This study asks the question, “How do diverse social spaces support or constrain the development of oppositional consciousness among DACAmented Latina/o youth?” Our analysis is based on 40 in-depth interviews with Latina/o youth and young adults living in Colorado who received a two-year reprieve from deportation and work authorization through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enacted in 2012. The findings indicate the development of three points along a continuum of oppositional consciousness, which we term latent, emergent, and manifest. The implications of this study reveal how social spaces inside and outside of schools in a non-traditional destination can support or constrain the oppositional consciousness of liminally legal DACA recipients.
AbregoLJ (2006) ‘
I can’t go to college because I don’t have papers’: Incorporation patterns of Latino undocumented youth. Latino Studies4(3): 212–231.
2.
AbregoLJ (2011)
Legal consciousness of undocumented Latinos: Fear and stigma as barriers to claims-making for first and 1.5 generation immigrants. Law & Society Review45(2): 337–370.
3.
AbregoLJ andGonzalesRG (2010)
Blocked paths, uncertain futures: The postsecondary education and labor market prospects of undocumented youth. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk15(1): 144–157.
4.
BaileyAWrightRAMountzAet al. (2002)
(Re)producing Salvadoran transnational geographies. Annals of the Association of American Geographers92 (1): 125–144.
BatalovaJHookerS, andCappsR (2014) DACA at the Two-Year Mark: A National and State Profile of Youth Eligible and Applying for Deferred Action.
Washington, DC:
Migration Policy Institute.
7.
BurciagaEM (2016) The Latino undocumented 1.5-generation: Navigating belonging in new and old destinations. PhD Dissertation, University of California-Irvine, USA.
8.
BurciagaEM andMartinezLM (2017)
How do political contexts shape undocumented youth movements? Evidence from three immigrant destinations. Mobilization22(4): 451–471.
9.
CebulkoK (2014)
Documented, undocumented, and liminally legal: Legal status during the transition to adulthood for 1.5-generation Brazilian immigrants. The Sociological Quarterly55(1): 143–167.
10.
CebulkoK andSilverA (2016)
Navigating DACA in hospitable and hostile states: State responses and access to membership in the wake of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. American Behavioral Scientist60(13): 1553–1574.
11.
ChavezMLSorianoM andOliverezP (2007)
Undocumented students’ access to college: The American dream denied. Latino Studies5(2): 254–263.
ContrerasF (2009)
Sin papeles y rompiendo barreras: Latino students and the challenges of persisting in college. Harvard Educational Review79(4): 610–632.
14.
DonatoKM andArmentaA (2011)
What we know about unauthorized migration. Annual Review of Sociology37: 529–543.
15.
FixM andZimmermanW (1999) All under One Roof: Mixed Status Families in an Era of Reform.
Washington, DC:
Urban Institute.
16.
Gildersleeve RE and Hernandez S (forthcoming) Undocumented Students in Higher Education. New York: Routledge.
GonzalesRG (2007) Wasted Talent and Broken Dreams: The Lost Potential of Undocumented Students.
Washington, DC:
Immigration Policy Center.
19.
GonzalesRG (2008)
Left out but not shut down: Political activism and the undocumented student movement. Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy3(2): 219–239.
20.
GonzalesRG (2009) Young Lives on Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students. New York, NY: College Board Advocacy.
21.
GonzalesRG (2011)
Learning to be illegal: Undocumented youth and shifting legal contexts in the transition to adulthood. American Sociological Review76(4): 602–619.
22.
GonzalesRGTerriquezV andRuszczykS (2014)
Becoming DACAmented: Assessing the short-term benefits of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). American Behavioral Scientist58(14): 1–21.
23.
JohnsonAG (2000) Ideal type. In: The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User’s Guide to Sociological Language. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
KevaneB andSchmalzbauerL (2016)
‘Education is everything. It determines your future’: Latino youth and college access in Montana. Latino Studies14(2): 272–280.
LutzA (2007)
Barriers to high school completion among immigrant and later-generation Latinos in the USA. Ethnicities7(3): 323–342.
28.
MansbridgeJ andMorrisA (eds) (2001) Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest.
Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
29.
MarrowH (2005)
New destinations and immigrant incorporation. Perspectives on Politics3(4): 781–799.
30.
McAdamD (1999) Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970.
Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
31.
MenjívarC (2006)
Liminal legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants’ lives in the United States. American Journal of Sociology111(4): 999–103700.
32.
MenjívarC (2008)
Educational hopes, documented dreams: Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrants’ legality and educational prospects. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science620(1): 177–193.
33.
MenjívarC (2013)
Central American immigrant workers and legal violence in Phoenix, Arizona. Latino Studies11(2): 228–252.
34.
Migration Policy Institute (2014) State immigration data profiles.
Washington, DC:
Migration Policy Institute.
35.
MorrisA (1992) Frontiers in Social Movement Theory.
New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
36.
MorrisA andBraineN (2001) Social movements and oppositional consciousness. In: MansbridgeJ andMorrisA (eds) Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 20–37.
37.
MuñozS (2015) Identity, Social Activism, and the Pursuit of Higher Education: The Journey Stories of Undocumented and Unafraid Community Activists.
New York, NY:
Peter Lang Publishing.
38.
Negrón-GonzalesG (2013)
Navigating “illegality”: Undocumented youth and oppositional consciousness. Children and Youth Services Review35(8): 1284–1290.
39.
Negrón-GonzalesG (2014)
Undocumented, unafraid and unapologetic: Re-articulatory practices and migrant youth “illegality.Latino Studies12(2): 259–278.
40.
Negrón-GonzalesG (2015)
Undocumented youth activism as counter-spectacle: Civil disobedience and testimonio in the battle around immigration reform. Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies40: 87–112.
41.
NichollsWJ (2014)
From political opportunities to niche-openings: The dilemmas of mobilizing for immigrant rights in inhospitable environments. Theory and Society43(1): 23–49.
42.
OliverezPMChavezMLSorianoMet al. (2006) The college and financial aid guide for AB 540 undocumented immigrant students.
USA:
USC Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis.
43.
PasselJS andCohnD (2011) Unauthorized immigrant population: National and state trends, 2010.
USA:
Pew Research Center.
44.
PerezHLMalagonMC andSolorzanoDG (2009) Struggling for opportunity: undocumented AB 540 students in the Latino education pipeline. CSRC Research Report No. 13.
Los Angeles, CA:
UCLA Chicano Studies Center. May 2009.
45.
PerezWEspinozaRRamosKet al. (2010)
Civic engagement patterns of undocumented Mexican students. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education9(3): 245–265.
46.
PerezZJ (2015) A Portrait of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Recipients.
Washington, DC:
United We Dream.
47.
PiersonP (1994) Dismantling the Welfare State?
New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.
48.
PortesA andMacLeodD (1996)
Educational progress of children of immigrants: The roles of class, ethnicity, and school context. Sociology of Education69(4): 255–275.
49.
RamakrishnanSK andViramontesC (2010)
Civic spaces: Mexican hometown associations and immigrant participation. Journal of Social Issues66(1): 155–173.
50.
RinconA (2008) Undocumented Immigrants and Higher Education: Sí Se Puede!New York, NY:
LFB Scholarly Publishing.
RumbautRG (2004)
Ages, life stages, and generational cohorts: Decomposing the immigrant first and second generations in the United States. International Migration Review38(3): 1160–1205.
53.
SeifH (2011)
“Unapologetic and unafraid”: Immigrant youth come out from the shadows. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development2011(134): 59–75.
54.
SilverA (2012)
Aging into exclusion and social transparency: Undocumented immigrant youth and the transition to adulthood. Latino Studies10(4): 499–522.
55.
SingerA (2004) The Rise of New Immigrant Gateways.
Washington, DC:
The Brookings Institution.
56.
Van DykeN (1998)
Hotbeds of activism: Locations of student protest. Social Problems45(2): 205–220.
57.
VarsanyiMW (2005)
The paradox of contemporary immigrant political mobilization: Organized labor, undocumented migrants, and electoral participation in Los Angeles. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography37(4): 775–795.
58.
WaldingerR andFelicianoC (2004)
Will the second generation experience ‘downward assimilation’? Segmented assimilation reassessed. Ethnic and Racial Studies27(3): 376–403.
59.
ZhouM (1999) Segmented assimilation: Issues, controversies, and recent research on the new second generation. In: HirschmanCKasinitzP andDeWindJ (eds) The Handbook of International Migration.
New York, NY:
Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 196–211.
