Laboring to Learn: Both Undocumented Student and "Illegal" Low-Wage Worker

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: The Policies of DREAMing: Opportunities and Challenges for Undocumented Youth

Abstract

This paper analyzes data from interviews conducted between 2013 and 2015 with 30 undocumented community college students living in California’s agricultural Central Valley. These young people are not only undocumented students but also "illegal" low-wage, migrant laborers. I argue that a similar set of dynamics and characteristics that constitute their subjugated positions in the labor market also shape their educational experiences. In this article, I identify how precarity, racialization, and subjugated not only mark the lives of undocumented, low-wage workers but also shape their educational lives. This article argues that "undocumented student" and "illegal migrant worker" as overlapping categories, and illuminates how race, poverty, and illegality come together in a way that stymies opportunity for many undocumented students.

Author

• Genevieve Negron-Gonzales, University of San Francisco