Briana Nichols
University of Pennsylvania, Anthropology, Graduate Student
- Immigrant Detention, International Migration and Immigration Policy, Asylum seekers, Anthropology, Irregular Migration, Migration (Anthropology), and 19 moreTransnational migration, Migration Studies, Citizenship, Migration, Immigration Status & Nationality, Humanitarianism, Forced Migration, NGOs (Anthropology), Undocumented Immigration, Labor Migration, Immigration, International Migration, Security Studies, Foucault power/knowledge - discourse, Refugees and Forced Migration Studies, Critical Security Studies, Social Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, and Global Citizenshipedit
This paper ethnographically explores how indigenous Guatemalan youth come to desire non-migration despite local social-geographical contexts of extensive mobility. The 2014 the emergence of a ‘cris...
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Research Interests:
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This chapter focuses on the impact of development discourses of biomedical care and transnational approaches to maternal pregnancy-related care among the indigenous Maya of Guatemala. Despite efforts by the Guatemalan government and... more
This chapter focuses on the impact of development discourses of biomedical care and transnational approaches to maternal pregnancy-related care among the indigenous Maya of Guatemala. Despite efforts by the Guatemalan government and collaboration with international advocates, indigenous Maya maternal mortality rates remain a significant concern. Approaches to reducing maternal mortality have been supported by both international and national initiatives focused on “safe motherhood,” and often involve a complex assemblage of caregivers who span both state run and nongovernmental organization (NGO)-based programming. The structures of care are incredibly complicated to navigate, often forcing women and their families to incur hidden costs associated with transportation, medication, and supplies. They serve to reproduce discourses that place indigenous practices in contrast with “modernity,” and ultimately neglect the critical social role of successful home birth for Mayan women. This chapter argues that discourses of development naturalizing childbirth in Western medical settings positions indigenous birthing practices as immoral and uninformed, and obscures the larger structural issues Mayan women and communities face. Constructing Mayan women as not only uniformed but also immoral does not serve the goal of reducing maternal mortality or morbidity.
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Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic engagement in Guatemala with Indigenous youth, local community organizations, and transnational nongovernmental organizations, this article examines how young people imagine and work toward alternative... more
Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic engagement in Guatemala with Indigenous youth, local community organizations, and transnational nongovernmental organizations, this article examines how young people imagine and work toward alternative futures at the intersection of extensive migration and a developmentalist push for educational attainment. I show how, within the development infrastructures generated by migration, contrasting futures are rendered, with concerns over education being a key site for this imaginative and future‐oriented work.
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Sharp increases in “child migrants” from Central America detained at the US border in 2014 brought unprecedented levels of attention to long extant social and political issues perceived as causing youth migration. While governments on... more
Sharp increases in “child migrants” from Central America detained at the US border in 2014 brought unprecedented levels of attention to long extant social and political issues perceived as causing youth migration. While governments on both sides of the US border faced criticism over responses to the migration “crisis,” the presumed causes of this migration presented in US media discourses went largely unquestioned. This article presents data collected in June 2015 from in-depth interviews with Guatemalan and transnational non-governmental organization (NGO) staff, scholars, lawyers, and activists in order to understand the complex interpretations of child migration by NGO actors in Guatemala. Findings illustrate how NGOs may selectively draw on the power of prevailing media narratives to buttress ideological and programmatic goals while simultaneously contesting how the same media depictions obscure the lived realities of migrants. We consider the transnational information politics ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper ethnographically explores how indigenous Guatemalan youth come to desire non-migration despite local social-geographical contexts of extensive mobility. The 2014 the emergence of a ‘cris...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Sharp increases in “child migrants” from Central America detained at the US border in 2014 brought unprecedented levels of attention to long extant social and political issues perceived as causing youth migration. While governments on... more
Sharp increases in “child migrants” from Central America detained at the US border in 2014 brought unprecedented levels of attention to long extant social and political issues perceived as causing youth migration. While governments on both sides of the US border faced criticism over responses to the migration “crisis,” the presumed causes of this migration presented in US media discourses went largely unquestioned. This article presents data collected in June 2015 from in-depth interviews with Guatemalan and transnational non-governmental organization (NGO) staff, scholars, lawyers, and activists in order to understand the complex interpretations of child migration by NGO actors in Guatemala. Findings illustrate how NGOs may selectively draw on the power of prevailing media narratives to buttress ideological and programmatic goals while simultaneously contesting how the same media depictions obscure the lived realities of migrants. We consider the transnational information politics ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article explores the use of “Mexicans Be Like” memes in terms of the heteroglossic tension they both employ and produce, and the ways in which meme examples creatively recontextualize ideas about immigration, the border, contested... more
This article explores the use of “Mexicans Be Like” memes in terms of the heteroglossic tension they both employ and produce, and the ways in which meme examples creatively recontextualize ideas about immigration, the border, contested histories, models of personhood, racialization and presumptions of social value. I understand these memes as an opportunity for viewers to position themselves in political, social and cultural landscapes, and in so doing contribute to an environment where consumers are not passive but quintessentially productive, altering the meme content, and redeploying them into new social domains. In an attempt to appreciate the work “Mexicans Be Like” memes do, I consider how the “Mexicans Be Like” meme produces and contests certain models of personhood and the social values associated with them. This piece explores how the producer/consumers of this meme are necessarily bricoleurs, constructing meaning via their thoughtful deployment of cultural, at times stereo...
This chapter focuses on the impact of development discourses of biomedical care and transnational approaches to maternal pregnancy-related care among the indigenous Maya of Guatemala. Despite efforts by the Guatemalan government and... more
This chapter focuses on the impact of development discourses of biomedical care and transnational approaches to maternal pregnancy-related care among the indigenous Maya of Guatemala. Despite efforts by the Guatemalan government and collaboration with international advocates, indigenous Maya maternal mortality rates remain a significant concern. Approaches to reducing maternal mortality have been supported by both international and national initiatives focused on “safe motherhood,” and often involve a complex assemblage of caregivers who span both state run and nongovernmental organization (NGO)-based programming. The structures of care are incredibly complicated to navigate, often forcing women and their families to incur hidden costs associated with transportation, medication, and supplies. They serve to reproduce discourses that place indigenous practices in contrast with “modernity,” and ultimately neglect the critical social role of successful home birth for Mayan women. This chapter argues that discourses of development naturalizing childbirth in Western medical settings positions indigenous birthing practices as immoral and uninformed, and obscures the larger structural issues Mayan women and communities face. Constructing Mayan women as not only uniformed but also immoral does not serve the goal of reducing maternal mortality or morbidity.
Research Interests:
In this paper we examine how resources, drawn from various spatial and temporal scales, contribute to shifts in how three Latina girls' deploy racial models of personhood as they move from eighth to eleventh grade. We argue that... more
In this paper we examine how resources, drawn from various spatial and temporal scales, contribute to shifts in how three Latina girls' deploy racial models of personhood as they move from eighth to eleventh grade. We argue that these changing perceptions are made possible by a set of contingent, heterogeneous resources, not by any predictable social or developmental process. We describe the relevant resources by telling the stories of Valeria and her friends Maria and Gabriela, as they move from middle school through high school in Marshall, a New Latino Diaspora town.
Research Interests:
This paper ethnographically explores how indigenous Guatemalan youth come to desire non-migration despite local social-geographical contexts of extensive mobility. The 2014 the emergence of a ‘crisis’ of youth migration at the U.S.... more
This paper ethnographically explores how indigenous Guatemalan youth come to desire non-migration despite local social-geographical contexts of extensive mobility. The 2014 the emergence of a ‘crisis’ of youth migration at the U.S. Southern border drew attention to the deep and longer-term reality of untenable conditions in the countries young people are fleeing. While significant scholarship has been dedicated to exploring the causes and conditions propelling youth migration, the experiences of young people en route, their reception in destination countries, and concerns over youth return and reintegration, little attention has been paid to young people who, in contexts of extensive migration, strive to remain in their communities of origin. This paper disrupts the mobility bias in migration studies and attends to the local and historically situated forces through which migratory contexts are heterogeneously experienced and engaged. In so doing, this research provides ethnographic material to demonstrate how desired immobility emerges in an overwhelmingly mobile context, illustrates the social, historical and structural fields that engage youth (im)mobilities, and argues for the analytic relevance of striving as a means by which desire is enacted (in this case the desire to stay put).
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Once a predominantly White and Black community, since 1990 Marshall has experienced a 900% increase in residents of Mexican origin. This rapid demographic shift is particularly evident in changes to how commercial and residential spaces... more
Once a predominantly White and Black community, since 1990 Marshall has experienced a 900% increase in residents of Mexican origin. This rapid demographic shift is particularly evident in changes to how commercial and residential spaces are owned and utilized. This article examines how residents of Marshall use spatiotemporal scales to imagine the economic and social trajectories of their town, and assign roles to different groups of people within these trajectories. We analyze how Marshall residents spacialize their accounts of community change by attending to two narratives that circulate simulta-neouslydthe first is about community renewal following the arrival of Mexican residents; the second is about Black flight in response to perceived community disintegration. By tracing the production and circulation of these narratives, we move beyond an analysis of " othering " that presupposes a native " us " and immigrant " them. " Instead, we explore how Marshall's diverse history of immigration, segregation, industrial development and decline produces heterogeneous, complex and shifting " others. "
In this paper we examine how resources, drawn from various spatial and temporal scales, contribute to shifts in how three Latina girls' deploy racial models of personhood as they move from eighth to eleventh grade. We argue that these... more
In this paper we examine how resources, drawn from various spatial and temporal scales, contribute to shifts in how three Latina girls' deploy racial models of personhood as they move from eighth to eleventh grade. We argue that these changing perceptions are made possible by a set of contingent, heterogeneous resources, not by any predictable social or developmental process. We describe the relevant resources by telling the stories of Valeria and her friends Maria and Gabriela, as they move from middle school through high school in Marshall, a New Latino Diaspora town.
This article explores the use of “Mexicans Be Like” memes in terms of the heteroglossic tension they both employ and produce, and the ways in which meme examples creatively recontextualize ideas about immigration, the border, contested... more
This article explores the use of “Mexicans Be Like” memes in terms of the heteroglossic tension they both employ and produce, and the ways in which meme examples creatively recontextualize ideas about immigration, the border, contested histories, models of personhood, racialization and presumptions of social value. I understand these memes as an opportunity for viewers to position themselves in political, social and cultural landscapes, and in so doing contribute to an environment where consumers are not passive but quintessentially productive, altering the meme content, and redeploying them into new social domains. In an attempt to appreciate the work “Mexicans Be Like” memes do, I consider how the “Mexicans Be Like” meme produces and contests certain models of personhood and the social values associated with them. This piece explores how the producer/consumers of this meme are necessarily bricoleurs, constructing meaning via their thoughtful deployment of cultural, at times stereotypic, referents. This article points to ways in which people produce meaning through their engagement with the meme form, using it to challenge dominant narratives in the context of a collaboratively produced Web 2.0 environment.
This book describes an American town that became home to thousands of Mexican migrants between 1995-2016, where the Mexican population increased by over 1000% and Mexicans became almost a third of the town. We explore how the descendants... more
This book describes an American town that became home to thousands of Mexican migrants between 1995-2016, where the Mexican population increased by over 1000% and Mexicans became almost a third of the town. We explore how the descendants of earlier migrants interacted with Mexican newcomers, describing how experiences of and stories about migration unfolded across institutional spaces—residential neighborhoods, politics, businesses, public spaces, churches, schools, community organizations. We emphasize the ongoing changes in prior migrant communities and the interactions these groups had with Mexicans, showing how interethnic relations played a central role in newcomers’ pathways. The book richly represents the voices of Irish, Italian, African American and Mexican residents.
The book shows how Mexicans’ experiences were shaped by stories about the town’s earlier cycles of migration. Many Irish, Italian and African American residents narrated an idealized but partly accurate history in which their ancestors came as migrants and traveled pathways from struggle to success—“up and out” of the less desirable downtown neighborhoods. We trace how these stories were often inaccurate, but nonetheless influenced the realities of migrant life.
The town in which this ethnography took place represents similar communities across the United States and around the world that have received large numbers of immigrants in a short time. We must document the complexities that migrants and hosts experience in towns like this if we hope to respond intelligently to the politically-motivated stories that oversimplify migration across the contemporary world.
The book shows how Mexicans’ experiences were shaped by stories about the town’s earlier cycles of migration. Many Irish, Italian and African American residents narrated an idealized but partly accurate history in which their ancestors came as migrants and traveled pathways from struggle to success—“up and out” of the less desirable downtown neighborhoods. We trace how these stories were often inaccurate, but nonetheless influenced the realities of migrant life.
The town in which this ethnography took place represents similar communities across the United States and around the world that have received large numbers of immigrants in a short time. We must document the complexities that migrants and hosts experience in towns like this if we hope to respond intelligently to the politically-motivated stories that oversimplify migration across the contemporary world.