Available for purchase here.

“This is an excellent book. It expands the terrain of philosophical discussions about justice and irregular migration. Reed-Sandoval shows how identities of race and class intersect with perceptions of legal status and why this matters from both philosophical and policy perspectives. More generally, the book demonstrates how much philosophical reflection can be enriched by moving beyond the clarification of principles and paying attention to what actually happens in the world.”—Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto

“Reed-Sandoval’s book offers a new approach to understanding the situation of undocumented persons in the United States: as a form of social identity. Her analysis will undoubtedly help us move from overly abstract and decontextualized debates about immigrant rights to a more realistic discussion about real world conditions and experiences. A must-read.”— Linda Martín Alcoff, Hunter College and the Graduate Center CUNY

Overview

Socially Undocumented: Identity and Immigration Justice explores how “being socially undocumented” in the United States constitutes having a “real” social identity, and what this means for immigration justice within the United States and on a global scale. It argues phenomenologically that people with “socially undocumented identity” are those who are (a) presumed to be undocumented on the mere basis of their appearances; and (b) subjected to oppressive immigration-related constraints on that basis. On a normative level, it argues that the fact that many people experience both (a) and (b) constitutes immigration injustice in the United States (and beyond). The book also explores moral challenges connected to pregnancy and socially undocumented identity, and it offers a new perspective on the philosophical open borders debate.

For more information, check out my interview with Sarah K. Tyson at the New Books Network about Socially Undocumented, and this symposium on the book in Philosophy Today.

Available for pre-order here.

“Unique and timely, Latin American Immigration Ethics takes seriously the heterogeneity of experiences that makes up Latin American immigration and lends it philosophical dimension. A significant contribution to the literature, the essays included here are singularly unique. Required reading for anyone interested in this topic.”—Carlos Alberto Sánchez, author of A Sense of Brutality: Philosophy and Narco Culture

Overview

Following an extended period of near silence on the subject, many social and political philosophers are now treating immigration as a central theme of the discipline. For the first time, this edited volume brings together original works by prominent philosophers writing about immigration ethics from within a Latin American context.

Without eschewing relevant conceptual resources derived from European and Anglo-American philosophies, the essays in this book emphasize Latin American and Latinx philosophies, decolonial and feminist theories, and Indigenous philosophies of Latin America, in the pursuit of an immigration ethics. The contributors explore the moral challenges of immigration that either arise within Latin America, or when Latin Americans and Latina/o/xs migrate to and reside within the United States. Uniquely, some chapters focus on south to south migration. Contributors also examine Latina/o/x experiences in the United States, addressing the lacuna of philosophical writing on migration, maternity, and childhood.

Latin American Immigration Ethics advances philosophical conversations and debates about immigration by theorizing migration from the Latin American and Latinx context.

Contributors
Luis Rubén Díaz Cepeda, Lori Gallegos, Margaret Griesse, Eduardo Mendieta, José Jorge Mendoza, Amos Nascimento, Carlos Pereda, Silvana Rabinovich, Amy Reed-Sandoval, Raul Villarroel, Allison Wolf