Children of Immigrants, Belonging, and Citizenship - Leo Chavez

Pacific Basin Research Center Presents

Leo Chavez

“Children of Immigrants, Belonging, and Citizenship”

March 4, 2014 5:00-6:30 p.m.
Pauling Hall 216

Soka University is proud to welcome Leo Chavez, UCI Professor of Anthropology. Children of immigrants is one of the controversial outcomes of global labor demand and migration. In this talk, Chavez examines the discourse surrounding “anchor babies,” language used to justify exclusionary public policies and attempts to redefine citizenship. This could render a new category of U.S. born/non-citizens as a possible caste in American society, thereby fostering an “insiders vs. outsiders” environment, and ultimately worsening the stigma already experienced by today’s undocumented immigrants.

Professor Chavez’s research examines various issues related to transnational migration, immigrants and medical care, cultural models of cancer risk factors, and media constructions of the “immigrant” and the “nation.” He is the author of many books including The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation and Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society, which provides an ethnographic account of Mexican and Central American undocumented immigrants in San Diego, CA.