Stretching national citizenship: DACA and the struggles of undocumented migrants in the United States

Authors

Abstract

By positioning the subjects of the political action in the center of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), we aim to return to the Arendtian perplexities of human rights to name a scene in which undocumented migrants dispute the meanings of citizenship and subjectivity of rights in the United States. The article was divided in three movements: the impacts of DACA in the context of being undocumented in the country; the perplexities of human rights; and mobilizing such critique in four framings of citizenship presented by Nicholls to interpret the arrangements in our scenes. We conclude on the multiple and paradoxical effects of this policy, a legal-political temporary fix and an opening for the dispute of meanings.

Keywords:

DACA, right to have rights, beneficiary, citizenship, human rights, undocumented immigrants

Author Biographies

Andréia Fressatti Cardoso, Univeridade de São Paulo

Master in Political Science by the State University of Campinas, and doctoral student in Political Science at the University of Sao Paulo. Currently, is a research fellow at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, in Washington DC, developing the research “Rights Subjectivity in Immigrant Struggles for Rights in the United States: the struggle for DACA”, process n. 2022/04176-5, funded by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). This article is one of the results of this research.  The opinions, hypotheses and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are of responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of FAPESP.

Raissa Wihby Ventura, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Master and PhD in Political Science by the University of Sao Paulo. As research fellow at the Institut für Kulturwissenschaft (Universität Koblenz) and the Research Center Normative Orders (Goethe-Universität), developed the research "The wayward route of undesirables. A critical experiment on migration", process n. 2022/05525-3, funded by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Currently, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Science of the State University of Campinas, developing the research:  “This is unfair! Undesirable immigration and its conflicting demands,” process n. 2019/18523-6, funded by FAPESP. This article is one of the results of this research.  The opinions, hypotheses and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are of responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of FAPESP.