Why read We Are Not Dreamers?

Book cover of We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States

Book description

The widely recognized "Dreamer narrative" celebrates the educational and economic achievements of undocumented youth to justify a path to citizenship. While a well-intentioned, strategic tactic to garner political support of undocumented youth, it has promoted the idea that access to citizenship and rights should be granted only to a select…

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Why read it?

1 author picked We Are Not Dreamers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Sarah Tosh

Author

I loved this anthology of writing by undocumented scholars for its disruption of the “dreamer” narrative so popular in mainstream arguments for the rights and potential of immigrant youth.

Reading the essays in this edited volume, I was struck by the many ways this meritocratic narrative denies the nuances that define the everyday lives of undocumented people, privileging one specific picture of the “deserving” immigrant who should receive legal status and human rights.

I appreciate the diverse perspectives included—particularly those often excluded from this picture of deservingness—for example, Black, queer, trans, and criminalized migrants, as well as older people, parents,…

From Sarah's list on challenge the “good immigrant/bad immigrant” binary.