Justice in Family Narratives of Irregular Migration from Central America and Mexico to the United States
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Authors
Atar, Ozlem
Date
2024-10-24
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Migrant justice , Irregular migration , Border violence , Immigration detention , Unaccompanied child migrants , Deportation , Child migrant death , Compassion , Alien citizen , Afterlife , Undocumented residents
Alternative Title
Abstract
This dissertation analyses the representation of migrant justice in family narratives of irregular migration from Central America and Mexico to the United States. I argue that each of the five texts focuses on specific issues of migrant justice, and that they all appeal to their readers for compassion in distinct ways. Lauren Markham’s biography The Far Away Brothers (2017) focuses on justice issues for unaccompanied minors from El Salvador. Markham develops the biography as a node for democratic deliberations to teach American readers why Central American minors flee their homes and what hardships they experience during their journeys and upon arrival. U.S.-based Mexican author Valeria Luiselli’s novel Lost Children Archive (2019) links child migrant deaths and deportations to the removal of Native American tribes from their territories and the Orphan Train Movement (1854–1929) in ways similar to what Michael Rothberg defines as “multidirectional memory” to underscore the continuity of injustice. Aaron Bobrow-Strain’s biography The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez (2019) addresses migrant justice in relation to violence against women. Francisco Cantú’s memoir The Line Becomes a River (2018) sheds light on how U.S. border management policies function on the ground. Cantú demonstrates how sanctioned border violence shifts to the interior of the country through mass hearings and feeds other types of violence toward migrants and their families. Dominican American writer Julia Alvarez’s novel Afterlife (2020) identifies global capitalism and the United States’ punitive immigration policies as obstacles for undocumented farm workers. It advocates for citizens’ local engagement with undocumented workers and appeals to readers’ compassion in preference to uncontrolled emotional outpour and potentially harmful activism.