Documenting the undocumented: Toward a queer politics of no borders. (December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: White, Melissa Autumn
• Editors: Lewis, Rachel A; Naples, Nancy A
• Is Part Of: Sexualities. Volume 17:Number 8(2014:Dec.)
• Page Start: 976
• Page End: 997
• Publication Date: 2014-12
• Subjects: Anti-deportation politics -- methodological nationalism -- queer migration -- undocumented migrant activism -- undocuqueer; Sex -- Periodicals; Sex customs -- Periodicals; Sex (Psychology) -- Periodicals; 306.705
• DOI: 10.1177/1363460714552263
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1363-4607

Abstract

This article explores the challenges of developing queer migrant justice strategies within nation-state contexts. With a focus on the Toronto-based 'Let Alvaro Stay' campaign (2011) and Julio Salgado's collaborative 'I Am Undocuqueer' project, I critically examine queer anti-deportation activists' reliance on methodological nationalisms and visibility politics in making claims hearable to the state. While such tactics risk reinforcing the nation-state as a primary site of identification, thereby contributing to its naturalization as an inevitable horizon of belonging, I argue that they also open space for imagining queer(er) no borders futures.