The Invisible Family Labor of Children of Immigrants

• In Event: 40429 - Immigration and Child Labor

Abstract

The paper examines Latino/a children’s roles and obligations to their immigrant families.
I argue that children perform important—but often invisible—labor in immigrant families.
Dominant ideologies depict childhood as an “innocent” time wherein young people need guidance
and are too underdeveloped to make meaningful contributions. However, this construction of
childhood ignores the lived realities of the children of immigrants, who often serve as gatekeepers
and connect their families to services and resources in their communities. I examine how
immigration laws complicate youth’s labor and how youth carry this family responsibility into
adulthood.

Author

• Vanessa Delgado, Washington State University