Seeking a Safe Space: Violence, Bureaucracy, and Citizenship in the Lives of Migrants in the United States
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Authors
LaFayette, Aimee Vera
Issue Date
2024
Type
Dissertation
Language
Keywords
Bureaucracy , Citizenship , Violence
Alternative Title
Abstract
Women are more susceptible to intimate partner violence, with migrant women facing unique challenges not encountered by citizens. Gender, combined with exposure to violence and lack of legal status, amplifies migrant women's vulnerability, subjecting them to heightened risks of exploitation, abuse, and discrimination. This dissertation is based on 18 months of fieldwork at a non-profit organization providing domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy alongside immigration legal services, a place I call Safe Space. I argue that despite the commitment and efforts demonstrated by both Safe Space staff and female migrants, the immigration programs and policies designed to support these women do not entirely change their experience of poverty, inequality, and violence. I have structured the body of this dissertation as three stand-alone journal articles, each employing a distinct theoretical lens of anthropological scholarship—violence, bureaucracy, and citizenship—to analyze migrants' interactions with state power, focusing on processes associated with identity and classification. The stories of migrants in these articles illustrate how various forms of violence, including direct, structural, and legal, are more than just personal trajectories but also directly connect to broader sociopolitical structures that shape individuals' lives. I recognize the U.S. immigration system as a bureaucracy that categorizes identities, frames experiences of violence, and controls through laws and legal statutes. I argue that, although this system ostensibly operates on principles of compassion and benevolence towards migrants, it often prioritizes "national security," immigration control, and an anti-immigrant political agenda. Finally, despite the state's considerable power over migrants as they navigate U.S. policies and systems, my observations reveal multiple instances when both Safe Space staff and the migrant women they assist actively resist restrictive categories and labels. Ultimately, my research calls for reconsidering and restructuring government policies and practices to better support migrants in the United States.