PUBLICATION
ABSTRACT
Drawing from current developments in the sociological subfields of culture and race, I examine how immigrants of color put culture to use when claiming membership in the United States. Drawing from 80 interviews with working-class Mexican American and Korean American youths, I introduce the concept of “inclusion work” to show how differently racialized immigrant youths mobilize cultural repertoires about “good” immigrants to validate their family’s presence. By demonstrating how immigrant youths mobilize culture —as well as how their repertories are shaped by their position within the U.S. racial hierarchy—the findings in this article provides a new understanding of how culture and race operate in the lives of marginalized immigrants.