The Ambivalent U.S. Context of Reception and the Dichotomous Legal Consciousness of Unaccompanied Minors

Abstract

This article examines the effects of contradictory U.S. immigration laws on unaccompanied minors from Central America. As children, they are considered deserving of protection, but as undocumented immigrants, they are subjected to state legal violence. Apprehended at the border, they must interact with multiple immigration agencies and finally apply for humanitarian deportation relief. Interactions in these institutional spaces teach youths about U.S. laws and behavioral norms expected of young claimants deemed deserving of humanitarian protection, which are construed in contrast to discourses that stigmatize their co-ethnics as “bad” immigrants. These interactions shape youths’ sense of belonging and commonsense understanding of the law or legal consciousness. I argue that the “legal consciousness” of unaccompanied minors is dichotomous and characterized by: (1) a combination of trust and fear in the state; (2) concurrent feelings of deservingness/rights and stigma/subordination; (3) information and misinformation about U.S. laws. This dichotomous consciousness shapes how youths claim belonging and rights in social interactions and in their applications for legal status. To signal their own belonging and deservingness, youths leverage information about their rights and normative notions about desirable teen and migrant behavior. Yet, in the process, they also inadvertently perpetuate stigmas about co-ethnics.

Legal consciousness and migration: towards a research agenda

“…The migrants studied in the reviewed publications were mostly undocumented (Abrego, 2008; 2011; 2019; Gleeson, 2010; Hirsh and Lyons, 2010; Schwenken, 2013; Alpes, 2018; Flores et al , 2019; Galli, 2020). This predominance of undocumented migrants is in line with the interest of critical legal consciousness studies in ‘those who are failed by the state legal system’ (Halliday, 2019, p. 864), as undocumented migrants can be considered to be among the most vulnerable within the already ‘marginalized group’ (Halliday, 2019, p. 864) of migrants.…”

“…Regarding geographic scope, most studies focus on migrants in the US (Abrego, 2008; 2011; 2019; Gleeson, 2010; Hirsh and Lyons, 2010; Flores et al , 2019; Galli, 2020) and in European countries (Gehring, 2013; Schwenken, 2013; Chakraborty et al ., 2015; Kubal, 2015; Namukasa, 2017; Graca, 2018; de Hart and Besselsen, 2020). These findings are partially in line with those of the review of Miežanskienė (2020), who also mainly discussed publications from the US, even though our sample here includes more publications from Europe.…”

“…Even though workplace provisions in San Jose were more protective, the experiences and narratives of undocumented workers in both cities were found to be ‘strikingly similar’ (Gleeson, 2010, p. 575). In a similar vein, Galli (2020) focused on different spaces in the trajectory of unaccompanied minors in the US (at the border and at the Office of Refugee and Resettlement) to analyse the effects of socialisation that occurred during these bureaucratic encounters as well as the role of state power therein. These spaces have different and sometimes contradictory mandates, such as care vs. control in the Office of Refugee and Resettlement.…”

Precarious Times, Professional Tensions: The Ethics of Migration Research and the Drive for Scientific Accountability

“…Rather, they “assent” while parents or legal guardians provide consent. This arrangement raises challenges for research on unaccompanied migrant children, a growing population that requires special ethical attention since they are not only minors, but often also out of status themselves, and arrive without legal guardians (see Galli 2019; Quas and Lyon [2019] for models for this research).…”

Nested Contexts of Reception and K–12 Schools: Addressing Immigration Status

“…Some of them are also unaccompanied young migrants. They are individuals with no lawful presence in the United States and who arrived without a parent or legal guardian (Galli, 2020). These generational differences are important to note because immigration policies affect immigrants differently, depending on when and how they entered the country.…”