Abstract

In Austin, Texas since 2006, a coalition of immigrant rights organizations and allies has fought against deportation and immigrant detention. As has been found elsewhere, ­immigrant women with precarious legal statuses were ­overrepresented in the local immigrant rights movement. This article questions how despite high rates of deportation these women, have become active political agents. Building on scholarship that analyzes the U.S. immigration system as a highly gendered and racialized complex, and on the ­literature on intimate economies and geopolitics, I claim that the subject positions of noncitizen women are complex and based not only on gender, race, or sexual orientation but also on their ‘reproductive capital’. The latter, since it links reproductive and economic productivity, allows for consideration of gendered immigrant subject formations that influence immigration governance at the local and state level. I will analyze how Latin American noncitizen immigrant women in Texas were constructed as either ‘potential mothers of citizens’—allowing them to become activists and engage in the local political arena—or as ‘detainable and profitable mothers of noncitizens’—depending on their reproductive capital.

摘要

自 2006 年以来，在得克萨斯州奥斯汀，一个由移民权利组织和盟友组成的联盟一直在反对驱逐出境和移民拘留。正如在其他地方发现的那样，法律地位不稳定的移民妇女在当地移民权利运动中的人数过多。本文质疑尽管这些妇女被驱逐率很高，但如何成为积极的政治代理人。基于将美国移民系统分析为高度性别化和种族化的综合体的学术研究，以及关于亲密经济和地缘政治的文献，我声称非公民女性的主体地位是复杂的，不仅基于性别、种族或性取向还取决于他们的“生殖资本”。后者，因为它联系着生殖和经济生产力，允许考虑影响地方和州一级移民治理的性别移民主体形成。我将分析得克萨斯州的拉丁美洲非公民移民妇女是如何被建构为“公民的潜在母亲”——允许她们成为活动家并参与当地政治舞台——或作为“非公民的可拘留和有利可图的母亲”——这取决于她们的生育能力首都。