Coming of Age while Hyper-Aware of the Law: Central American Unaccompanied Minors’ Incorporation in the United States

• In Event: 2384 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 18. Unaccompanied Minors

Abstract

Drawing on interviews with unaccompanied minors from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala seeking refuge in the US, I trace how these young immigrants navigate and experience the opportunities and constraints created by policies protecting child-migrants. Apprehended upon entry and classified as “Unaccompanied Alien Children,” these youths interact intensively with separate branches of the US immigration bureaucracy, which serve as sites of institutional socialization, teaching them the laws and normative behavioral models that “good” kids and immigrants are expected to follow. These contacts shape youths’ “legal consciousness,” making them “hyperaware” of the law and causing them to internalize the stigmas associated with their social position, as racialized Latino adolescents, perceived as deviant, as claimants for humanitarian relief, perceived as suspicious. In order to successfully petition for legal status through asylum or visas for abandoned or neglected children, unaccompanied minors leverage the lessons learned from the state and their families as they present their behaviors and make coming of age decisions to signal their deservingness for humanitarian relief. Not only does the outcome of these petitions (ranging from deportation to a path to citizenship) shape youths’ objective positions as rights-holders vis-à-vis the receiving state, but the experience of the legal process will also shape their perception of their social position and entitlements, influencing how they claim belonging in their new homes. This paper contributes to scholarship that examines how legal status is experienced differently according to social position, showing how young migrants’ understanding of law shapes their incorporation and transition to adulthood.

Author

• Chiara Galli, University of California-Los Angeles