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Migrant Crossings examines the experiences and representations of Asian and Latina/o migrants trafficked in the United States into informal economies and service industries. Through sociolegal and media analysis of court records, press releases, law enforcement campaigns, film representations, theatre performances, and the law, Annie Isabel Fukushima questions how we understand victimhood, criminality, citizenship, and legality.
Fukushima examines how migrants legally cross into visibility, through frames of citizenship, and narratives of victimhood. She explores the interdisciplinary framing of the role of the law and the legal system, the notion of "perfect victimhood", and iconic victims, and how trafficking subjects are resurrected for contemporary movements as illustrated in visuals, discourse, court records, and policy.
Migrant Crossings deeply interrogates what it means to bear witness to migration in these migratory times-and what such migrant crossings mean for subjects who experience violence during or after their crossing.
List of contents
Introduction:
1. An American Haunting: Witnessing Human Trafficking and Ghostly Exclusions
2. Legal Control of Migrant Crossings: Citizenship, Labor, and Racialized Sexualities
3. "Perfect Victims" and Labor Migration
4. Witnessing Legal Narratives, Court Performances, and Translations of Peruvian Domestic Work
5. (Living)Dead Subjects: Mamasans, Sex Slaves, and Sexualized Economies
Conclusion:
About the author
Annie Isabel Fukushima is Assistant Professor in the Ethnic Studies Division in the School for Cultural and Social Transformation at the University of Utah.
