The transnational continuum of conditional inclusion: From marginalized immigrants to rejected returnees

Research on Dominican migration to the United States ranges from analyses emphasizing incorporation to those exploring diaspora formation and the weaving of transnational ties. Based on a juxtaposition of ethnographic research conducted among Dominican families in New York City in the early 1990s with a recent fieldwork with deported nationals in Santo Domingo, this article approaches conditional inclusion in transnational social space. I examine the structural conditions that shaped the criminalization of Dominican migrant youth in the United States and later let to their deportation. More particularly, I illustrate how the crack pandemic in New York City in the late 1980s affected ongoing processes of conditional inclusion. By focusing on how conditional inclusion manifests itself from departure to arrival, through settlement and marginalization, to deportation and struggles for (re)integration in the Dominican Republic, the article aims to contribute insights to the comparative development of the concept in this special issue.