Place and presence within Salvadoran deportees’ narratives of removal

Abstract

Based on life history interviews conducted with 1.5 generation Salvadorans who were raised in the United States and then deported to El Salvador, this article examines the displaced subjectivities being produced through intensified deportation regimes. Current theorizations of deportation are extended by examining the transition to illegality experienced by youth who may have thought their place in the United States was secure. Youths’ narratives of removal construct alternative measures of belonging and suggest that the inscription of places within persons cannot be undone merely by removing a person from a particular territory.