Determining Value in Migrancy: The Relative Cultural Capital from the Aesthetics of Displacement

Pro-migration scholars and advocates for stricter immigrant legislation alike tend to rely on an economic framework to measure the value migrants bring toward the nation they’ve immigrated to and whether that value constitutes their right and ability to attain citizenship. By analyzing the influence and value found within Vladimir Nabokov’s use of the aesthetics of displacement, as well as other migrant writers since Nabokov, such as Cristina Garcia and Claudia Rankine that have expanded the racial and ethnic perspective of what can be considered “American,” I argue the criteria for citizenship within the United States should extend beyond traditional economic justifications and encompass the cultural capital immigrants produce through means of artistic labor and participation, influencing what is defined as American culture by being representations of what comprises the nation’s literature and the nation itself.