Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-253) and index.
Contents:
The same, but different -- The right kind of love(r) -- Navigating the high stakes of US family reunification law -- (Dis)integrated families, (dis)integrated lives -- Institutional (in)visibility -- Parenthetical belonging.
Summary:
"An exploration of the ways love defies, survives, thrives, and dies as lovers contend with US immigration policy. For mixed-citizenship couples, getting married is the easy part. The U.S. Supreme Court has confirmed the universal civil right to marry, guaranteeing every couple's ability to wed. But the Supreme Court has denied that this right to marriage includes married couples' right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on U.S. soil, creating a challenge for mixed-citizenship couples whose individual-level rights do not translate to family-level protections. While U.S. citizens can extend legal inclusion to their spouses through family reunification, they must prove their worthiness and the worthiness of their love before their relationship will be officially recognized by the state. In this book, Jane Lopez examines U.S. family reunification law and its consequences as experienced by 56 mixed-citizenship American couples. These couples' stories of integration and alienation, of opportunity and inequality, of hope and despair make tangible the consequences of current U.S. immigration laws that tend to favor Whiteness, wealth, and heteronormativity, as well as the individual rather than the family unit, in awarding membership and official belonging. In examining the experiences of couples struggling to negotiate intimacy under the constraints of immigration policy, Lopez argues for a rethinking of citizenship as a family affair"-- Provided by the publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.