Borderline Citizens

C. McGreevey Robert

Description

Borderline Citizens explores the intersection of U.S. colonial power and Puerto Rican migration. Robert C. McGreevey examines a series of confrontations in the early decades of the twentieth century between colonial migrants seeking work and citizenship in the metropole and various groups-employers, colonial officials, court officers, and labor leaders-policing the borders of the U.S. economy and polity. Borderline Citizens deftly shows the dynamic and contested meaning of American citizenship.At a time when colonial officials sought to limit citizenship through the definition of Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory, Puerto Ricans tested the boundaries of colonial law when they migrated to California, Arizona, New York, and other states on the mainland. The conflicts and legal challenges created when Puerto Ricans migrated to the U.S. mainland thus serve, McGreevey argues, as essential, if overlooked, evidence crucial to understanding U.S. empire and citizenship.McGreevey demonstrates the value of an imperial approach to the history of migration. Drawing attention to the legal claims migrants made on the mainland, he highlights the agency of Puerto Rican migrants and the efficacy of their efforts to find an economic, political, and legal home in the United States. At the same time, Borderline Citizens demonstrates how colonial institutions shaped migration streams through a series of changing colonial legal categories that tracked alongside corporate and government demands for labor mobility. McGreevey describes a history shaped as much by the force of U.S. power overseas as by the claims of colonial migrants within the United States.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• Puerto Rico
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis
• Migration
• Puerto Rico (homonymie)

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501716164
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

BORDERLINECITIZENS

Avolumeintheseries

TheUnitedStatesintheWorld EditedbyMarkPhilipBradley,DavidC.Engerman,AmyS.Greenberg,and Paul A. Kramer

A list of titles in this series is available at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

BORDERLINECITIZENS

TheUnitedStates,PuertoRico,and the Politics of Colonial Migration

RobertC.McGreevey

CornellUniversityPress IthacaandLondon

Copyright © 2018 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. First published 2018 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McGreevey, Robert, author. Title: Borderline citizens : the United States, Puerto Rico, and the politics of colonial migration / Robert C. McGreevey. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2018. | Series: The United States in the world | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017054548 (print) | LCCN 2017057127 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501716157 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501716164 (pdf ) | ISBN 9781501716140 | ISBN 9781501716140 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Puerto Ricans—United States—History—20th century. | Puerto Ricans—Migrations—History—20th century. | Puerto Rico—Colonial influence. | Puerto Rico—Emigration and immigration—History—20th century. | United States—Emigration and immigration—History—20th century. | Citizenship—United States—History—20th century. Classification: LCC E184.P85 (ebook) | LCC E184.P85 M38 2018 (print) | DDC 305.868/7295—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017054548

ForMiriam

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Migration and Empire

1. America’s Caribbean Frontier

2. The Rise of National Status

3. Labor Networks

4. Citizenship and Statelessness

5. “Working People Going North”

6. Colonial Migrants in New York

Conclusion: U.S. Empire and the Boundaries of the Nation

Notes

Bibliography

Index

ix

1

13

41

67

93

118

147

172

179

225

239

Acknowledgments

Thisbookbegannearlytenyearsago.Sincethen,theUnitedStatesin the Worldfield has developed rapidly to include exciting new studies that globalize the study of American history. As I have written this book, I have come to know many of those working in thisfield, and I have incurred many debts. It is a pleasure to thank all of those who have lent me their support and encouragement over the years. I have been privileged to work with an extraordinary group of histo- rians who have profoundly shaped my view of the world and my career as a historian. At Swarthmore, I thank in particular Timothy Burke, Bruce Dorsey, Pieter Judson, and Marjorie Murphy for opening new worlds to me. At Brandeis, I had the great fortune of working with David Engerman, Jac- queline Jones, Jane Kamensky, and Michael Willrich. Their influence can be seen throughout this book. I also thank Silvia Arrom and Peter Winn for tutoring me in Latin American history and encouraging me in my work. I owe special thanks to Christopher Capozzola for his invaluable feedback as I wrote this book and for becoming a great mentor to me. For thefinancial resources needed to travel to archives and write the manuscript, I am grateful for the support of the Crown fellowship from Brandeis University, the Stuart L. Bernath Dissertation Fellowship from the