Undocumented citizens? Undocumented migrants and contestations of citizenship in Los Angeles

In this paper, I investigate contestations of citizenship made by undocumented migrants in Los Angeles. Drawing on recent field-work, I reflect upon three examples (student activism, worker cooperatives and parent mobilisations) where undocumented migrants are engaged in acts of contestation. I also reflect upon Council initiatives which recognise the place of undocumented migrants in the life of the city. Together, these public modes of recognition and acts of contestation are transforming the terms of political association in ways that challenge prevailing norms of nation-state citizenship. The challenge occurs not only on account of the incorporation of undocumented people, but also on account of the spatial reference points for political belonging. In other words, the city provides a locus for emerging citizen-subjectivities that do not conform to national-territorial norms. Consequently, I argue for a place-based approach to the study of citizenship dynamics. Such an approach, I suggest, can shed important light on the co-implication of emerging citizen-subjects and new geographies (global cities and translocal flows) that increasingly shape social relations in the context of globalization.