Immigration self-help services for US citizens with foreign spouses uphold gender inequality, and act as unofficial border police

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Americans apply for green cards and citizenship for their non-American spouses. And while gender and race-based discrimination is a thing of the past in US immigration policy, new research from Gina Marie Longo reveals that gender inequality is alive and well in the forums where petitioners seek immigration advice. Studying over 2 million online conversations about immigration, she finds that the advice given is often gendered and racialized depending on petitioners’ race and gender, and on their spouse’s country of origin.