Negotiating Boundaries of Social Belonging

Abstract

Second-generation Mexican youth in San Diego actively engaged with the immigrant rights movement by participating in protests they organized and orchestrated in spring 2006. The protests highlighted the encounter—and clashing—of different categories of immigrant social belonging in U.S. society. State-oriented constructions of social belonging clashed with the teens' own notions of belonging developed in relation to the lived experiences of members of their social circles. The teens generally constructed their own boundaries of belonging to be more inclusive of “contributing” immigrants; however, they also internalized—and self-defensively rearticulated—negative messages about immigrant “illegality.” The teens' engagement with the immigrant rights movement demonstrated they were not merely “partial” citizens, as youth are typically portrayed. Rather, the teens had their own ways of navigating extant categories of belonging and articulating messages about cultural citizenship. The protests were ultimately transformative for the teens because they were both consciousness-raising and identity affirming.