Undocumented Youth Research Articles

State Against the Migrant Child: US Government Systems and Legal Processes in Dealing with Undocumented Youth

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“You ARE Immigrant…but Not Like Us”: A discourse analysis of immigrant students’ positioning of undocumented immigrants in a CLD classroom

As immigration becomes an ever-more divisive topic in the US, immigrants – particularly undocumented youth – experience unique pressures in classroom settings associated with their statuses. With approximately one million undocumented children in America, it is important for educators and researchers to understand how this population navigates such pressures in these environments. Through a sociocultural understanding of identity and an acknowledgment of the relationship between language and power, we utilize elements of microethnographic and critical discourse analysis to examine how four immigrant students used language to position undocumented immigrants in a diverse and purposefully-inclusive high school history class. Findings reveal that the undocumented students positioned fellow undocumented immigrants in a positive and agentive light, while the documented student was often negative in her positioning of undocumented immigrants – though this position occasionally shifted in response to her undocumented peers’ arguments. We also discuss implications of this work and areas for further inquiry.

The Bureaucratic Encounter and Shifting Social Constructions Among Migrant Youth During the DACA Application Process

This article examines shifting social constructions of the self among undocumented Latino college and university student applicants for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in the United States. A 2012 memo issued by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security deferred deportation action on undocumented youth who were current or former students or military veterans, and who met certain other age, length of residence, and criminal record criteria. Using qualitative data from interviews with 20 DACA applicants, this article explores how bureaucratic encounters that occur through the DACA application process inform ideas about citizenship and identity that are held by the undocumented Latino student population, and how these youth understand their relationship to the U.S. The data show that college and university students undergo a shift in their self-perception and behavior, with their social construction of themselves changing from deviant to deserving as they move through the DACA application process. We believe the analysis is relevant to the current political environment as the portrayal of immigrants is being rapidly reshaped under the Trump administration. Our analysis suggests that these changing portrayals will generate changes in the self-perception and behavior of undocumented Latino students vis-à-vis the state. Our article makes an important contribution to the public administration literature, which at present gives only limited attention to migrants and processes of “administering migration.”

“You’re a Sociologist, I Am Too . . . ”: Seducing the Ethnographer, Disruption, and Ambiguity in Fieldwork with (Mostly) Undocumented Youth

The article is about a set of methodological disruptions that occur in ethnographic fieldwork and what these disruptions mean for ethnographic studies, including analysis, representation of data, and experiences of the ethnographic self. This article documents the process of a minoritized high school youth, Queen, entering the research space and the emergent relations among Queen and Latinx undocumented youth. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s analytics, I theorize disruption as a core concept in this particular experience of engaging in fieldwork as part of a multisite critical ethnography. Presenting three frames of disruption—relating to the research space, analyses and findings, and the ethnographic self—I complicate who gets included and excluded from a study and the implications for relational ethnics in ethnographic fieldwork. Ultimately, I argue that our methodological practices and selves need to be disrupted in order to enhance our views of who/what gets included/excluded during our fieldwork.

Injustice in Their Midst: Social Work Students’ Awareness of Immigration-Based Discrimination in Higher Education

ABSTRACT Social work ethics oppose discriminatory practices and policies, yet little is known about social work students’ awareness of such discrimination. In some U.S. states, education policies discriminate against undocumented youth and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, by limiting access to higher education or imposing prohibitive fees. This survey-based study measures undergraduate social work students’ knowledge regarding immigration-based educational discrimination and assesses their understanding of how social work’s ethical mandates require them to respond. Most respondents, 83.4%, agreed that it is segregation to exclude such students from the university, but 25% were unaware of discriminatory practices within their own university. Limited knowledge leaves students ill-prepared to advocate for immigrant rights. Authors include recommendations for educators on enhancing awareness.

83.1 PSYCHOSOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF MENTAL HEALTH FOR UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT YOUTHS

Undocumented immigrant youths experience a multitude of psychosocial stressors related to acculturation and legal uncertainties not shared by their age-equivalent, native cohort. Currently, there are approximately 2.2 million undocumented youths ages 24 and under in the United States. The primary objective of this presentation is to provide participants with an understanding of how such psychosocial factors may influence mental health outcomes in undocumented immigrant youths.

“I Need this Chance to … Help My Family”: A Qualitative Analysis of the Aspirations of DACA Applicants

This study explores the aspirations of undocumented youth seeking to defer deportation from the United States and obtain temporary employment authorization through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The data are twenty-three letters submitted from 2013–2015 to a nonprofit foundation in the US Southwest that provides financial assistance to pay DACA application fees. Conducted within a narrative framework, analysis of emergent themes reveals a story of hope and family that counters the dominant political story of fear and threat to public safety. Specifically, from the DACA applicant’s standpoint, family is their most valuable form of social capital and by providing the means for employment and the education needed to launch a sustainable career, DACA status provides the leverage required to maximize family capital. Our analysis reveals a disturbing disjuncture between their testimonios and the realities of a policy intended to serve as a safety net. The current political climate makes aspirations like theirs increasingly difficult to achieve and may actually exacerbate legal and social liminality.

Outsiders Looking in: Advancing the Immigrant Worker Movement Through Strategic Mainstreaming

How can subordinated groups best advance their agenda? The recent success of undocumented immigrant youth activists (“DREAMers”) can be instructive, from the creation and extension of the program for deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) that provides for temporary immigration relief to the passage of numerous state laws providing for in-state tuition regardless of immigration status. At the same time, those within the movement have questioned the adherence to a DREAMer identity of the successful and culturally integrated student, who endorses mainstream exclusionary immigration norms while undermining the affirmation of a broader immigrant identity of all ages and backgrounds. As a result, some DREAMers have rejected the heavily compromised “comprehensive” immigration reform approach that provides a direct road to U.S. citizenship for some undocumented youth because it also continues to treat “immigrants as criminals.”

BEYOND THE DREAMERS: COLLECTIVE IDENTITY AND SUBJECTIVITY IN THE UNDOCUMENTED YOUTH MOVEMENT

Based on longitudinal ethnographic research, this article explores what the concepts of collective identity and subjectivity contribute in the case of the undocumented youth movement in Los Angeles. I show that while the collective identity of the Dreamers has been used to organize undocumented youth from different backgrounds and regions into a recognizable collective actor successfully engaged in political action, nowadays the Dreamer identity is a matter of contention among undocumented youth. I show that the basis of subjective sharing and belonging is now less derived from the collective identity of the Dreamer and more from the shared subjectivities of undocumented youths, constituted by embodied experiences of exclusion, stigmatization, and empowerment. I thus argue for a stronger engagement with the concept of subjectivity in social movement research, as it offers a greater understanding of the profound effects of embodied and affective experiences of negative discursive positioning, trauma, emancipation, and healing.

Diversity, Leadership, and Authenticity in the Undocumented Youth Movement

AbstractThe undocumented youth movement is diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and immigration status. I argue that racial and immigration status diversity has a direct impact on the movement's ability to “expand the scope of conflict,” that is to say recruiting new members, reaching out to elected officials, and establishing representative leadership—elements that are critical to the sustainability and effectiveness of a movement. Findings also indicate that immigration status diversity plays a complex role. The presence of citizen allies brings both risks and benefits to the movement, as they reinforce the electoral connection sought by elected officials while at the same time jeopardizing the authenticity of the movement. Results are based on field research conducted between 2012 and 2015 in NJ and NY, including participant observation in state-level campaigns and interviews with over 130 immigrant youths, allies, and elected officials. This article contributes to the social movement literature by providing empirical evidence of the challenges present within diverse coalitions. It addresses the question of immigration status diversity, an issue that affects the immigration movement but speaks more broadly to the role of allies in social movements.

불법과 합법 사이의 경계에서: 미국 이민법제의 변동과 한인 미등록 청년의 삶

이 논문은 불법체류자를 사면 또는 합법화하는 이민법제의 변동과 미등록 이주자들이 미국 시민권을 추구하면서 겪는 내적 갈등을 연관시켜 살펴본다. 미등록 이주자들은 때때로 시도되는 사면 또는 합법화 법안에 큰 기대를 걸고 이민법 변화에 민감하며 그들의 삶에 대한 이해는 이민법안이 제시되고 운용되는 정치사회적 상황 속에서 구성된다. 이 논문은 미등록 이주자들의 미국 시민권에 대한 열망 및 기회가 상황에 따라 불법과 합법 사이의 경계를 결정하는 이민법제의 역동성 및 정치적 분위기에 따라 조성되고 강화된다는 점을 주목한다. 미등록 이주자에 대한 사면법안과 추방유예 행정명령(DACA)은 특정 시점에서 이들을 불법에서 합법으로 전환하여 새로운 삶의 기회들을 열어준다. 그러나 사면의 기회를 붙잡지 못한 사람들에게도 실패의 흔적을 남김으로써 합법적 신분과 시민권에 대한 기대와 바람을 부채질한다. 근래에 있었던 드림법안 운동이나 추방유예명령과 같은 이민법제 변화는 미등록 이민자의 불법성 영역의 재정의 및 이민자와 시민권 관계에 대한 재조정을 의미한다. 이 논문에서는 2000년대 이후 이민법제와 정책의 역동성이 한인 미등록 이주자들의 삶의 이해 및 행보의 틀을 구성한 측면을 조명한다. 한인 미등록 이주자의 사례로서 한인 청년활동가들의 이야기를 살펴보고 이들의 삶이 위치한 공간과 이민법에 의해 규정되는 삶의 명암을 제시한다. 이들은 미국에 있을 권리를 주장하게 되면서 오히려 패권적 미국 시민권의 의미를 확인시켜 주기도 하며 미등록 이주자에게 발생하는 미국 시민권의 특별함을 역설한다.

Transportation and immigrant political incorporation

ABSTRACT The literature on political participation focuses on resources such as income and social capital in promoting individual engagement. This article highlights the role of transportation as a resource for the political incorporation of immigrants. Using data from 111 interviews with undocumented youths and community organisers in New York and New Jersey, results indicate that youths living in suburban and rural areas are more likely to encounter transport disadvantage than youths in urban areas. This had a negative impact on their ability to mobilise. In addition, the article provides information on the coping mechanisms employed by youths and their allies to deal with transport disadvantage. The article sheds light on the complex role of transportation in the political incorporation of immigrants.

Student Affairs Practitioners' Leadership on behalf of Undocumented College Students in the USA

<p>The United States is considered a country of immigrants that has historically hosted people from all over the world. Oftentimes, immigrants struggle to find and shape an American identity, especially when it comes to undocumented youth (Gonzales, 2008). New waves of immigrants to this country trigger feelings of fear concerning the loss of national identity and the lack of cultural incompatibility (Kim & Díaz, 2013a). In this sense, the emergence of anti-immigration attitudes has been in the political, social, and economic agenda over the last years. As a result, postsecondary institutions have been constantly looking for accomplishing social progress and growth (McDermott, 1973); however, there are still gaps to fill in at institutions with respect to create a welcome atmosphere and campus-wide acceptance for all students. In particular, undocumented students which the National Immigration Law Center defined as “a foreign national who: (1) entered the United States without inspection or with fraudulent documents; or (2) entered legally as a nonimmigrant but then violated the terms of his or her status and remained in the United States without authorization” (as cited in Educators for Fair Consideration, 2019) face socioeconomic and institutional barriers. Therefore, it deems necessary to find appropriate services and allocate resources that help undocumented students cope with difficulties concerning both their college adjustment and personal struggles reaching a holistic development (Gildersleeve &Ranero, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to address the topic of undocumented students as it relates to their college persistence. In particular, four leadership theories help highlight the important role of student affairs practitioners to become advocates and seek social justice for this unique student population.</p><p>The organization of the manuscript encompasses the following sections. First, a brief literature review concerning federal and state legislation on undocumented students is presented. Then, an overview of student affairs practitioners’ importance to promote a positive college climate and better serve this student population is addressed. The aforementioned section includes four leadership theories, which student affairs professionals could adopt. Next, an outline addressing the social justice aspect on behalf of undocumented students is introduced. Finally, a section covering recommendations for student affairs professionals is proposed yielding the conclusion.</p>

“Shifting the Power”: Youth Activists’ Narrative Reframing of the Immigrant Rights Movement

This article explores collective efforts by undocumented youth activists to use storytelling to reframe the debates around immigration reform and discursively position themselves as the rightful leaders of a movement that had been dominated by adult citizen‐advocates. Drawing on 19 months of fieldwork, 37 in‐depth interviews, and hundreds of pages of movement documents, I show how youth activists in the United States worked together to develop stories that: (1) drew into question the legitimacy of adult citizen‐advocates to speak on issues of immigration and (2) cast undocumented immigrant youth as the proper authorities on these matters. I argue that through collective storytelling and character work, the activists were able to subvert adult citizen authority and construct themselves as powerful, new collective actors in the contemporary immigrant rights movement. I conclude by discussing some of the practical implications and limitations of using narrative reframing strategies to advance the social change agendas of marginalized movement factions.

A Reason to Wait: The Effect of Legal Status on Teen Pregnancy

Although teen pregnancy has been on the decline in the United States, it remains among the highest within developed countries. Hispanics, who are more likely to be undocumented immigrants, lead this trend, yet the role of legal status has yet to be considered. To investigate this question, we examine teenage fertility responses to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary legal status to undocumented youth. We find that DACA reduced the likelihood of having a teenage birth by 1.6 percentage points and eliminated roughly half of the gap in teenage childbearing between documented and undocumented women.

I feel like I was born here: Social identity, political socialization, and deAmericanization

Undocumented immigrants who have grown up in America, often called DREAMers, generally grow up unaware of their lack of legal status, thinking of themselves as equal and legitimate members of the polity—as Americans. Scholars have noted the high levels of political activism of DREAMers, often at personal risk of detention and deportation. Negron-Gonzales (Lat Stud 12(2):259–278, 2014) attributes this activism to the tension between their legal (juridical) and lived (subjective) identities; Abrego (Law Soc Rev 45(2):337–339, 2011) attributes it to their sense of belonging and their awareness of existing or possible rights. Here, using a set of 101 in-depth semi-structured interviews, we build on that scholarship to link undocumented Latino youth activism to their need to maintain a positive social identity, and to DREAMers’ powerful psychological identities as Americans. The perspectives shared in those interviews provide important insights into identity formation and identity stickiness and the “undocumented and unafraid” movement.

From silence to stillness: decolonial feminist ontologies and the mattering of history in educational research

This paper explores undocumented adolescent Latina becomings that move beyond Western, white dominant cultural values and recognize egalitarian entanglements of difference. I begin by recognizing my positionality in this work that speaks to my own feminist theoretical entanglements of this project that draw upon new materialist and post-qualitative embodied, inspirited, affective becomings. In the second half of this paper, I resituate this project within a decolonizing framework that parallels discussions of feminist new materialist and post-qualitative work in an effort to begin thinking differently about educational research, schooling, and the impact of oppressive and colonizing practices on undocumented immigrant youth in this country. Finally, I do not offer this research project in the conventional qualitative structure, but am not claiming this research as post-qualitative either - as it lies somewhere in between - and resides in a liminal methodological space.

8. Fragmented Dwellings: Undocumented Youth Activism in Higher Education Spaces in an Era of the Anthropocene

This essay engages with the notion of Anthropocene as both context and concept, and how it might be useful as a tool of inquiry in the study of higher education, specifically with populations that I argue are deemed by society as less than human/nonhuman, that is, the undocumented alien bodies dwelling in higher education spaces. The concept of the Anthropocene demands a shift in our thinking about the social world, specifically notions of agency and identity in relation to culture. This primarily conceptual argument connects the Anthropocene as context and concept to the experiences of undocumented youth activists in higher education settings. The essay experiments with thinking about the Anthropocene as context, connecting its features to that of a risk society that impacts the identity formation and fragmented experiences of undocumented youth activists, and as a concept, utilizing the example and data from a current critical qualitative and ethnographic study of undocumented immigrant youth in a university in a southern state. Data suggests that the concept of the Anthropocene renders visible the fragmented dwellings of undocumented youth activists and to read such fragmentation as productive, democratic, and transformative.

State Against the Migrant Child: US Government Systems and Legal Processes in Dealing with Undocumented Youth

State Against the Migrant Child:US Government Systems and Legal Processes in Dealing with Undocumented Youth Catherine Appleton (bio) Boehm, Deborah A., and Susan J. Terrio, editors. Illegal Encounters: The Effect of Detention and Deportation on Young People. NYU P, 2019. pp. $30.00 pb. ISBN 9781479861071. At a time when millions of people, including children, are fleeing from poverty, violence, and mortal danger, Deborah A. Boehm and Susan J. Terrio's Illegal Encounters: The Effect of Detention and Deportation on Young People adds to a global conversation about issues to do with migrant and refugee children. Donald Trump came to power in the US, promising, when so many are desperately seeking safety, to build a wall to stop illegal immigration from Central and South America to the North. This book clearly outlines the metaphorical wall of inhumane policies and laws that impact the lives of migrant young people in the US, highlighting the clear national mission to keep immigrants out or send them back to where they theoretically came from. Illegal Encounters features personal stories that describe how harsh immigration laws mean that families are separated in the deportation of young people, even though some have spent the majority of their lives in the US. Other stories focus on children who witness and suffer the deportation of other unauthorized family members. The tight immigration laws and policies in the US come from a long legacy of national "ideas about race, imperialism, and state power" (6); thus, the government holds much weight in restricting and controlling who is allowed into the country. Currently, the Trump administration has given increased power to immigration authorities by reducing immigrant protections and expanding concepts of "illegality" by blurring the difference between immigration and criminal law (6). The impact on migrant children has been profound, as detailed in Boehm and Terrio's comprehensive anthology. The Illegal Encounters anthology addresses "young people's interactions or encounters with the different legal systems that regulate immigration" (2). The writings come from experts, who describe the complex range [End Page 340] of circumstances that make up this young, powerless migrant category and identify the challenges that these children face. In the US in 2018, of the "11 million unauthorized migrants living in the country, more than 2.5 million" are young people (8). Some undocumented children come into the US illegally with their parents, while almost a quarter of a million come alone. The book offers a multidisciplinary perspective to add to a growing immigration debate. Contributions come from a mix of academics, practitioners, as well as migrant youth, building an alarming picture of the ways youth are mistreated in a system that encourages them to remain vulnerable and outside the American legal system. The scholars include academics from anthropology, education, sociology, and legal studies, while other contributions come from practitioners who work directly with young people, including social workers, attorneys, and judges. Importantly, the collection is unique in the way that the voices of young people are prioritized to highlight their personal experiences with the immigration process: all authors include quotations, stories, or details from interviews with migrant youth. For instance, the introduction begins with accounts of personal experiences and ends with a quote from a fifteen-year-old Colombian who questions Donald Trump's campaign to make America great again: "I would tell him that if America was not great, no one would want to come here. And I wouldn't be here" (14). The legal systems of control that can apprehend, detain, and deport undocumented youth are strongly biased against them, resulting in many children remaining unauthorized and living on the social fringes. To probe the power imbalances of this system, the book is structured around three stages of government control, labelled in the book as, "in, through, and out" (5). These themes divide the book into three parts, and each has equal weight, consisting of three chapters and two short essays. The collection begins with "Part I – In: Confronting Enforcement, Detention, and Deportation" (15) and describes how youth enter in the government systems when they come into the country. They confront rough laws in the process of moving through, discussed in "Part II – Through: Navigating...

“FU”: One Response to the Liminal State Immigrant Youth Must Navigate

Undocumented youth experience partial integration in some institutional spaces but remain barred from others. Although they are permitted to attend and graduate from K–12 public schools, the geographic unevenness of immigration policy leads to inequitable access to higher education for undocumented youth. In this article, we examine undocumented higher education access and how an underground freedom school is providing an alternative. We apply the theoretical lens of spaces of care within the framework of geographies of care to understand the uneven legal geographies that exist and the structures that emerge to equip and empower youth to leverage their experiences with illegality.