Reproducing Citizens through U.S. Militarism: Amerasians and Descent-Based Membership.
详细信息
- 作者：Yoon ; Diana H.
- 学历：Doctor
- 年：2010
- 导师：Harrington, Christine B.,eadvisorMerry, Sally E.ecommittee memberRodriguez, Cristina M.ecommittee memberYoung, Marilyn B.ecommittee memberShimakawa, Karenecommittee member
- 毕业院校：New York University
- Department：Law and Society Program
- ISBN：9781124332970
- CBH：3428057
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：786254
- Pages：215
文摘
Amerasians---mixed race children born in the context of U.S. military presence in Asia---have a long history in nations that have hosted American military bases. However, it was in the aftermath of the Vietnam War that the U.S. government formally acknowledged American obligations toward them, culminating in legislation to facilitate their relocation to the United States. The making of Amerasian populations involved sexual, biological, and affective ties through which the citizenry is reproduced based on parentage. Examining how Amerasians became subjects of U.S. law reveals the linkages between citizenship, legal construction of parent-child ties, and imperatives of U.S. militarism. While the projection of U.S. military power abroad subsumes foreign populations and generates entanglements that create potential citizens, the parallel to this process is the exclusionary nature of membership, consisting of norms and principles that restrict access to citizenship. This dissertation argues that the nexus of these expansionist and exclusionary processes is integral to the reproduction of citizens and citizenship practices. The interests and values guiding the deployment of U.S. military power in foreign affairs manifest in exclusionary criteria for determining who is and is not entitled to the status of citizenship. Through an analysis of the multiple sites of legality through which the citizenship status of children born to Vietnamese women and American military personnel was determined---legislative, administrative, and juridical---this dissertation demonstrates the interdependent relationship between the legal status of citizenship and the practices through which subjects of citizenship are produced. In doing so, this study reveals the work of law in mediating the manner in which the normative world of war and militarism collides with the aspirations of equality and inclusion embodied in citizenship: law preserves the concept of equality in membership even as it legitimizes unequal and nonconsensual conditions for acquiring citizenship.