Nationalism and Illegal Alienage

Mai Ngai explores the historical trajectory of "illegal aliens" in terms of U.S. law and society. She draws connections between race and illegal status, building on many concepts from last week's readings (construction of racial ideologies and racialized spaces), while also contributing new and interesting claims of her own. She differentiates between legal aliens, illegal aliens, and "alien citizens" (more on that later). Kim and de Genova also refer to the ideas of Omi and Winant (Kim more explicitly) in their historical explorations of the racialization of Asians and Latinos in the U.S.

One of the main themes of Ngai's book Impossible Subjects is the role of U.S. immigration restrictions in the construction of modern ideas of race and citizenship - in particular, the development of current racial hierarchies. As she says, restrictive immigration policy "produced new categories of racial difference" (6); as such, "illegal alienage" is not, as many might think, a natural condition, but one that is very dependent on law, policy, and the exercise of sovereignty. I identified with her example of the racial formation of Asians as contingent on histories of "conquest and colonialism" (8), because I think this plays a huge role in the ways that Asian-Americans are viewed as a racial Other. Even though individuals may be U.S. citizens by birth, they can be assumed to be "foreign" or "other" by virtue of their racial categorization and affiliation with illegal immigration. This is the idea of the "alien citizen."

Ngai also includes a "globalist perspective" on immigration policy, noting that migration is a process that is bound by space and time, and mobilized by greater forces between nations and those in power. Particularly important is her emphasis on our understanding of immigration as wholly influenced by workings of nationalism and sovereignty. De Genova also discusses nationalism in the creation of an inherent racial identity, saying, “U.S. nationalism’s very appropriation for itself of ‘American’-ness as its exclusive ‘national’ identity could never be other than a European settler-state’s imperial gesture of usurpation” (5). This challenge to U.S. nationalism is the theme in this week’s reading that I found most thought-provoking. Especially in recent times, nationalism is often equated with pride in one’s country, and thus seems to be almost dangerous to question. De Genova and Ngai show us that it’s necessary to question what we often take for granted.