Undocumented, unaccompanied youth workers’ educational journeys in the U.S.

• In Event: 2429 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Roundtable 7

Abstract

Schools, after family, are considered the second most important socializing institution for immigrant youth in their host society. This is especially the case for undocumented youth, who gain access to social and cultural capital that can make them ‘indistinguishable from their native-born peers’ and forge pathways for incorporation and inclusion in U.S. society. Yet, each year thousands of undocumented youth arrive in the U.S. as unaccompanied minors searching for work to advance their socioeconomic position and futures. Despite being minors, work, rather than school, structures their daily lives and shapes their structural incorporation as they come of age. Drawing on four years of ethnographic observations and interviews with undocumented young-adult workers (ages 18-31) who arrived in the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, I examine the extent to which unaccompanied youth workers engage in school and the role of English-language schools in the incorporation of immigrant youth without parents and legal status in the US. Findings show that youth are motivated to pursue education—synonymized with English-language learning—for occupational and wage mobility and face various challenges in doing so. English-language schools—typically reserved for adults— are a source of human capital necessary for workplace and socioeconomic stability and prospects for mobility, as well as social and emotional capital to increase community embeddedness. This research moves beyond the analysis of undocumented youth as high-achievers in traditional educational institutions and advances our understanding of the institutions that support or restrict the incorporation of unaccompanied youth workers to offer a glimpse into the lives of a heterogenous undocumented youth population.

Author

• Stephanie L. Canizales, University of California, Merced