"Soy Un Mexicano Al Que Le Gustan Los Estados Unidos": Understanding the Mexican Immigrant Experience in South Philadelphia as a Counternarrative to the Vulnerable Immigrant Trope
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2015
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Haverford College. Department of Anthropology
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Pro-immigrant advocates (1) showcase stories of Mexican immigrants experiencing violent and traumatic interactions with local and federal levels of immigration enforcement in an attempt to bring Latin@ immigration issues to the forefront of the U.S debate over immigrant residents, and (2) display these stories through research focused on fear and victimhood, while the media emphasizes the vulnerability and passivity of Mexican immigrants. Many supporters claim that displaying the Vulnerable Immigrant narrative is the universal experience of Mexican immigrants and should show the socio-legal injustices they experience daily. However, I present a counternarrative, applicable to immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere, which disrupts the Vulnerable Immigrant trope. Although immigrants experience trauma and fear, they demonstrate resourcefulness and resilience through their creation and maintenance of strong transnational and local networks that provide them with the support and access of resources to mitigate struggles they experience. My ethnographic fieldwork will directly challenge the use of the Vulnerable Immigrant narrative due to its reductive and discriminatory nature against immigrants. It also provides counternarratives, highlighting expressions and practices of autonomy and strength among the Mexican immigrant community in South Philadelphia. The importance of this work stems from the ways it disrupts and disputes the Vulnerable Immigrant narrative, which is filled with tragic stories of powerlessness. In contrast to this disempowering, piecemealed narrative written by others, this work offers an empowered, comprehensive and dignified account of Mexican immigrants presented in their own words.