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Alien

  1. definition
  2. examples and/or illustrations
  3. other useful sources
  4. bibliography


Definition

noun

  1. a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization (distinguished from citizen).
  2. a foreigner.
  3. a person who has been estranged or excluded.

Dictionary.com. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alien?s=t
(Accessed January 4, 2013).

adjective

  1. belonging to a foreign country: an alien culture

noun

  1. a foreigner, especially one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where he or she is living: an enemy alien

The Oxford Online Dictionaries. (2012). Oxford University Press. Retrieved from: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/alien?q=alien (Accessed January 4, 2013).

 

  1.  (a.) Wholly different in nature; foreign; adverse; inconsistent (with); incongruous; – followed by from or sometimes by to; as, principles alien from our religion.
  2. (n.) One excluded from certain privileges; one alienated or estranged; as, aliens from God’s mercies.
  3. (a.) Not belonging to the same country, land, or government, or to the citizens or subjects thereof; foreign; as, alien subjects, enemies, property, shores.
  4. (n.) A foreigner; one owing allegiance, or belonging, to another country; a foreign-born resident of a country in which he does not possess the privileges of a citizen. Hence, a stranger.

Thinkexist.com. Retrieved from: http://en.thinkexist.com/dictionary/meaning/alien/ (Accessed January 4, 2013).

A person who is not a national of a given State.

International Organization for Migration. (2004). International Migration Law: Glossary on Migration. Retrieved from http://http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/IML_1_EN.pdf (Accessed January 4, 2013).

Any person not a citizen or national of the United States.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retrieved from: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=ec21136d2035f010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=b328194d3e88d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD (Accessed January 4, 2013).

“… nationalism not only defines the members of the nation’ it also defines those who do not belong, such as the foreigner of the alien. To the extent that nationalism creates an almost sacred bond between the members of the nation and ‘alienizes’ those outside the nation, nationalism is a type of political religion that not only inevitably creates but also needs boundaries. One cannot have the national without the racialized alien. In this regard, the national and the alien are inextricably linked in nationalist thought and practice” (Nevins, :157).

“The illegal alien designation invokes a representation of people who are outside of society. The illegal alien designation invokes images of foreign, repulsive, threatening, even extraterrestrial beings … foreigners, people from outside our world, who are invading and threatening our lives, ‘the quality of our life’” (Mehan, 1997: 258).

 

Examples and/or Illustrations

“In the case of the United States, although the unauthorized immigrant is very much part of a transnational society of which the country is a part – that is, of a network of social relations that go and emanate from beyond U.S. territory, that impact upon Americans, and that Americans help to produce and reproduce – the dominant view is to regard the ‘illegal alien’ as someone whose supposed criminal activity (in violating immigration laws) is independent of the actions of people and institutions in the United States. Thus, the ‘illegal’ is someone for whom the U.S. society need not accept any responsibility” (Nevins, : 140).

Aliens and Immigration Law, Cap. 105 (1959 edition, last amended in 2001) [Cyprus], Cap. 105, 19 June 1952, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3fbde7762.html.  [accessed 23 February 2013]

Aliens Act [Slovenia], 61/99, 30 July 1999, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b59c14.html.  [accessed 23 February 2013]

 

Other Useful Sources

Bosniak, L. (2006). The citizen and the alien: dilemmas of contemporary membership. Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retrieved from: http://www.uscis.gov (Accessed on January 4, 2013).

 

Bibliography

Dictionary.com. “Alien”. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alien?s=t (Accessed January 4, 2013).

International Organization for Migration. (2004). “Alien”. International Migration Law: Glossary on Migration. Retrieved from http://http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/IML_1_EN.pdf (Accessed January 4, 2013).

Mehan, H. (1997). “The Discourse of the Illegal Immigration Debate: A Case Study of the Politics of Representation”. Discourse and Society, 8(2), 249-270.

Nevins, J. (2002). “Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the “Illegal Alien” and the Making of the U.S. Mexico Boundary”. Routledge: London, New York.

Oxford Online Dictionaries, The. (2012). “Alien”. Oxford University Press Online. Retrieved from: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/alien?q=alien (Accessed January 4, 2013).

Thinkexist.com. “Alien”. Retrieved from: http://en.thinkexist.com/dictionary/meaning/alien/ (Accessed January 4, 2013).

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Glossary of Terms: Alien”. Retrieved from: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=ec21136d2035f010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=b328194d3e88d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD (Accessed January 4, 2013).

 

Other related words (may be concepts):

  • Illegal Migrant
  • Undocumented Migrant