The Border Wall, Immigration, and Citizenship on the United States/Mexico Border

斯沃斯莫尔学院的米格尔·迪亚兹-巴里加博士和宾夕法尼亚大学的玛格丽特·多尔西博士将对生活在德克萨斯州南部的人们如何理解美国和墨西哥之间的边境围栏并受到影响进行人类学研究。在全国对非法移民问题的高度关注的背景下，南得克萨斯州已经成为理解当代美国公民和爱国主义概念的独特实地考察地点。研究人员将使用人种学方法研究德克萨斯州伊达尔戈县边境沿线的居民。他们将关注“边境墙言论”及其与人们如何理解公民身份的关系。他们将对政界人士、活动家、商界领袖、土地所有者和当地居民进行广泛的采访。研究人员还将在伊达尔戈县的非正式环境中开展参与式观察研究，如当地拥有的塔克里亚、外国战争老兵会堂和咖啡店，以了解边界话语在当地文化中的性质和传播。这些定性数据将得到对该地区居民的定量调查的补充，该调查将提供数据，以便与国家一级的调查进行比较。这项研究将使社会科学家能够更好地理解公民身份的跨国表达、民族爱国主义和多个地方视角之间的复杂相互作用。这将导致建立更好的框架，以了解当代世界边界的动态性质，并有助于为边界问题制定更好的政策。

Dr. Miguel Diaz-Barriga, Swarthmore College, and Dr. Margaret Dorsey, University of Pennsylvania, will undertake anthropological research on how people living in South Texas understand and are affected by the border fence between the United States and Mexico. In the context of heightened national attention to issues of illegal immigration, South Texas has become a unique field site for understanding contemporary American notions of citizenship and patriotism.The researchers will use ethnographic methods to study residents along the border in Hidalgo County, Texas. They will focus on "border wall talk" and its relation to how people understand citizenship. They will conduct extensive interviews with politicians, activists, business leaders, land owners, and local residents. The researchers also will carry out participant observation research in informal settings in Hidalgo County, such as locally-owned taquerias, Veterans of Foreign Wars halls, and coffee shops to understand the nature and circulation of border talk in local culture. These qualitative data will be complemented with a quantitative survey of area residents, which will provide data for comparison with national level surveys. The research will enable social scientists to better understand the complex interplay between transnational expressions of citizenship, national patriotism, and multiple local perspectives. This will lead to better frameworks for understanding the dynamic nature of borders in the contemporary world and contribute to better policy for border concerns.