RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Jacobo Suárez, Mónica L. A1 Despagne, Colette I. A1 Chávez, Guadalupe YR 2022 T1 Return migrants from the United States to Mexico: Constructing alternative notions of citizenship through acts of (linguistic) citizenship JF Journal of Language and Politics VO 21 IS 4 SP 567 OP 588 DO https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.21004.jac PB John Benjamins SN 1569-2159, AB Abstract

This article examines Mexican return migrants belonging to the 1.5 generation of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Our analysis disaggregates the notions that these return migrants have regarding “being Mexican” and speaking Spanish after spending most of their lives in the U.S. Building on critical citizenship theories (Isin 2008, 2009), specifically on the concepts of status, habitus, and acts, we analyze how these return migrants experience and build notions of citizenship in Mexico while they develop additional linguistic repertoires in Spanish and acquire basic knowledge of Mexican culture. Our findings suggest that return migrants go through various simultaneous learning processes to acquire Mexican habitus in Mexico even though they acquire formal citizenship. This learning process we argue occurs amidst multiple social, linguistic, and cultural tensions that trigger important acts of (linguistic) citizenship through which returnees found their own definition of what it means to be “Mexican”., UL https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.21004.jac