Liminal Citizenship, Discretionary Power, and Guest Workers in the U.S. Food System

In this article, we examine the U.S. H-2A and H-2B guest worker programmes to show how discretionary power is embedded in state labour migration governance, with implications for the expansion of liminal citizenship among immigrant workers. Although U.S. guest worker programmes are established through statutory frameworks, they are malleable to changes across presidential administrations and socio-political contexts. We illustrate how these programmes blur the boundaries of who is deemed a deserving or undeserving immigrant, reinforcing historical racialised labour relations across borders. Drawing on interviews with farmers and workers, we discuss how the H-2A visa programme expands the discretionary power of agricultural employers and facilitates the production of the legal yet liminal immigrant. Our findings document how guest worker programmes reinforce limited protections, precarious employment, and systemic exploitation as complex negotiations of liminal citizenship for all immigrant workers, with implications for immigration and labour programmes world-wide.