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The Thickening Borderlands

Diffused Exceptionality and ‘Immigrant’ Social Struggles during the ‘War on Terror’

University of Illinois, USA

I draw from ethnographic research in the Mexico-US borderlands,the immigrant social struggle in the United States, and interviews with organizations invested in the immigrant social struggle in Arizona, to explore the historically specific expansion of what I am calling the ‘borderlands condition’,or the coupling of ‘exceptionality’ with politicalimaginaries.The former term represents an iteration of the diffused governance of race.The article charts the plasticity of the exceptionality of the borderlands,its shift from militarized policing in the southwestern borderlands to the naturalization of a vigilantism in concert with the transnationally inflected immigrant social struggle, as representative of the borderlands condition.

Key Words: border • empire • migration • race • vigilantism

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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Rosas, G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?