善官员和移民之间的关系。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.