Understanding the Mobilities of Indigenous Migrant Youth across the Americas

Óscar F. Gil-García (), Nilüfer Akalin (), Francesca Bové and Sarah Vener
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Óscar F. Gil-García: Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14261-0026, USA
Nilüfer Akalin: Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Francesca Bové: Community Research and Action, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13901, USA
Sarah Vener: Department of Political Science & English, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: Enhanced immigration enforcement measures are now a dominant practice throughout the world. The concept of transnationalism, used by scholars to illuminate the complex dynamics these measures have across nation-state borders, has been critiqued for its replication of methodological nationalism—the assumption that the nation-state is a natural social and political form of the modern world. How then can migration scholars deepen the understanding of the mobilities of migrant children and youth without replicating methodological nationalism? We propose a relational socio-cultural analytic that synthesizes settler colonial theory and the theory of racialized legal status to comprehend the complex experiences of Indigenous migrant Maya youth and families throughout the Americas. Our use of a relational critical comparative analysis challenges structural functionalist approaches that limit the study migration dynamics within nation-state contexts, which can unwittingly sustain national membership in a state(s) as an aspirational emblem of belonging. We explore how Indigenous Maya experience and challenge the meaning of statelessness and the spillover effects of immigration enforcement measures along the US–Mexico and Mexico–Guatemala borders. We argue that a relational socio-cultural analytic lens serves as a powerful tool for understanding how nation-states co-produce stateless Indigenous populations and how these populations persist throughout the Americas and the world.

Keywords: immigration; ecological theory; relational theory; Mexico; Guatemala; Central America; children and youth; racialized legal status; stateless; transnationalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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