The Remnant Logics of Immigrant Illegality

• In Event: Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) Research Session I

Abstract

What happens to the effects of immigrant illegality after noncitizens gain legal status? Drawing on 83 in-depth interviews with formerly undocumented Latino and Asian immigrants, this paper examines how legalization reshapes, but does not fully resolve, the social and embodied effects of prior illegality. I introduce the concept of remnants of illegality to capture how legal status transitions reconfigure immigrants’ orientations to themselves, others, and the state. Rather than disappearing with legalization, the effects of illegality persist in transformed ways, even as individuals actively navigate and negotiate their new legal position. By tracing how immigrants make sense of their lives after legalization, this paper shows how the transition to legal status involves not only new opportunities but also ongoing processes of adjustment that reshape experiences. In doing so, this project offers a dynamic account of legal status as an ongoing social process and contributes to sociological understandings of illegality, legalization, and stratified incorporation.

Author

• Jozef Callan Robles, University of California, Irvine