Spaces of (non-citizen) Citizenship: The Liminal Politics of Undocumented Activism

Since the turn of the century, urban scholars have argued that the city is the site par excellence for the emergence of new political subjects who are changing the face of citizenship. The mobilization of undocumented immigrants is often invoked as an example of this trend. What remains unclear, however, is how these precarious subjects, who are barred from institutional channels to voice their grievances and who have little access to resources, become political.

This paper explains how the city operates as a vehicle for the politicization of undocumented immigrants. I introduce a theoretical understanding of ‘liminal politics’ that focuses on the symbolic and spatial practices whereby the undocumented, who find themselves between and betwixt statuses, enact and perform citizenship. Based on a multi-sited ethnography of undocumented activism in Chicago and Brussels, I show how such a liminal politics relies on urban space in two ways: first, by its dependence on safe spaces wherein the undocumented can (re-)imagine themselves as citizens and second, by its use of public space as a theatrical stage to express rights-claims. This study thus shows that urban space is a crucial political resource for relatively marginalized populations’ struggles over citizenship.