Immigrant Youth, Social Identity, Instability: Legal Consciousness and the Effects of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

• In Event: 078 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 17. Nations, Collective Memories, and Immigration

Abstract

This paper examines the legal consciousness and incorporation experiences of undocumented Latino youth in Chicago. By exploring the constitutive and nonconstitutive effects of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals among undocumented youth of Mexican origin in Chicago, this research aims to investigate the unanticipated impact of the Executive Action on affected populations three years after implementation. Since 2012, this Executive Action has granted undocumented youth access to a temporary Social Security number and work authorization, relieving some of the immediate burden of ‘illegality’ for this population. Drawing on 15 in-depth qualitative interviews, findings show that while DACA provided limited material relief for undocumented youth and their families, beneficiaries are unable to access certain aspects of stability and must live with status precarity. Even while living with varying levels of legal and nonconstitutive status precarity, DACA recipients navigate their daily lives and incorporation strategies in the U.S. They reimagine their identities, sense of belonging, and how they understand their status in relation to the legal changes and their own incorporation experiences. Drawing on a law-as-culture model of legal consciousness, this paper explores how DACA recipients prove their deservingness as model immigrants and develop identities informed by meritocracy.

Author

• Dylan Farrell-Bryan, University of Pennsylvania