Acts of citizenship analyzed from the Critical Citizenship Studies: the DREAMer-undocumented case

Abstract

This paper studies the complex relationship between citizenship and migration. To contribute to their understanding, it is used as theoretical approach the discussions of the Critical Citizenship Studies of (CCS), specifically the category of acts of citizenship. Therefore, the DREAMer-Undocumented movement is used as a case study. Composed of young undocumented migrants living in the United States and who are organized to obtain U.S. citizenship and change the immigration policies that created illegality. The objective of this paper is to know if the protest repertoire of that movement can be understood as an act of citizenship. The result of the analysis shows that the movement performs acts of citizenship, but only after the breakdown of the movement’s narrative. Therefore, it is concluded that undocumented migrants carry out acts of citizenship, even though they are not legally citizens.