Negotiating Membership in a Mexican Transnational Community
A study of North American Immigrants in a Mexican Border Town
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/dl.v9i14.113590Keywords:
citizenship, membership, North American immigrants, transnationalism, social spaceAbstract
This article seeks to shed light on new formations of citizenship and
political transnationalism in a Mexican town in the Mexican – US
border region. We analyze how a North American immigrant group
as a new actor forms part of the civil society and the implications
that networks forged by this group have for the nature of
citizenship. The article argues that we are in need of a more nuanced
account of the limits and possibilities for understanding
transnational citizenship. The North American immigrant group
recognizes the continuing significance of the nation state (US),
however they are flexible in negotiating the practices and rights of
citizenship across borders. They must accommodate or resist, as
they attempt to politically construct new spaces for practicing
citizenship across borders. Thereby the article rejects both
nationalist and post-nationalist essentialisms and focuses on the real
social differences in order to capture the social space of the
changing nature of transnational citizenship.
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