Discovering One’s Undocumented Immigration Status through Family Disclosures: The Perspectives of U.S. College Students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Cornejo, Monica; Kam, Jennifer A.; Afifi, Tamara D.

doi:10.1080/00909882.2021.1896022

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Thus, we suggest that programming should continue to center their experiences and facilitate a sense of belonging and feeling seen. Indeed, the sharing of migration stories within an intergroup dialogue context further strengthens evidence that the sharing of immigrant narratives can provide a source of empowerment and resilience for I-O youth (Cornejo et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“Everyone has their story”: Intergroup dialogue's potential to cultivate connection through the sharing of migration narratives

Castro

Medina

Suárez‐Orozco

2022

Psychology in the Schools

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Immigrant‐origin (I‐O) youth face increasing anti‐immigrant rhetoric in the United States, including in their schools. School‐based intergroup dialogue programming may help I‐O youth and their peers build a more inclusionary culture. We qualitatively examined how I‐O youth and their peers experienced a week‐long school‐wide intergroup dialogue program that aimed to foster connection among participants at a Northeastern high school. Participants’ (N = 159) experience in the program were analyzed using post‐program reflections. Participants were 53% female and 74% underclassmen; 59% Latinx, 14% Black, 13% multiracial, 9% White, and 5% Asian and Middle Eastern; generationally, 54% identified as second‐generation immigrants, 38% as nonimmigrant origin, and 8% as first‐generation. Participation in the program produced mixed results. For many, participation led to a greater sense of connection; youth reported that they learned about their peers, the immigrant experience, and sometimes, themselves. Connection was especially fostered among the dominant demographic groups in the school: second‐generation and Latinx youth. Learning about others was less likely to cultivate connections when participants could not relate their own experiences, and at times even made participants feel more different from their peers. Intergroup dialogue has the potential to foster connection when participants are able to relate across experiences.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“Everyone has their story”: Intergroup dialogue's potential to cultivate connection through the sharing of migration narratives

Castro

Medina

Suárez‐Orozco

2022

Psychology in the Schools

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…My contribution here is to document how similar to prior work by Gonzales (2011), Abrego (2011), Cornejo et al (2021, and others on undocumented youth's discovery of their legal status, the second-generation undergo their own process of learning to navigate illegality in their lives, via their parents' immigration status, although they themselves should be protected from the consequences of immigration law; this occurs via two mechanisms. First, in contrast to research finding that undocumented youth "awaken to a nightmare" in their late teen years (Gonzales, 2011), I find that in an era of increasingly punitive immigration control, 3 the second-generation initially learns that their parents are undocumented during early childhood (consciousness formation).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Undocumented consciousness: Citizenship and illegality in the lives of US citizen youth

González

2023

Law & Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the impact of immigration law on US citizens' understanding of legal status categories. Prior research on legal consciousness has uncovered the ways in which undocumented persons make sense of and navigate their legal position in society. Less is known, however, about the paradox of US citizen children who are legally protected by their citizenship yet grow up in the context of their parents' precarious immigration statuses. Drawing on interviews with US citizen youth and undocumented parents, I conceptualize the phenomenon of undocumented consciousness to explain how US citizens make sense of parental legal status vulnerability. By witnessing their parents' blocked opportunities from work, travel, and other aspects of life, youth begin to attach meaning to citizenship and its protections, all the while forming an understanding of what it means, practically, to live in the United States with and without legal status. Findings reveal the mechanisms by which it is possible for functions of immigration law to have adverse impacts on the lives of US citizens themselves. I was very young, maybe eight or nine years old when I figured out that my parents weren't legal citizens. I think I asked my mom if we could travel, and she said we weren't able to because my parents don't have papers so they can't really board a plane and if they do board they can't come back into the U.S. At the time I just wanted to visit my grandparents who live in Mexico. My mom didn't really go into detail she just said we weren't able to come back if she left and honestly, I didn't understand it. It wasn't until I was older that I came to understand what she meant.-Mateo (26),

show abstract

“…For instance, undocumented students might speak up when they hear people making false statements about immigrants, which enables them to resist the stigmatization and dehumanizing discourses that lead to proliferation of structural inequalities (Forenza et al, 2017;Seif, 2016). Additionally, although undocumented students are often told not to tell anyone about their undocumented status (Cornejo et al, 2021;Kam et al, 2019), they often reveal their immigration status to others to gain support and necessary information to navigate higher education as an undocumented student (Enriquez, 2011;Kam et al, 2019Kam et al, , 2020. Despite state and institutional policies that facilitate their access to higher education, many undocumented students confront institutional agents who do not know how to support them or who provide incorrect information .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A latent profile analysis of U.S. undocumented college students’ advocacy communication strategies and its relationship with health

Cornejo

Ayón

Enriquez

2022

Journal of Applied Communication Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Undocumented immigrant youth engage in a range of advocacy efforts to improve their social condition. Deploying an expanded definition of advocacy communication, we examine the heterogeneity of undocumented college students' participation and assess the extent to which these actions are associated with their health. The present study (a) identified profiles of undocumented college students based on their participation in various forms of advocacy communication strategies; and, (b) examined how these advocacy communication profiles are associated with health (i.e., anxiety, depression, and self-rated health). Latent profile analysis of 1,277 undocumented, mostly Latina/o/x, college students in California identified four profiles. Results indicated that frequent advocators had lower levels of self-rated health and higher levels of anxiety and depression than infrequent advocators. Similarly, media advocators reported higher levels of anxiety and depression than infrequent advocators. Finally, organizational advocators reported lower levels of anxiety than media advocators and frequent advocators. Our study advances research on the relationship between advocacy communication and health. We provide concrete suggestions that university staff and undocumented student services programs can take to support the advocacy efforts and health of undocumented students.

show abstract

Discovering One’s Undocumented Immigration Status through Family Disclosures: The Perspectives of U.S. College Students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Cited by 7 publications

References 36 publications

“Everyone has their story”: Intergroup dialogue's potential to cultivate connection through the sharing of migration narratives

“Everyone has their story”: Intergroup dialogue's potential to cultivate connection through the sharing of migration narratives

Undocumented consciousness: Citizenship and illegality in the lives of US citizen youth

A latent profile analysis of U.S. undocumented college students’ advocacy communication strategies and its relationship with health

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About