Green Card Soldier

An in-depth and troubling look at a little-known group of immigrants—non-citizen soldiers who enlist in the US military.

While the popular image of the US military is one of citizen soldiers protecting their country, the reality is that nearly 5 percent of all first-time military recruits are noncitizens. Their reasons for enlisting are myriad, but many are motivated by the hope of gaining citizenship in return for their service. In Green Card Soldier, Sofya Aptekar talks to more than seventy noncitizen soldiers from twenty-three countries, including some who were displaced by conflict after the US military entered their homeland. She identifies a disturbing pattern: the US military’s intervention in foreign countries drives migration, which in turn supplies the military with a cheap and desperate labor pool—thereby perpetuating the cycle.

As Aptekar discovers, serving in the US military is no guarantee against deportation, and yet the promise of citizenship and the threat of deportation are the carrot and stick used to discipline noncitizen soldiers. Viewed at various times as security threats and members of a model minority, immigrant soldiers sometimes face intense discrimination from their native-born colleagues and superiors. Their stories—stitched through with colonial legacies, white supremacy, exploitation, and patriarchy—show how the tensions between deservingness and suspicion shape their enlistment, service, and identities. Giving voice to this little-heard group of immigrants, Green Card Soldier shines a cold light on the complex workings of US empire, globalized militarism, and citizenship.1 Introduction (1)
2 The Immigrant Twist on the Poverty Draft (27)
3 The Military Road to Citizenship (69)
4 Injuries of Assimilation (103)
5 The Rise and Fall of Mavni (149)
6 Deported Veterans (191)
7 Speak Truth to the Power of the War Machine (241)
Acknowledgments (249)
Appendix (253)
Acronyms (263)
Notes (265)
Index (309)“This beautifully written and important book exposes one of the little-known dark corners of US immigration practices that promises an uncertain and dangerous path to citizenship for desperate migrants fleeing violence.”
—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Not “A Nation of Immigrants”: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion
 
“Groundbreaking, insightful, and powerful, Green Card Soldier reveals with clarity and precision the complex and broad reach of the tentacles of US empire that destabilize regions, produce migrations, and exploit those bodies to fight its wars. Hands down a must-read!”
—Cecilia Menjívar, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
 
“This highly accessible, extensively researched, and multifaceted text is the definitive exposition of how immigration policy and militarism intersect in the subterrain of US empire.”
—Justin Akers Chacón, coauthor of No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border
 
“Green Card Soldier is a complex, compelling, and sometimes tragic account of how America’s security rests on the bodies of individuals enlisted to defend a nation that does not recognize them as equal citizens.”
—Julian Go, Professor of Sociology, University of ChicagoSofya Aptekar is Associate Professor of Urban Studies at the City University of New York School of Labor and Urban Studies. She is the author of The Road to Citizenship: What Naturalization Means for Immigrants and the United States.