Situational triggers and protective locations: conceptualising the salience of deportability in everyday life

Abstract

Previous research has documented the severe consequences of deportation and conceptualized deportability as a key factor that produces and sustains immigrant illegality. Drawing on interview and survey data with 1.5 generation undocumented young adults in California, we explore the mechanisms that structure the salience of deportability in everyday life. We argue that deportability is a situationally triggered fear that is reduced when individuals occupy protective spatial and social locations that limit their exposure to immigration enforcement mechanisms. Drawing on the case of Californian undocumented young adults, we demonstrate that the more protective locations one occupies, the less likely they are to experience their own deportability as a salient dimension of illegality. In this case, deportability mostly emerges as a fear of family separation and preoccupation with undocumented parents who are less likely to occupy protective locations. Our findings nuance theoretical conceptualizations of the role deportability plays in constructing immigrant illegality. Funding:Funding was provided by the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation,

Latinos’ deportation fears by citizenship and legal status, 2007 to 2018

“…Respondents were asked in each year, "Regardless of your own immigration or citizenship status, how much, if at all, do you worry that you, a family member, or a close friend could be deported?" This single indicator captures personal and vicarious fears of deportation, which qualitative research views as intertwined in Latino families and communities whose members hold diverse citizenship or legal statuses: Even when someone's own social location immunizes them from deportation (e.g., U.S. citizens), they may still report deportation fears emanating from their loved ones' vulnerable social locations-or from being temporarily detained for their suspected "deportability" in an U.S. immigration regime racialized in its enforcement (13,17,18,36,37). To produce reliable estimates, respondents answering "not much" or "not at all" are coded as "0," and those answering "some" or "a lot" as "1."…”

Becoming White in a White Supremacist State: The Public and Psychological Wages of Whiteness for Undocumented 1.5-Generation Brazilians

“…The police showed up to the scene of the accident. Elisabete was not someone overwhelmed by fears of deportation, but she was nervous when the police arrived, suggesting she experienced what Enriquez and Millán (2019) refer to as a "situational trigger" of deportability. When Elisabete told the police officer "I don't have my license with me", he treated her nicely, telling her to head home, assuming she would be able to produce a license.…”

“…Indeed, some do experience what Enriquez and Millán (2019) define as "situational triggers," especially if they are pulled over by the police or border patrol officers. However, like the young persons in Enriquez and Millán's (2019) study, they do occupy protective locations reducing the salience of deportability. For respondents in this study, these protective social and spatial locations are connected to whiteness.…”

“…So I never really thought that would happen." Enriquez and Millán (2019) find that those who occupy protective spaces (such as college campuses) and who do not fit the stereotype of illegality because of their acculturation in the US (as 1.5-generation) and/or because they identified as Asian (and not Latinx) experience less situational triggers. For 1.5-generation Brazilians in this study, whiteness is a protective social location (as they are seen as innocent) which provides them more access to protective spatial locations (living in whiter spaces), all of which gives them relative confidence when navigating their everyday interactions, reducing the salience of deportability in their lives.…”

“…While deportability is theorized as a key factor of migrant illegality, Enriquez and Millán (2019) argue that it is a "situationally triggered fear that is reduced when individuals occupy protective social and spatial locations that limit their exposure to immigration enforcement mechanisms" (1). Furthermore, they argue that the more protective social and spatial locations one occupies, the less salient deportability is.…”