Borderline citizens : the United States, Puerto Rico, and the politics of colonial migration / Robert C. McGreevey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McGreevey, Robert, author.

Series:

United States in the world.

The United States in the world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Puerto Ricans--United States--History--20th century.

Puerto Ricans.

Puerto Ricans--Migrations--History--20th century.

Citizenship--United States--History--20th century.

Citizenship.

Puerto Rico--Colonial influence.

Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.

United States--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource.)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca ; London : Cornell University Press, 2018.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Borderline Citizens explores the intersection of US colonial power and Puerto Rican migration. Robert C. McGreevey examines a series of confrontations in the early decades of the twentieth century between colonial migrants seeking work and citizenship in the metropole and various groups-employers, colonial officials, court officers, and labor leaders-policing the borders of the US economy and polity. Borderline Citizens deftly shows the dynamic and contested meaning of American citizenship.At a time when colonial officials sought to limit citizenship through the definition of Puerto Rico as a US territory, Puerto Ricans tested the boundaries of colonial law when they migrated to California, Arizona, New York, and other states on the mainland. The conflicts and legal challenges created when Puerto Ricans migrated to the US mainland thus serve, McGreevey argues, as essential, if overlooked, evidence crucial to understanding U.S. empire and citizenship.McGreevey demonstrates the value of an imperial approach to the history of migration. Drawing attention to the legal claims migrants made on the mainland, he highlights the agency of Puerto Rican migrants and the efficacy of their efforts to find an economic, political, and legal home in the United States. At the same time, Borderline Citizens demonstrates how colonial institutions shaped migration streams through a series of changing colonial legal categories that tracked alongside corporate and government demands for labor mobility. McGreevey describes a history shaped as much by the force of US power overseas as by the claims of colonial migrants within the United States.

Contents:

Introduction : migration and empire

America's Caribbean frontier

The rise of national status

Labor networks

Citizenship and statelessness

Working people going north

The Empire State : colonial migrants in New York

Conclusion : U.S. empire and the boundaries of the nation.

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781501764608

1501764608

9781501716164

1501716166

OCLC:

1013998153