U.S. Great Transformation: The Contractualization of Citizenship and the Immicration Regime

Abstract

A “zero-tolerance” immigration policy is an integral part of U.S.political economy. The immigrant “question” is politicized, as its push and pull factors vanish in the midst of xenophobia. This paper provides an institutional perspective to study contemporary immigration. It approaches U.S. migrant “question” from a Great Transformation perspective by interpolatingthe ideas of labor commodification and citizenship’s contractualization(Somers, 2008). The shift towards criminalizing unauthorized immigrants illustrates the commodifying path of citizenship. Immigrant struggles unfold a Double Movement. A social force that recreates an alternativenotion of citizenship, in an attempt to re-embedtheeconomy into its social fabric