Embracing Exclusion as a Means to Inclusion: Undocumented and Proud

• In Event: 098 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Paper Session. Latina/o Civic and Political Participation

Abstract

This paper examines how undocumented Latino and Latina young adult immigrants find membership within contexts of exclusion. Relying on a six year ethnographic and in-depth interview study in a small town in North Carolina, I discuss the social structures that allowed youth to publicly claim their undocumented identities. In contrast, I further examine when youth or young adults did not feel comfortable "coming out" as undocumented in spite of a powerful immigrants' rights movement attempting to expunge the stigma from the undocumented or illegal immigrant labels. Finally, I examine how that the implementation of the recent Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy opened avenues toward limited inclusion in the polity, but did not secure full membership due to its limited reach and temporary nature.

Author

• Alexis Silver, State University of New York-Purchase College