Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding Patterns of Incorporation for Unaccompanied Migrant Youth

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the scope of unaccompanied Central American youth's participation in family, work, school and the local community. I seek to understand the ways in which youth define and perceive social membership and belonging and therefore experience incorporation in the US. I will interview youth and young adults who arrived in the US as unaccompanied minors with the intention of working to support families that continue to live abroad. As the first sociological study to consider the integration experiences of unaccompanied Central American youth workers, this research has theoretical and empirical implications for the study of unauthorized youth integration, the life course, and the burgeoning literature on unaccompanied minor migration experiences. This research is also uniquely poised to speak to the social incorporation of other marginalized youth groups, including homeless and foster youth in the US. Focusing on how unaccompanied youth define, perceive, and experience incorporation and belonging, this study expands assimilation and citizenship deservingness models that shape our understanding of immigrant youth incorporation as a way to guide future immigration research as well as immigrant integration policy. Theoretically, this dissertation project asks: do unaccompanied Central American youth experience downward mobility as segmented assimilation predicts or do they develop alternative spaces and narratives that foster incorporation and belonging despite their social and economic marginalization? I formulate a theoretical framework that considers assimilation and citizenship theory from a subject-centered approach that highlights how youth perceive, define, and measure incorporation and belonging. I employ multiple methods and data sources including in-depth, semi-structured interviews and participant and non-participant observation with unaccompanied Central American youth in Los Angeles. Using the American Community Survey, I also include a demographic snapshot of native and foreign-born children living in the United Sates, California, and Los Angeles who are unrelated to other householders to conceptualize patterns of incorporation of marginalized youth nationally. This study aims to build upon and extend current assimilation theories of immigrant incorporation while providing substantive empirical data and implications regarding experiences of unaccompanied youth in the immigration pipeline.