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We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States

edited by Leisy J. Abrego and Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales

Duke University Press, 2020
Paper: 978-1-4780-1083-8 | eISBN: 978-1-4780-1238-2 | Cloth: 978-1-4780-0979-5
Library of Congress Classification LC3746.5.C2W44 2020

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

ABOUT THIS BOOK
The widely recognized “Dreamer narrative” celebrates the educational and economic achievements of undocumented youth to justify a path to citizenship. While a well-intentioned, strategic tactic to garner political support of undocumented youth, it has promoted the idea that access to citizenship and rights should be granted only to a select group of “deserving” immigrants. The contributors to We Are Not Dreamers—themselves currently or formerly undocumented—poignantly counter the Dreamer narrative by grappling with the nuances of undocumented life in this country. Theorizing those excluded from the Dreamer category—academically struggling students, transgender activists, and queer undocumented parents—the contributors call for an expansive articulation of immigrant rights and justice that recognizes the full humanity of undocumented immigrants while granting full and unconditional rights. Illuminating how various institutions reproduce and benefit from exclusionary narratives, this volume articulates the dangers of the Dreamer narrative and envisions a different way forward.

Contributors. Leisy J. Abrego, Gabrielle Cabrera, Gabriela Garcia Cruz, Lucía León, Katy Joseline Maldonado Dominguez, Grecia Mondragón, Gabriela Monico, Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, Maria Liliana Ramirez, Joel Sati, Audrey Silvestre, Carolina Valdivia

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Leisy J. Abrego is Professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of Sacrificing Families: Navigating Laws, Labor, and Love across Borders.

Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales is Associate Professor of Education at the University of San Francisco and coauthor of Encountering Poverty: Thinking and Acting in an Unequal World.

REVIEWS

“We Are Not Dreamers is a captivating counternarrative that smashes the false distinction between deserving and undeserving immigrants worthy of human rights in the United States. By centering the voices of undocumented scholars, Leisy J. Abrego and Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales capture the complexity of experiences, the intersectionality of identities, and the raw devastation and resilience of undocumented life. This book has the power to transform both public discourse and public policy on immigration and is required reading for my documented friends, family, and colleagues—as well as my undocumented students.”

-- Laura Emiko Soltis, Executive Director and Professor of Human Rights, Freedom University

“We Are Not Dreamers has the potential to shape both the focus and practices of immigration scholarship by encouraging scholars to write with rather than merely about undocumented groups and by highlighting the particular insights that come from experiencing illegalization. This volume is a model for how faculty can support students and will be an inspiration to others. Powerful and informative.”

-- Susan Bibler Coutin, author of Exiled Home: Salvadoran Transnational Youth in the Aftermath of Violence

“Rich with the details about the unique ways undocumented scholars grapple with the realities of what they are thinking and living through, this book is for families, parents, self-proclaimed dreamers and non-dreamers, citizens, students, and scholars in all fields.”

-- Silvia Rodriguez Vega Latinx Project

“We Are Not Dreamers ... forcefully addresses limitations in the research on undocumented immigrants and aggressively counters the reductive framings of undocumented life so often seen as necessary for political advancement.”

-- William D. Lopez Journal of American Studies

"The anthology’s most clear and remarkable accomplishment is this (re)assertion of the agency and voice of undocumented scholars. They had for too long only read scholarship about the experiences of undocumented migrants by authors who were not undocumented themselves. And meanwhile, undocumented scholars had often been denied the opportunity to participate in academic institutions as producers of knowledge. . . . . Taken together, their essays offer deep insight into the work produced by undocumented scholars who are redefining 'research' and 'academic production': both who gets to produce these and the form and methods through which they are produced."

-- Debbie M. Duarte Public Books

“An essential read for students and scholars of immigration, [We Are Not Dreamers] offers important theoretical and empirical contributions to topics as varied as racialization processes, schooling, activism, illegality, liminality, gender and sexuality, family, citizenship, and the experiences and (lack of) opportunities that undocumented immigrants encounter more broadly. . . . Several of the book’s takeaways will be . . . illuminating and generative for students and researchers across contexts.”

-- Carlos Aguilar Anthropology & Education Quarterly

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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