Black Lives in Limbo: Liberian Refugees, Migrant Justice, and the Narration of Antiblack U.S. Border Politics

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Very good paper.  Very profound.  The main problems I see concern the organization of the manuscript and the lack of clarity.  My comments are below.

1 State the research question(s) in the introduction.

2 Put the footnotes at the end of the document as endnotes.

3 The theoretical framework is unclear.  What body of literature is your study contributing to?  Is it racial justice? Immigrant justice? Black immigrant politics?

4 You may want to state hypotheses and findings.  I would suggest that the author(s) write an introduction that states the main theme (purpose) of the research, research questions, and then explain why they are studying Liberia and what they expect to find.  Each section should seek to answer the questions and contribute to the theme.  Include a theoretical framework or literature review section, a findings section, and a conclusion that summarizes the paper.  As written, the paper is interesting, but I'm confused about the body of literature you're contributing to.  In other words, what are you studying and what did you find?  Why are these findings important?  What can and should we learn from them?

Author Response

Thank you for your thoughtful and constructive feedback. I have taken your recommendations and incorporated them into a revised draft: 

Organization and Clarity:

1. Reviewer 1 articulated concern for the “organization of the manuscript and the lack of clarity” and provided some guidelines for overall organization of the article. 

I have reorganized the article to fit a more social science structure, including an Introduction that states the main purpose and research questions, a clear literature review section, findings that focus on the impact of extremist policies in the lives of DED holders, and a conclusion which summarizes the article and provides final thoughts regarding the special issue’s focus on authoritarianism.  

Literature Review:

1. Reviewer 1 remarked that the theoretical framework and literature review were missing and/or unclear. 

I have revised to make it explicit in the abstract and literature review section. I am drawing on antiblackness as a theoretical framework and explain in the literature review antiblackness’ utility for understanding the structural and ontological realities of blackness in the modern world. More, it takes seriously legacies of transatlantic slave trade, colonialism, patriarchal dominance as ongoing processes. In addition to establishing a clear, and separate literature review section, I situated my article within studies at the intersection of racial and migrant justice. This body of interdisciplinary work (history, ethnic studies, American studies, sociology, etc) emphasizes two points: 1) antiblackness as foundational to U.S. citizenship, immigration, and bordering politics rooting in history of African enslavement 2) Black immigrants disproportionate targeting and marginalization within this framework. My article focuses on the everyday realities of one group of Black migrants.

Methods:

1. Reviewer 1 recommended that the article spent too much space on history, especially colonialism. They also recommended foregoing the autoethnographic element for traditional content analysis of media outlets.

I agree that the section formally titled “Cycles of Colonial Displacement” was lengthy. I have retitled this section as “Historical and Political Context,” however, instead of eliminating it in its entirety I cut down the original section into about four paragraphs and directly tied this history to the creation of the temporary deportation relief programs that this article is focused on. Because my theoretical framework engages histories of enslavement and colonialism as fundamental to U.S. immigration, citizenship, and bordering politics, Liberia’s founding, civil war, and the present displacement of Liberians fit firmly within it. Should an additional review find this section still too lengthy, I am amenable to pairing down further.

 

Style:

1. Reviewer 1 suggested putting endnotes

I have converted the previous footnotes to endnotes.

 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Title:  Black Lives in Limbo: Liberian Refugees, Migrant Justice, and the Narration of Anti-Black U.S. Border Politics Contemporary Politics and Society

Journal:  Social Sciences

Manuscript ID:  SocSci-2935667

Due Date:  07/16/2024

This manuscript addresses the influences of extremist policies implemented by the Trump administration on Black immigrants.  The argument made is that these policies reflect anti-Black logics and the administration-made border crises provide the Trump administration the ability, flexibility, and American support to implement anti-Black border and immigration policies. 

This manuscript is important.  It addresses the dark side of immigration politics by examining anti-Black immigration.  Popular conceptions of immigration paints Hispanics/Latinos as the face, but images of videos of some of the harshest treatment of immigrants show Black immigrants.  Therefore, it is vital that more works highlight the anti-Black nature of anti-immigrant and anti-immigration politics.  The Trump administration reflects the worst of it all.

The author suggests using autoethnography and media analysis.  However, the manuscript spends too much space on history, especially colonialism.  The manuscript would benefit more from a traditional content analysis of various media outlets.  

Also, I think the manuscript will benefit from providing statistics to support its claims.  For instance, the manuscript should show the numbers of Liberian refugees in the United States over time.  Such a chart/table should show that Liberian presence in the U.S. was greater up to the Trump administration and lower during the Trump administration.

Overall, I think the manuscript is both novel and significant.  It presents an original research question and offers significant results.  The paper is suitable for this journal and it is very well written.  Scholars and students of immigration and Black politics will find it interesting. 

Author Response

Thank you sincerely for your thoughtful and constructive feedback. Below are ways I endeavored to attend to them and improve this draft:

Organization:

Reviewer 2 recommended improvements related to the research design and questions as well as the presentation of the results.  I have sought to address this matter in a couple ways. First, I reorganized the article to reflect a social science structure, including an Introduction that states the main purpose and research questions, a clear literature review section, findings that focuses on the impact of extremist policies on Liberian DED holders, and a conclusion which summarizes the article and provides final thoughts regarding the special issue’s focus on authoritarianism.  

Methods:

1. Reviewer 2 recommended that the article spent too much space on history, especially colonialism. They also recommended foregoing the autoethnographic element for traditional content analysis of media outlets.

I agree that the section formally titled “Cycles of Colonial Displacement” was lengthy. I have retitled this section as “Historical and Political Context,” however, instead of eliminating it in its entirety I cut down the original section into to about four paragraphs and directly tied this history to the creation of the temporary deportation relief programs that this article is focused on. Because my theoretical framework of antiblackness engages histories of enslavement and colonialism as fundamental to U.S. immigration, citizenship, and bordering politics, Liberia’s founding, civil war, and the present displacement of Liberians fit firmly within it. Should an additional review find this section still too lengthy, I am amenable to pairing down further.

Other matters: 

1. Reviewer 2 recommended providing statistics to support my claim and “a chart/table should show that Liberian presence in the U.S. was greater up to the Trump administration and lower during the Trump administration.”

Throughout the historical and political contexts section and findings section I have incorporated any relevant statistical data available; however, the specific suggestion to create a chart that reflects a decline in Liberian presence is not relevant to this article. The reason being is: 1) I focus on a sub-group of Liberian refugees, that is DED participants, who were already present in the U.S. for over 20 years but without a pathway to normalize their status. 2) Liberia’s civil war (1989-2003) was not ongoing during the Trump administration, therefore the number of Liberians overall present in the United States does not change the specific policy impacts related to the termination of DED under Trump- though, we do know the overall number of admitted refugees was lower during this administration than previous ones. The situation in this case is about the policies that sought to kick people out (voluntary deportation), and not the policies related to letting people in (refugee resettlement).

 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have addressed my previous comments.  This is fascinating research.