The Integration Paradox: Immigrant Children Coping in the Age of Mass Deportations

• In Event: 2107 - Migrant Youth Navigating (Il)Legality

Abstract

This paper includes findings from comparative research conducted among immigrant children and children of immigrants in Princeton and Trenton, two major urban centers in Central New Jersey. On the basis of participant observation and 60 in-depth interviews, I investigate the conditions surrounding mostly Central American youngsters, some of them unaccompanied minors, residing in the U.S. without documentation and others protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA) but facing an uncertain future. The paper focuses on variations in context of reception. I probe the role of human and financial resources, advocacy organizations, kin and friendship networks, and religiosity in the capacity of young people to resist downward mobility and destructive behavior. The paper offers a typology of coping strategies as part of a theoretical framework evaluating the capacity of young people to adjust to hostile environments.

Author

• Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, Princeton University