Women and children in a neighborhood advocacy group: engaging community and refashioning citizenship at the United States-Mexico border
This article looks at the community participation of recent Latina immigrant mothers and their children in a neighborhood advocacy group near the US-Mexico border. It documents the work that women and children do as they struggle to become involved in their new community and improve their quality of life - despite legal, social, economic and cultural obstacles. Local context, family and ethnic networks, gendered patterns of women's experiences as immigrants and children participation in 'adult' decision-making are hugely important in understanding their community engagement. The article reflects on the advocacy work that women and children perform through a neighborhood group to argue for a difference-centered perspective on citizenship that is inspired by feminist thinking. Such a perspective makes sense in light of the ironic tensions within neo-liberal policies that, on the one hand, burden people with more responsibilities while, on the other hand, legislating against their freedom to pursue those responsibilities.
Keywords: children; citizenship; difference; women
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA
Publication date: 01 April 2011
- Editorial Board
- Information for Authors
- Subscribe to this Title
- Ingenta Connect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content