“I used to be one of them”: reflections on researching DACA students as a DACA beneficiary

Abstract

This article examines my experiences as a Latina DACA-benefited researcher conducting qualitative research with Latinx DACA-benefited college students. Drawing from an interview study across two states, I describe my actions and responses to three stages I experienced in the field: reflexive analysis of positionality, acknowledgement of shared identity, and coming out to participants. In discussing my experiences during interviews, I showcase instances in which I pushed boundaries to adopt a methodology of compassion and humanity necessary in research by, for, and with undocumented immigrants. I draw from W.E.B. Du Bois’s double consciousness to consider undocumented researchers’ compartmentalized identities and experiences in the field, and I use Gloria Anzaldúa’s mestiza consciousness to contest dichotomies around legal status, nationality, and belonging. I propose the adoption of flexible methodologies to disrupt existing rigidities in qualitative research in immigrant communities and static epistemologies produced in contexts where researchers hold legal privilege over their undocumented/liminally documented participants.