scholarly journals Legal Violence: Immigration Law and the Lives of Central American Immigrants

2012 ◽  
Vol 117 (5) ◽  
pp. 1380-1421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Menjívar ◽  
Leisy J. Abrego
Keyword(s):  
Central American ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
Legal Violence ◽  
Central American Immigrants

“We are not ignorant”: Transnational migrants’ experiences of racialized securitization

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Ybarra
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Central American ◽  
Immigration Enforcement ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Legal Violence ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Mexican State ◽  
The Us ◽  
Transnational Migrants

This paper examines the dynamics of racialized securitization for transnational migrants across multiple borders—from Central America toward Mexico and the United States. Rather than a singular process where US policies, funding, and attitudes toward border security direct Mexican immigration enforcement, I argue that Mexican state collaboration redirects US xenophobia away from Mexican migrants and toward Central American migrants. Migrants’ testimonies point to the ways that US and Mexican discourses are mobilized in different—but complementary—ways that shape them as racialized subjects with differential life chances. This is clearest through a crude mapping of people onto nationalities for deportation based on hair, language, and tattoos. Beyond legal violence, deported migrants describe their vulnerability as constructed within tacit networks of collaboration between actors in the US and Mexico, both licit and illicit, in an effort to extort migrants and their families. While race is a key signifier in border securitization, the differences between these racial states have material consequences in the differential state violence in immigration enforcement.

scholarly journals “It’s Worse to Breathe It Than to Smoke It”: Secondhand Smoke Beliefs in a Group of Mexican and Central American Immigrants in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (22) ◽  
pp. 8630
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Arcury ◽  
Grisel Trejo ◽  
DaKysha Moore ◽  
Timothy D. Howard ◽  
Sara A. Quandt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Secondhand Smoke ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Central American Immigrants ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Saliency Analysis ◽  
Depth Interviews

This analysis describes beliefs about secondhand smoke and its health effects held by Mexican and Central American immigrants in North Carolina. Data from 60 semistructured, in-depth interviews were subjected to saliency analysis. Participant discussions of secondhand smoke centered on four domains: (1) familiarity and definition of secondhand smoke, (2) potency of secondhand smoke, (3) general health effects of secondhand smoke, and (4) child health effects of secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke was generally believed to be more harmful than primary smoke. Mechanisms for the potency and health effects of secondhand smoke involved the smell of secondhand smoke, secondhand smoke being an infection and affecting the immune system, and personal strength being protective of secondhand smoke. Understanding these health beliefs informs a framework for further health education and intervention to reduce smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in this vulnerable population.

Psychosocial Predictors of Depression among Central American Immigrants

2000 ◽  
Vol 86 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1237-1240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph D. Hovey
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Acculturative Stress ◽  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Central American ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
The Future ◽  
Central American Immigrants ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Predictors Of Depression

The present study investigated the relationship between stress and depression associated with acculturation among Central American immigrants (64 women, 14 men) and identified the best predictors of depression among Central American immigrants. Elevated acculturative stress was significantly associated with higher depression. Family dysfunction, ineffective social support, lack of hopefulness toward the future, and low socioeconomic status were also significantly associated with high depression. The overall findings suggest that Central American immigrants who report high acculturative stress may be “at risk” for experiencing depression and that effective family and social support, hopefulness toward the future, and socioeconomic status may serve to protect against depression during acculturation.

A RETURN TO MORE BLATANT CLASS AND “RACE” BIAS IN U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY?

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 469-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Y. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Undocumented Immigrants ◽  
Central American ◽  
Race Bias ◽  
Central American Immigrants ◽  
The U.S

This essay explores the contradictions posed by states' efforts to exclude immigrants from south of the U.S. border on the grounds that they “burden” the economy, despite the same states' windfall revenue from the taxation of undocumented immigrants. Lawmakers' ongoing anti-immigrant sentiment yields a racialized contradiction in which mostly Mexican and Central American immigrants are derogated as economic burdens. In fact, they are unfairly taxed in addition to being indispensable to the U.S. economy. Based on these and other phenomena, such as racially coded preferences for higher-class immigrants and “antidiversity visas,” I contend that contemporary U.S. immigration policy has regressed toward more blatant class and “race” (albeit racially coded) discrimination.

Latinos/as and Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene M. Sanchez-Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Central American Immigrants ◽  
Cuban Americans ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores the complex melding of traditions that make up contemporary religious identities among Latinos/as in the United States. Although Latinos/as are largely still Catholic, Protestantism is a growing presence. Examining various Latino/a groups by nationalities (such as Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans), geographic regions (such as Caribbean or Central American immigrants), and religious traditions (Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims), it becomes evident that transnational links have shaped, maintained, and propelled religious life for over a century. Transnationalism does not alter religious identities evenly. Some Latino/a groups maintain stronger ties for longer times; for others, the rates of acculturation mean that there are generational differences that affect one’s religious identity. The chapter concludes with a look at the impact of the “nones” among American Latinos/as.

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