The Flexibility and Conditionality of Citizenship and Belonging for the Racialized, Highly-Skilled Immigrant in the United States

Keywords: immigration, belonging, citizenship, political geography
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 13

Abstract

This paper argues that highly-skilled, non-white immigrants to the U.S. occupy a paradoxical space of belonging. National imaginaries position these immigrants as essential contributors to national and global economies, yet they find themselves limited through the racialization of their non-white bodies. Despite the socioeconomic privilege attached to their high-skill employment, non-white immigrants’ claims to belonging in the United States remain precarious.

Drawing from in-depth interviews with 12 self-identified highly-skilled, non-white immigrants in Kentucky, I analyze the racialization of the immigrant of color through participants’ discussion of relocation, belonging, and the politics of immigration. In this paper, I argue that, while the highly-skilled may benefit from access to a form of flexible citizenship (Ong, 1999), they are still subjected to a form of conditional citizenship (Lalami, 2020) through their racialized and othered bodies. Highly-skilled immigrants’ attempts to rationalize and cope with everyday encounters of white anxieties produce a complex and sometimes contradictory experience of citizenship

I conclude with a discussion of highly-skilled immigrants’ senses of belonging, which I argue are predicated upon the security they hold in their identities as individuals and immigrants. While racist and xenophobic encounters emphasize the precarious politics of belonging for these immigrants, the conditions of belonging and citizenship can be challenged through individuals’ conceptualizations of self and place-making practices.