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Being En Route

Bibliographic Data

ID2463806
AuthorsB Coutin (0000-0003-1065-2769, University of California, Irvine, corresponding author), Susan Bibler Coutin
Year2005
Volume107
Issue2
Pages195-206
Publication date2005-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Anthropologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7294 • E-ISSN: 1548-1433
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/aa.2005.107.2.195
OpenAlexW2065785751
LanguageEN
Citations received116
References cited56

Through an ethnography of unauthorized migration from El Salvador to the United States, I explore "clandestinity" as a hidden, yet known, dimension of social reality. Unauthorized migrants who are en route to the United States have to make themselves absent from the spaces they occupy. When they become clandestine, such migrants embody illegality; in some cases, they literally "go underground" should they die and be buried en route. Because their presence is prohibited, unauthorized migrants do not fully arrive even when they reach their destinations. There are parallels between the ways that migrants are present in yet absent from nations, and the ways that ethnographers are present in yet absent from the field. This ethnography of migrants en route therefore suggests how anthropological knowledge practices also produce realities that are hidden, yet known

Criminology · Destinations · Dimension (graph theory · Ethnography · Ethnology · Field (mathematics · Genealogy · Parallels · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · History · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Sex work and related issues · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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Unique citing works116
Citations per year5,52
Citation span2005 - 2026 (22)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedYes
Citation typesNeutral: 116
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