Young and Undocumented: Political Belonging in Uncertain Times

The experiences of DACA recipients

The children of immigrants who arrive in the United States each year sometimes grow up without any knowledge of their undocumented status and the risks it poses. In this timely and important book, Julia Albarracín explores the lives of undocumented immigrant youth with a focus on the unique experiences of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and DREAMers in the United States.
Drawing on interviews and legal research, Albarracín shows us how the precarity surrounding the youth’s DACA status impacts their sense of political identity and belonging, particularly as Republican politicians target legal protections provided to them under DACA and the DREAM Act. The author examines how changes in immigration policies expose undocumented youth to constant ups and downs, leaving them in a limbo between deportation and integration into society, and limiting their social, economic, and political opportunities for advancement.

Albarracín shows us how DREAMers confront-and fight to overcome-barriers in their lives. Young and Undocumented explores how undocumented youth in the United States navigate their identity in the only country they know as home, and how they come-of-age without a path to citizenship.

Julia Albarracín is Dan and Laura Webb Professor of Political Science at Western Illinois University. She is the author of Making Immigrants in Modern Argentina and At the Core and in the Margins: Incorporation of Mexican Immigrants in Two Rural Midwestern Communities, as well as the co-author of Creating Conspiracy Beliefs: How our Thoughts are Shaped.