Udani, Adriano A.2012-01-032012-01-032011-11https://hdl.handle.net/11299/119358University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. Major: Political science. November 2011. Advisors: Dara Strolovitch and Joe Soss. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 293 pages.To what extent and in what ways do public policies on the treatment of noncitizens in America shape mass public beliefs and perceptions about membership in a democratic republic? This dissertation uses an intersectional framework that redeploys the construction of target population theory to better capture the hierarchy of power relations which structure noncitizen membership in America. I depart from dominant works that commonly analyze noncitizen membership by identifying individual-level characteristics that promote integration; studying policy decisions as outputs of unique social contexts; and, using static binary distinctions of deservingness and undeservingness. Instead, I examine the ways in which U.S. immigration policies rearticulate racism and the relationships that race has with other axes of disadvantage involving ethnicity, class, gender, and citizenship. By using a unique dataset of state immigration policies between 1997 and 2010 and national public opinion studies, I investigate how four dominant policy designs that construct American membership send political messages about noncitizens as foreign entrants with criminal intents; as applicants who are required to prove their value in America; as cultural minorities who are deprived and needy; and, as embattled people who must contest and remain resilient against institutionalized inequalities.en-USFederalismImmigrationInequalityMembershipRace genderSocial controlThesis or Dissertation