Overview

Contentious Citizenship reshapes how we understand belonging, identity, and political participation in the context of migration. Drawing on decades of Salvadoran activism from the 1980s solidarity movement to the post–civil war era, Arely M. Zimmerman offers a powerful ethnographic account of how migrants challenge exclusionary state practices and redefine citizenship on their own terms using transnational networks and revolutionary politics that transcend borders. Drawing on nearly fifty interviews with activists who fled El Salvador, Zimmerman traces how political refugees carried with them strategies of resistance and community organizing that shaped social justice movements in the United States. The book addresses the political turmoil and grassroots mobilizations in El Salvador, the sanctuary movement of the 1980s, contemporary activism, and the impact of women’s strategies and forms of resistance. Essential reading for scholars and students of migration, Central American studies, and political movements, Contentious Citizenship is a bold intervention into contemporary debates on identity, legality, and resistance. Zimmerman’s work honors the ingenuity and resilience of Salvadoran activists and invites readers to consider what it means to belong.

Full Product Details

9780816554614

Table of Contents

Reviews

""The book brims with theoretical contributions and sharp analysis. Zimmerman's brilliant engagement with the history of Salvadoran political activism offers a powerful intervention that will recast our knowledge of immigrant political mobilizations in multiple consequential ways. Indispensable reading for scholars and students of Central America, political movements, immigrant mobilizations, and beyond. I recommend it wholeheartedly!""--Cecilia Menjívar, author of Enduring Violence: Ladina Women's Lives in Guatemala ""Contentious Citizenship offers a refreshing, timely, and critical account of the Salvadoran diaspora's political activities in the age of displacement. . . . Zimmerman reveals the ingenuity, pragmatism, and political savvy of Salvadoran activists across generations who struggle against hardening social structures to redefine the contours of their belonging.""--Jorge E. Cuéllar, Dartmouth Colleg

“The book brims with theoretical contributions and sharp analysis. Zimmerman’s brilliant engagement with the history of Salvadoran political activism offers a powerful intervention that will recast our knowledge of immigrant political mobilizations in multiple consequential ways. Indispensable reading for scholars and students of Central America, political movements, immigrant mobilizations, and beyond. I recommend it wholeheartedly!”—Cecilia Menjívar, author of Enduring Violence: Ladina Women’s Lives in Guatemala “Contentious Citizenship offers a refreshing, timely, and critical account of the Salvadoran diaspora’s political activities in the age of displacement. . . . Zimmerman reveals the ingenuity, pragmatism, and political savvy of Salvadoran activists across generations who struggle against hardening social structures to redefine the contours of their belonging.”—Jorge E. Cuéllar, Dartmouth College

Author Information

Arely M. Zimmerman is associate professor in the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies at Pomona College.

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