In/Visible Line
The Physical and Symbolic Power of the US-Mexico Border
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6433995 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jane Lilly López (0000-0002-8000-3433, Brigham Young University College of Family Home and Social Sciences, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 919-938 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Borderlands Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0886-5655 • E-ISSN: 2159-1229 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08865655.2024.2338752 |
| OpenAlex | W4394761727 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 34 |
What does the US-Mexico border mean to people whose marriages are defined by – and defy – this international boundary? Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with 42 mixed-citizenship US-Mexican couples, I demonstrate the imagery and symbolisms mixed-citizenship couples evoke to make meaning of the border in their lives. I find that an individual's initial encounter with the border, each couple's current proximity to the border, and the non-citizen spouse's US immigration status all informed the meanings and descriptions of the border that couples shared. For couples living in the US-Mexico Borderlands, the border looms largest as a physical structure cutting into the landscape, literally separating space and people. For couples living away from the border but who can freely travel between countries, the border/lands are mostly invisible, but also a danger to be avoided. And for couples living away from the border with no legal authorization to travel across it, the border predominantly functions as a symbolic power, dividing individuals from families and communities, past from present, reality from possibility. These different understandings of the border show the physical and symbolic power of the border to divide, while simultaneously revealing how its divisiveness can be overpowered by relationships and community
Citizenship · Geography · Immigration · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Spouse · Symbolic capital · Symbolic power · The Symbolic · Anthropology · Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology
The Mexican-US Border
Entry Denied
Borderlands/La Frontera
Intimate Migrations
Border Lives
Racial Fault Lines
Walls and Mirrors
Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders
Transnational Marriage
Transformations of La Familia on the U.S.-Mexico Border
Replenished Ethnicity
Introduction
Intimate citizenship
Experiencing ‘Illegality’ as a Family? Immigration Enforcement, Social Policies, and Discourses Targeting Mexican Mixed‐Status Families
Sensors, Cameras, and the New ‘Normal’ in Clandestine Migration
Shopping and Working in the Borderlands
Ugandan Borders
Transnational fronterizos
Speaking to The Wall
Two Welded into One
Commuter Migration Across Artificial Frontiers
Mixed-Status Families and the Threat of Deportation
Borders, Border Regions and Territoriality
Why Interdiction? Immigration Control at the United States‐Mexico Border
Barriers to Interracial Marriage? Examining Policy Issues Concerning U.S. Citizens Married to Undocumented Latino/a Immigrants
U. S
Becoming Less Illegal
Which Face? Whose Nation
Unauthorized Love
Juntos pero no revueltos
Together and apart
Global South cosmopolitans
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |