Recognizing ri-Ṃajeḷ: the politics and pragmatics of Marshallese health advocacy in diaspora

Marshallese advocates in the United States are fighting hard to improve the health and well-being of their communities. According to an international treaty between the two countries, migrants from the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) are considered “legal non-alien residents”, a position that often excludes Marshallese families from government-ran social service and support programs. In this dissertation, I present findings from my research based on interviews with Marshallese advocates, my observations of Marshallese advocacy efforts in three different US states, and my analysis of materials related to Marshallese communities available online. I argue that for Marshallese advocates, being better understood by the US government and American people is one step toward their larger goals of building healthy and independent Marshallese communities within the US. In my four main chapters, I focus on different examples of Marshallese advocates’ creative uses of language, or what I tentatively call decolonial pragmatics, as they build locally-relevant nonprofit organizations, educate non-Marshallese about the history of US nuclear weapons testing in the RMI, develop new ways of talking and presenting themselves as cultural authorities in the US, and challenge poor representations of their communities in news coverage of COVID-19 and other health issues impacting Marshallese in America. In the end, I argue Marshallese migrants are collectively and critically building a social movement in the US as their new home that also helps to ensure the continuation of their distinctive cultural values and practices for generations to come.