Mary McThomas - Performing Citizenship: Undocumented Migrants in the United States

First published 2016
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McThomas, Mary, author.
Title: Performing citizenship : undocumented migrants in the

United States / Mary McThomas.

Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016007301 | ISBN 9781138684096 (hbk) |

ISBN 9781315544175 (ebk)

Subjects: LCSH: Illegal aliensGovernment policyUnited States. |

Illegal aliensGovernment policyUnited StatesStates. |
CitizenshipPolitical aspectsUnited States. | Illegal aliens
Education (Higher)United States. | Drivers licensesUnited
StatesStates.

Classification: LCC JV6483 .M336 2016 | DDC 325.73dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007301

ISBN: 978-1-138-68409-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-54417-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

I am truly grateful for the feedback I received throughout the course of this project. The book benefited greatly by comments from discussants, fellow panelists, and audience members at annual conferences for the American Political Science Association, the Association for Political Theory, and Wayne State Universitys Center for the Study of Citizenship. I am also extremely thankful to the Political Theory Group at University of California, Irvine, for offering a dedicated and engaged discussion of the project. Special gratitude is due to Els de Graauw, Emily Hallock, and Michael Tesler for thoughtful (and written!) comments on various aspects of the book. In the busy lives we all lead, it is a rare gift to get such thorough and helpful feedback. In addition, I am grateful for assistance provided by my colleagues at California State University, Channel Islands. The fine people of Research and Sponsored Programs provided funding. RSCA (Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities) Business offered interdisciplinary viewpoints and a supportive sounding board. Finally, Scott Frisch, Department Chair Extraordinaire, helped to protect my time. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank Natalja Mortensen, Lillian Rand, and everyone else at Routledge who helped me navigate the publishing process.

Undocumented migrants in the United States raise some compelling questions about political legitimacy, obligation, and citizenship. If they are truly members of their communities, should they have a voice in the laws and policies that impact their lives? Should their interests be considered, especially in light of exploitation by employers, the possibility of detention, and the threat of deportation? At the same time, though, granting a voice to those who entered the country without nation-state authorization is not without complications, including concerns about the sovereignty of the pre-existing political community. Central to democratic legitimacy and individual autonomy is the ability to know who is author of the laws to which we submit. That is, popular sovereignty rests on the notion that we govern ourselves (even if through representatives) and, in so doing, consent to and legitimate state authority. If we are a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we need to know who constitutes the people. The fear is that porous borders can change the membership of the political community and therefore alter the we that makes up popular sovereignty, leaving existing citizens subject to a new and extended sovereign to which they did not consent. I submit that the role of consent is flawed, the we has already changed, and a substantial number of people in the United States are bound by laws that they have no say in creating. Furthermore, without status or standing, they have no hope of being heard or represented in the future.