Lisa Lowe's Immigrant Acts: On American Writing, Citizenship, Law, and Labor challenges foundational assumptions about American identity and the very definition of the "immigrant." Published in 1996, the book argues that U.S. literary and cultural narratives have historically constructed a white, male, propertied citizen, thereby marginalizing and rendering invisible those deemed "alien." Lowe persuasively contends that citizenship is not an inherent status but a performance, deeply intertwined with racial and laboring identities. By analyzing texts from figures like Sui Sin Far, John Okada, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Lowe demonstrates how these writers, through their literary work, actively resisted and complicated the legal and social categories imposed upon them. This essay will explore Lowe's central argument that the concept of the immigrant is inseparable from the racialized and economic forces that shape American belonging, and how her work offers a crucial lens for understanding ongoing struggles for inclusion and recognition.
Lowe’s foundational argument is that the American nation-state has consistently defined itself against a racialized and foreign "other." This "other," she argues, is not merely a foreigner but a figure whose labor and presence are essential yet perpetually suspect. The legal framework of citizenship, Lowe asserts, has historically been deployed to manage and control racialized populations, dictating who belongs and who remains outside the bounds of full personhood. She points to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 as a stark example, illustrating how federal law explicitly barred an entire racial group from entry and naturalization, thereby establishing a precedent for race-based immigration policies. This act, Lowe suggests, didn't just regulate immigration; it actively produced a category of "non-citizen" based on race, whose very existence highlighted the constructed nature of American citizenship. The writings of Sui Sin Far (Edith Eaton) become particularly significant here. Lowe analyzes Far's short stories, such as "Mrs. Spring Fragrance," to show how Far subtly subverted stereotypes of Chinese women as passive or unassimilated. Far’s characters, while navigating American society, often engage in forms of cultural translation and adaptation that don't erase their heritage but refigure it within an American context, thereby challenging the binary of inclusion/exclusion that the law sought to enforce.
Furthermore, Lowe expands her critique by examining the intersection of labor and racialization. She argues that the "immigrant" is often conceived as a source of cheap, exploitable labor, a perception that fuels both economic exploitation and racial prejudice. This connection is particularly evident in the post-World War II literary landscape she explores. John Okada’s No-No Boy (1957), for instance, grapples with the experiences of Japanese Americans interned during the war and those who resisted the draft, highlighting the complex position of those deemed both American and enemy alien. Lowe reads the novel as a powerful depiction of the psychological and social costs of being caught between competing loyalties and racialized suspicions. The protagonist, Ichiro, embodies the struggle for a coherent identity when the nation-state has already categorized him as fundamentally alien and suspect due to his race and his family's actions. This illustrates Lowe's point that the legal status of citizenship is insufficient to guarantee belonging when racialized laboring identities are at play; the legal alien remains a racialized alien, regardless of birthplace or aspirations.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's DICTEE (1982) offers a different, yet complementary, mode of literary resistance that Lowe finds compelling. DICTEE is a multimedia work that blends poetry, prose, and images to explore the fragmented and diasporic experience of Korean immigrants. Lowe interprets Cha's experimental approach as a deliberate attempt to disrupt linear narratives of assimilation and national belonging. The work’s formal innovation mirrors the fractured identities of its subjects, who are simultaneously positioned as historical actors and spectral presences within American discourse. By refusing easy categorization and embracing multiplicity, Cha, as analyzed by Lowe, moves beyond the legal and racial constraints that define the "immigrant" as a fixed subject. DICTEE presents a subject whose identity is fluid, multilingual, and diasporic, resisting the totalizing gaze of the nation-state that seeks to define and contain. This literary strategy, for Lowe, represents a powerful act of reclaiming agency and challenging the very categories of citizenship and alienage.
In conclusion, Lisa Lowe’s Immigrant Acts provides an indispensable framework for understanding how American literary traditions have been shaped by, and have in turn reinforced, racialized notions of citizenship and labor. By moving beyond a purely legal definition of the immigrant, Lowe reveals how race and economic exploitation have been central to the construction of American identity. The writers she examines actively engaged with these forces, using literature to expose the limitations of existing categories and to articulate alternative forms of belonging. Lowe’s work remains critically relevant, urging us to continually question who is included in the national body and on what terms, and how literary and cultural productions can serve as sites of resistance against exclusionary policies and perceptions.