Examines U.S. immigration as a rhetorical process inventing persons and communities in reference to space and place. Engages immigration in media and popular culture; the construction of immigrant experiences in public discourse; and the effects of fear, violence, and exclusion on immigrant and non-immigrant communities.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
E. Johanna Hartelius
Part 1 Activism and Public Campaigns
1 Facing Ghosts, God, and Nature: Affect, Naturalization, and the “No Más Cruces” Border Campaign
Terence Check and Christine Jasken
2 Faithful Sovereignty: Denationalizing Immigration Policy in the 2003 Pastoral Letter on Migration
Anne Teresa Demo
3 Protecting LGBT Migrants: The Rhetoric of Identity and the Expansion of the Prison-Industrial Complex
Karma R. Chávez
Part 2 Identity Struggles and DREAMers
4 Dropping the “I-Word”: A Critical Examination of Contemporary Immigration Labels
Claudia Anguiano
5 “American” Children’s Success and Global Competitiveness: The Racial Paradox of Bilingualism as Cultural Capital
Dina Gavrilos
6 Documenting Dreams: A Rhetorical Performance of Inclusive Citizenship and Collaborative Expertise
Yazmin Lazcano-Pry
Part 3 (Hi)stories of Exclusion
7 Constituting Enemies Through Fear: The Rhetoric of Exclusionary Nationalism in the Control of “Un-American” Immigrant Populations
Emily Ironside and Lisa M. Corrigan
8 Defining the Right Sort of Immigrant: Theodore Roosevelt and American Character
Jay P. Childers
9 Immigration as Histories of Mob-ility: Personal Storytelling in the Where Are You From? Project
Alessandra B. Von Burg
Part 4 Affect and Media Imagery
10 Battling Identity Warfare on the Imagined US/México Border: Performing Migrant Alien in Independence Day and Battle: Los Angeles
Michael Lechuga
11 Affect, Emotion, and Immigration Rhetoric, or What Happens When a Minuteman Lives with Unauthorized Immigrants?
J. David Cisneros
Afterword: Tracking the “Shifting Borders” of Identity and Otherness; Productive Complications and Ethico-Political Commitments
D. Robert DeChaine
About the Contributors
“In its careful analysis of the rhetoric surrounding immigration, The Rhetorics of US Immigration astutely links historical and current rhetorical strategies to shed light on the complexity of an increasingly polarized public debate. This work gives readers pertinent examples for practical application in rhetorically shaping how immigration is discussed and ultimately addressed politically.”
