“Estaba bien chiquito” (I Was Very Young): The Transition to Adulthood and “Illegality” of the Mexican and Central American 1.25 Generation

Abstract

<jats:p> Knowledge on the transition to adulthood of undocumented immigrants arriving in childhood primarily derives from the experiences of minors arriving below the age of 13 years—or the 1.5 generation. The transition to adulthood of the 1.25 generation—those who immigrate between the ages of 13 and 17 years—has been largely missed. This article examines the salient challenges legal exclusion, or “illegality,” creates as the Mexican and Central American 1.25 generation launches into adulthood and the extent that “illegality” disrupts their envisioned futures. Drawing on interviews with 40 undocumented 1.25 generation young adults in Illinois, three distinct patterns were identified: (a) 1.25 generation participants who enrolled in U.S. K–12 schooling, (b) 1.25 generation men who never-enrolled in U.S. K–12 schooling, and (c) 1.25 generation women who never-enrolled. These patterns were shaped by the reasons for their migration, whether the migration process was gendered, and their expectations for adulthood. This article contributes to a more complete picture of the challenges childhood arrivals experience at a critical point of transition in the life course and the sources of variation. Moreover, attention is brought to the timing of immigration—the life-stage when a minor immigrates—as a source of differentiation warranting further consideration. </jats:p>

Educational Meaning Making and Language Learning: Understanding the Educational Incorporation of Unaccompanied, Undocumented Latinx Youth Workers in the United States

“…Lee and Zhou 2015), along with household composition and community ties (Kasinitz et al 2008; Rodriguez 2019). Recent scholarship emphasizes the importance of age of migration in shaping incorporation (Diaz-Strong 2020), concluding that unlike adults who are absorbed into the labor market and clandestine work, immigrant children tend to enter K–12 schools and gain access to opportunities alongside their U.S.-born and citizen peers, regardless of their status (Gleeson and Gonzales 2012). Hence, growing up in supportive family and community dynamics and attending school tend to foster feelings of belonging (Abrego 2011), although this can be short-lived (Gonzales 2015).…”

“…Many of today’s Latinx newcomers come of age in diverse household dynamics (Landale et al 2011) with precarious class and legal statuses (Massey, Durand, and Pren 2016) and complex educational and employment trajectories (Oropesa and Landale 2009). Indeed, the unprecedented rise of unaccompanied youth migration to the United States over the past decade has prompted researchers to investigate the diversification of transnational immigrant households, with children migrating to support left-behind adult parents and siblings (Canizales 2018; Heidbrink 2014, 2020); the tensions that emerge between school and work for migrant youth (Canizales n.d.; Diaz-Strong 2020; Martinez 2019); and youth’s own imagined futures in their transitions into adulthood (Canizales and O’Connor forthcoming). Existing findings point to undocumented youth workers’ tendencies to be absent from school upon arriving in the United States and possibilities for stagnant or downward incorporation, but we know very little about their school-going experiences and processes of educational meaning making during their transitions into adulthood.…”

“…I define social incorporation more flexibly as the process of sociocultural embeddedness and socioeconomic mobility among immigrants and their descendants that is achieved through participation in major social institutions in the sending and receiving countries simultaneously. This definitional expansion takes into account existing findings that newcomers are unevenly received across major social institutions, like families, schools, and the labor market, according to age and life stage at migration (Abrego 2011; Diaz-Strong 2020; Rumbaut 2004), and they are likely to face discrimination and xenophobia (Portes, Fernandez-Kelly, and Haller 2009) that can prevent their full incorporation into the “mainstream” (Sáenz and Douglas 2015; Treitler 2015). Conceptualizing social incorporation in this more expansive way reframes it as an ongoing process in which institutional interactions and meaning making can change over time, influenced by changing aspirations for the future, and it lends itself to broadly conceptualizing and defining education.…”

“…These studies situate undocumented immigrant youth’s incorporation within normative households, institutions, and imagined futures (Canizales and O’Connor forthcoming). This assumption has been critiqued in recent research that points to the diversity of immigrant youth’s family dynamics (Landale, Thomas, and Van Hook 2011) along with the relative inaccessibility of K–12 education (Canizales 2018; Diaz-Strong 2020, 2021) and the turn to work for unaccompanied youth (Canizales n.d.; Martinez 2019). Researchers have examined how education and language learning can be reimagined to account for the maintenance of transnational life among undocumented newcomer youth and long-settled young adults, including those unaccompanied by a parent (Canizales and O’Connor forthcoming), noting the importance of maintaining native-language proficiency and promoting “translanguaging” (Bajaj and Bartlett 2017).…”

“When did I Stop being a Child?” The Subjective Feeling of Adulthood of Mexican and Central American Unaccompanied 1.25 Generation Immigrants

“…They lack permission to live and work in the United States, which positions them as disposable low-wage workers who are barred from social services and live under the constant fear of deportation (De Genova, 2002; Menjívar & Abrego, 2012). Although sharing the experience of immigrating during their teens, wide variation exists within undocumented 1.25 generation immigrants in the reasons for immigrating and family circumstances at arrival (Diaz-Strong, 2020). These, in turn, impact the challenges legal exclusion creates as they enter adult roles (Diaz-Strong, 2020).…”