The New Civics of Belonging: Undocumented Youth mobilization and Community Embeddedness

• In Event: 129 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Latino/a Sociology Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Latino Social Movements and Civic Engagement

Abstract

In recent years, undocumented immigrant youth have built a vibrant movement, the DREAM movement, that that has employed direct action tactics including being arrested. This level of exposure runs counter to common-sense notions of undocumented immigrants in the shadows. Drawing from in-depth interviews with twenty undocumented immigrant activists and participant observation, I examine how undocumented youth negotiate participation in the undocumented youth movement. I explore how undocumented youth make meaning of multiple and intersecting identities. I find that family and community embeddedness serve as both constraints and motivation for participation. I find that undocumented youth activists are deeply committed to their families and are also motivated by their location within the larger undocumented immigrant community, perhaps an extension of the “immigrant bargain.” This paper extends previous studies of social movement participation and suggests that for undocumented immigrant youth activists, their experiences as youth, children of immigrants, undocumented immigrants, and students intersect to both motivate and constrain participation in the DREAM movement.

Author

• Edelina M. Burciaga, University of California-Irvine