Naturalizing Mexican Immigrants

Martha Menchaca’s Naturalizing Mexican Immigrants is guided by the historian Donald E. Worcester’s and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s view that history is not made of dualities, but of complexities. Her text also follows the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s argument that all individuals, groups, and institutional structures have social agency but are complicated by their use of their knowledge, decisions, and practices. The result is a constructed reality in which self-interest is given precedence over ethics, justice, virtue, and Christian morals. Therefore, a context of relativism instead of universals is often the basis for immigration policies, laws, and legal judgments. Menchaca asserts that her aim is to examine the process by which Mexican immigrants become naturalized before applying for American citizenship (p. 1). She writes: “To escape such an existence [of poverty], immigrants must emancipate themselves from their sovereign nation [Mexico] and find a way to become voting members of a new country [the United States]” (p. 7). This philosophical change, she emphasizes, is the determining factor by which immigrants and Mexican Americans will be able to participate in the decision-making process

Agency (philosophy · Argument (complex analysis · Citizenship · Context (archaeology · Economic Justice · Epistemology · Immigration · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Virtue · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Philosophy