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Legal–Spatial Consciousness: A Legal Geography Framework for Examining Migrant Illegality
Author(s) -
Flores Andrea,
Escudero Kevin,
Burciaga Edelina
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/lapo.12120
Subject(s) - immigration , legal consciousness , variety (cybernetics) , space (punctuation) , consciousness , state (computer science) , sociology , destinations , law , political science , criminology , tourism , psychology , algorithm , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , computer science , linguistics , philosophy
Here we advance the concept of legal–spatial consciousness—an individual's awareness of how law and space are mutually formed and influential on their lives. Through this concept, we explore how undocumented youth in a variety of American destinations understand and experience migrant illegality. By examining how immigration law and local places are imbricated, we demonstrate how immigrant illegality is defined not only by a patchwork of municipal, state, and federal laws, but also by how undocumented people move through these differently legal spaces in their everyday lives. Illegality is thus continually reproduced through individuals’ im/mobility through space.