Winner of the 2008 Outstanding Book Award given by the Global Division of the
Society for the Study of Social Problems
Michael Peter Smith and Matt Bakker spent five years carrying out ethnographic field research in multiple communities in the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Guanajuato and various cities in California, particularly metropolitan Los Angeles. Combining the information they gathered there with political-economic and institutional analysis, the five extended case studies in Citizenship across Borders offer a new way of looking at the emergent dynamics of transnational community development and electoral politics on both sides of the border. Smith and Bakker highlight the continuing significance of territorial identifications and state policies—particularly those of the sending state—in cultivating and sustaining transnational connections and practices. In so doing, they contextualize and make sense of the complex interplay of identity and loyalty in the lives of transnational migrant activists.
In contrast to high-profile warnings of the dangers to national cultures and political institutions brought about by long-distance nationalism and dual citizenship, Citizenship across Borders demonstrates that, far from undermining loyalty and diminishing engagement in U.S. political life, the practice of dual citizenship by Mexican migrants actually provides a sense of empowerment that fosters migrants' active civic engagement in American as well as Mexican politics.
Reviews
"Citizenship across Borders is based on ethnographic studies of Mexican migrants in the United States; this enables the authors to link policy design with outcomes. By focusing on specific immigrant sending states and receiving communities, Michael Peter Smith and Matt Bakker are able to present a very nuanced portrait of the development of a sustained transnational relationship."—Louis DeSipio, University of California, Irvine
"In this welcome contribution to the field, Michael Peter Smith and Matt Bakker provide uniquely rich material based on extensive fieldwork in Mexico and the United States. Through innovative analyses across multiple scales, Citizenship across Borders offers numerous theoretical and methodological advances surrounding the study of transnational political engagement."—Steven Vertovec, Professor of Transnational Anthropology, University of Oxford
About the Author
Michael Peter Smith is Professor of Community Studies and Development at the University of California, Davis. His books include Transnational Urbanism: Locating Globalization; City, State, and Market: The Political Economy of Urban Society; and The City and Social Theory. Matt Bakker is a Ph.D. student in sociology at the University of California, Davis.
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