Nicholas P. De Genova’s article “Migrant “Illegality” and Deportability in Everyday Life” sheds light on the construction of the term “illegality” and its influence in politics today. The example that stood out to me in particular was that of Mexican immigrants living in the United States. The existence of the terms “legal” and “illegal” make it significantly easier to form racially based biases and target specific groups in order to remove them from the country. We see this being very prevalent in the United States today, as the terms are heavily used in political discourse. Once a term is applied towards a group of people, it becomes very hard for a society to disconnect the tie and see them differently. This whole notion is very paradoxical to the ways in which immigrants are employed in the U.S., in that undocumented migrants are preferred because they can easily be exploited. Their lack of documentation allows their treatment and pay to go unnoticed, and corporations are able to profit exponentially more than if they had to report how many workers they actually had. After reading this piece, I realize what a shame it is that these people are so actively discriminated against, but are essential to the U.S. economy.

Another interesting aspect of the article was the concept of Mexican women coming to the United States in order to establish roots via having children. I compare this idea to the African migrants entering the EU, who are virtually all men. While both groups migrate to find better work opportunities, the Mexican women’s movement is very unique. Their migration is well warranted, but definitely sparks worry in the United States population, as they see this movement and subsequent births of children as a threat to their space, resources, and safety.