The WSU Humanities Center invites faculty, students, staff, and the community to our Marilyn Williamson Endowded Fellowship recipient's presentation given by Lauren Duquette-Rury (Associate Professor, Sociology) on the topic of "Naturalizing Under Threat in the Age of Immigration Enforcement".

Project Description: As public debates about border security, national membership, and belonging rage on, more eligible immigrants are becoming American citizens to secure and protect their right to remain. A closer look, however, uncovers a set of perverse incentives driving naturalization in the United States. Even though few noncitizens believe membership in the national political community is synonymous with belonging or inclusion, acquiring citizenship protects oneself and one's family against the threat of deportation. Citizenship has come to mean protection for nonwhite immigrants who remain the primary targets of color-blind immigration policy. For others, citizenship is a critical insurance policy against the risk of harsher immigration reforms to come. While existing scholarship helps us understand what enables people to naturalize (i.e., resources, socioeconomic status, language ability), a comprehensive study of what factors motivate citizenship remains incomplete. Using rich archival texts, quantitative analysis of national and state naturalization rates from 1907 to 2018, and in-depth interviews with immigrants and community-based organizations across the U.S., Naturalizing Under Threat accounts for how citizenship becomes more resonant and valuable to immigrants in the contemporary age of interior surveillance and removal.

This event will take place in McGregor room E, please RSVP.