The (trans)formation of illegality as an identity: A study of the organization of undocumented Mexican immigrants and their children in New York City.
Item
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Title
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The (trans)formation of illegality as an identity: A study of the organization of undocumented Mexican immigrants and their children in New York City.
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Identifier
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AAI3047267
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identifier
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3047267
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Creator
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Solis, Jocelyn.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Colette Daiute
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Date
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2002
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Developmental | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies | Anthropology, Cultural
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Abstract
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This dissertation studies the psychological formation of illegality as an identity among undocumented Mexican immigrants and their children living in New York City. The research context was a community-based organization working at the grassroots level with Mexican immigrant families to defend their human and legal rights. Parting from Vygotskian, sociohistorical theory and discourse psychology, the identities of Mexican immigrants and children were conceptualized as social positions of power that develop from and through their goal-directed use of discourses and cultural practices available institutionally. Data were collected primarily in field notes capturing participatory observation of the organization for more than three years, 16 bulletins written by its members on numerous topics, a writing workshop conducted with five focal children and youth, and an in-depth interview with their mothers. Discourse analyses revealed four grounded topics in relation to illegality, including Language, Citizenship, Religiosity, and Violence through which the discourses and other cultural practices of both the organization and of individual participants were analyzed further. The undocumented Mexican immigrants involved in the organization were found to develop from an "illegal" to an "undocumented" identity that functioned to make their presence visible, claim rights, and counter societal claims about their legitimacy and citizenship entitlement. Availability of social structures other than undocumented status such as race/ethnicity, class, language and gender were also used by Mexican immigrants and children to position themselves and draw contrasts or make moral judgments that served to identify themselves. The children of immigrants demonstrated the most developmental diversity and points of conflict in their developing identities evidenced at one extreme in their experiences of illegality as a violence. The study illustrates how personal and societal histories intersect in the psychological trans-formation of Mexican immigrants and children of one organization in New York City to produce complex, concurrent, multidimensional, and multidirectional lines of development. It concludes with practical and scholarly implications.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
