Central Florida is an emerging destination for Puerto Ricans migrating to the contiguous states o... more Central Florida is an emerging destination for Puerto Ricans migrating to the contiguous states of the United States. We use in-depth interviews with Puerto Rican adults and young adults (N=25) and data from the U.S. Census to examine Central Florida Puerto Rican families’ demographic and economic profiles and to compare them to those in older destinations such as New York. We focus particularly on socioeconomic integration. Findings from interviews suggest that kinship networks may aid the efforts of families to maintain socioeconomic stability by providing access to social capital. However, the generational status and levels of acculturation may affect the kinds of jobs that are attainable. Importantly, experiences with discrimination may blunt economic progress and socioeconomic integration. The erosion of feelings of belonging due to discrimination may, in turn, affect future settlement decisions. We discuss the implications of these results for Puerto Rican families’ socioecono...
In our introduction to this special issue, we describe how the immigration enforcement-first regi... more In our introduction to this special issue, we describe how the immigration enforcement-first regime has consequences that extend beyond the supposed target population of undocumented immigrants and spill over to other groups, including legal permanent residents, U.S.-born Latinos/as, and other U.S.-born residents. The papers in this special issue address whether and how spillover effects exist and the form that they take. Often they include social, psychological, and in some cases, physical harm, and together they illustrate that directly or indirectly, U.S. policy’s emphasis on interior and external border enforcement affects all of us.
Former President Trump’s election and subsequent anti-immigrant policy initiatives brought an unp... more Former President Trump’s election and subsequent anti-immigrant policy initiatives brought an unprecedented sense of uncertainty for undocumented immigrants. This is particularly true for those who had experienced expanding opportunities through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive action signed by former President Obama in 2012. We use in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults to explore how the 2016 presidential election and 2017 executive action that rescinded DACA evoked emotions of anticipatory loss—including sadness and grief—and ontological insecurity—including anxiety and uncertainty. We adopt an interpretive and social constructionist approach to explore these emotions and their implications, demonstrating how even the threat of policy change impacts immigrant young adults’ societal incorporation. We illustrate how DACA recipients conceptualized loss and how these experiences manifested in educational attainment, labor market incorporation, f...
Prior work has focused on the role of media in shaping public perceptions of immigrants and in th... more Prior work has focused on the role of media in shaping public perceptions of immigrants and in the construction of social illegality. In this article, we examine how the undocumented 1.5 immigrant generation perceive, consume, and navigate media messaging about immigration—and particularly Latino immigrants—to understand the role of media in shaping their lived experiences. We analyze 50 in-depth and nine follow-up interviews with undocumented young adults in Florida collected between 2017 and 2021. Two major themes emerged: (1) how media information and misinformation invoke both legal and ethnoracial consciousness; and (2) how undocumented young immigrants deploy agentic strategies to resist negative and dehumanizing portrayals by rejecting media altogether, leveraging media to resist abuses, and embracing counter-narratives. Based on these findings, we discuss the usefulness of a double consciousness framework and argue for the use of “ethnoracial consciousness” in synergy with l...
The current immigration enforcement regime embodies a colorblind racial project of the state root... more The current immigration enforcement regime embodies a colorblind racial project of the state rooted in the racial structure of society and resulting in racism toward immigrants. Approaching racism from structural and social process perspectives, we seek to understand the social consequences of enforcement practices in the lives of undocumented immigrant young adults who moved to the United States as minors. Findings indicate that although legal discourse regarding immigration enforcement theoretically purports colorblindness, racial practices such as profiling subject immigrants to arrest, detention, and deportation and, in effect, criminalize them. Further, enforcement practices produce distress, vulnerability, and anxiety in the lives of young immigrants and their families, often resulting in legitimate fears of detention and deportation since enforcement measures disproportionately affect Latinos and other racialized immigrant groups in U.S. society. We conclude that policies and...
Using data from 41 in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults, we examine how they define... more Using data from 41 in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults, we examine how they define what it means to be an American and explore whether and to what extent they identify as ‘Americans’. Framing our analysis in theories of personal and cultural trauma, we illustrate how undocumented youth experience double-consciousness that compounds their approach to national identities. Respondents express ambivalence towards adopting an American identity, recognising their commitment to American cultural values, yet continuously feeling repelled by laws that position them as outsiders to US polity. In spite of this, undocumented youth contest their liminal status by working towards full participation in civil society. Their activities, actions, and levels of civic participation demonstrate that even though they are barred from US citizenship, they work towards embodying what they believe a true American should be.
This special issue introduces a range of articles that analyze patterns of incorporation among La... more This special issue introduces a range of articles that analyze patterns of incorporation among Latinos living in the United States. We discuss the importance of race and institutionalized discrimination across various social institutions and through legislation and policies that promote and/or blunt Latino incorporation. Building on the findings of the studies in this special issue, this introduction considers how race and racialization shape the lives of Latino youth and adults through directives and policies emerging from a range of institutions—from the U.S. Census Bureau to State Courts, and state and federal legislative bodies. Mediating incorporation is legislation such as the Affordable Care Act and administrative changes such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which, while promoting inclusion of Latino populations into the U.S. body-politic, also render some Latinos part of a class of people that are subjugated based on their origins. We conclude this int...
For most Latino youth, Latinos constitute a separate, while diverse, racial group. Our study demo... more For most Latino youth, Latinos constitute a separate, while diverse, racial group. Our study demonstrates that, when asked about their identities, Latino youth do not follow conventional U.S. racial categories. Although they prefer to identify by national origin or panethnicity, they consider themselves to be part of a racial group rather than an ethnic group, as the U.S. Census designates them. Using findings from in-depth semistructured interviews with two samples of young adults in Chicago and Central Florida, this research joins the long-standing debate on the conceptual division between race and ethnicity arguing that there is a mismatch between existing sociological understandings of race and ethnicity and the current racial ideas and racial practices among Latino youth. There is also a mismatch between institutional measures of “race,” such as those found in the U.S. Census, and Latinos’ self-understandings of where they belong in the U.S. racial hierarchy. We suggest that no...
In recent years, the largest population movement from Puerto Rico to the continental United State... more In recent years, the largest population movement from Puerto Rico to the continental United States in over fifty years has occurred following a prolonged economic crisis, exacerbated by the humanitarian disaster that took place after the archipelago was struck by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Since September 2017, just under 200,000 Puerto Ricans have relocated to the continental United States, the largest number migrating to Florida. Yet not much is known about the adaptation of this population who relocated postdisaster. To contribute to the scholarly literature on Latino integration and based on data from in-depth interviews with 19 Puerto Ricans who moved to Central Florida both before and after the hurricanes of 2017, we focus on the ways in which Puerto Ricans conceptualize home and belonging. We also examine how place-making and belonging are related to emotions, an often-neglected dimension in the study of migrant integration. We engage with literature on space and plac...
Using data from a random representative survey of South Florida immigrants (n=1,268), our researc... more Using data from a random representative survey of South Florida immigrants (n=1,268), our research examines different facets of transnationalism and how they relate to a typically overlooked component of immigrant incorporation–subjective well-being. We examine separately the affective and evaluative components of immigrants’ well-being in their country of reception—the United States — by differentiating between self-reported emotional well-being and self-reported satisfaction with life in the U.S. Findings support that the kinds and frequency of connections that immigrants maintain with the home country are important factors for understanding immigrants’ subjective well-being.
The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enabled undocumented immigrant you... more The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enabled undocumented immigrant young adults to more freely participate in U.S. society. Guided by family systems theory, which emphasizes that individual actors are interdependent with others within family units, we analyze the experiences of young adult DACA recipients while members of their families remain deportable. We draw from 44 in-depth interviews with DACA recipients who are part of mixed-status families to answer three questions: How were the benefits of DACA distributed within mixed-status family units and discrepancies interpreted by recipients? How did obtaining DACA change recipients’ roles and responsibilities within their families? And to what extent did obtaining DACA shape young adults’ envisioned futures? We discuss potential results of the program, including changes in familial relationships, conflicting roles, and challenges in recipients’ efforts at individuation from their families.
Central Florida is an emerging destination for Puerto Ricans migrating to the contiguous states o... more Central Florida is an emerging destination for Puerto Ricans migrating to the contiguous states of the United States. We use in-depth interviews with Puerto Rican adults and young adults (N=25) and data from the U.S. Census to examine Central Florida Puerto Rican families’ demographic and economic profiles and to compare them to those in older destinations such as New York. We focus particularly on socioeconomic integration. Findings from interviews suggest that kinship networks may aid the efforts of families to maintain socioeconomic stability by providing access to social capital. However, the generational status and levels of acculturation may affect the kinds of jobs that are attainable. Importantly, experiences with discrimination may blunt economic progress and socioeconomic integration. The erosion of feelings of belonging due to discrimination may, in turn, affect future settlement decisions. We discuss the implications of these results for Puerto Rican families’ socioecono...
In our introduction to this special issue, we describe how the immigration enforcement-first regi... more In our introduction to this special issue, we describe how the immigration enforcement-first regime has consequences that extend beyond the supposed target population of undocumented immigrants and spill over to other groups, including legal permanent residents, U.S.-born Latinos/as, and other U.S.-born residents. The papers in this special issue address whether and how spillover effects exist and the form that they take. Often they include social, psychological, and in some cases, physical harm, and together they illustrate that directly or indirectly, U.S. policy’s emphasis on interior and external border enforcement affects all of us.
Former President Trump’s election and subsequent anti-immigrant policy initiatives brought an unp... more Former President Trump’s election and subsequent anti-immigrant policy initiatives brought an unprecedented sense of uncertainty for undocumented immigrants. This is particularly true for those who had experienced expanding opportunities through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive action signed by former President Obama in 2012. We use in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults to explore how the 2016 presidential election and 2017 executive action that rescinded DACA evoked emotions of anticipatory loss—including sadness and grief—and ontological insecurity—including anxiety and uncertainty. We adopt an interpretive and social constructionist approach to explore these emotions and their implications, demonstrating how even the threat of policy change impacts immigrant young adults’ societal incorporation. We illustrate how DACA recipients conceptualized loss and how these experiences manifested in educational attainment, labor market incorporation, f...
Prior work has focused on the role of media in shaping public perceptions of immigrants and in th... more Prior work has focused on the role of media in shaping public perceptions of immigrants and in the construction of social illegality. In this article, we examine how the undocumented 1.5 immigrant generation perceive, consume, and navigate media messaging about immigration—and particularly Latino immigrants—to understand the role of media in shaping their lived experiences. We analyze 50 in-depth and nine follow-up interviews with undocumented young adults in Florida collected between 2017 and 2021. Two major themes emerged: (1) how media information and misinformation invoke both legal and ethnoracial consciousness; and (2) how undocumented young immigrants deploy agentic strategies to resist negative and dehumanizing portrayals by rejecting media altogether, leveraging media to resist abuses, and embracing counter-narratives. Based on these findings, we discuss the usefulness of a double consciousness framework and argue for the use of “ethnoracial consciousness” in synergy with l...
The current immigration enforcement regime embodies a colorblind racial project of the state root... more The current immigration enforcement regime embodies a colorblind racial project of the state rooted in the racial structure of society and resulting in racism toward immigrants. Approaching racism from structural and social process perspectives, we seek to understand the social consequences of enforcement practices in the lives of undocumented immigrant young adults who moved to the United States as minors. Findings indicate that although legal discourse regarding immigration enforcement theoretically purports colorblindness, racial practices such as profiling subject immigrants to arrest, detention, and deportation and, in effect, criminalize them. Further, enforcement practices produce distress, vulnerability, and anxiety in the lives of young immigrants and their families, often resulting in legitimate fears of detention and deportation since enforcement measures disproportionately affect Latinos and other racialized immigrant groups in U.S. society. We conclude that policies and...
Using data from 41 in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults, we examine how they define... more Using data from 41 in-depth interviews with undocumented young adults, we examine how they define what it means to be an American and explore whether and to what extent they identify as ‘Americans’. Framing our analysis in theories of personal and cultural trauma, we illustrate how undocumented youth experience double-consciousness that compounds their approach to national identities. Respondents express ambivalence towards adopting an American identity, recognising their commitment to American cultural values, yet continuously feeling repelled by laws that position them as outsiders to US polity. In spite of this, undocumented youth contest their liminal status by working towards full participation in civil society. Their activities, actions, and levels of civic participation demonstrate that even though they are barred from US citizenship, they work towards embodying what they believe a true American should be.
This special issue introduces a range of articles that analyze patterns of incorporation among La... more This special issue introduces a range of articles that analyze patterns of incorporation among Latinos living in the United States. We discuss the importance of race and institutionalized discrimination across various social institutions and through legislation and policies that promote and/or blunt Latino incorporation. Building on the findings of the studies in this special issue, this introduction considers how race and racialization shape the lives of Latino youth and adults through directives and policies emerging from a range of institutions—from the U.S. Census Bureau to State Courts, and state and federal legislative bodies. Mediating incorporation is legislation such as the Affordable Care Act and administrative changes such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which, while promoting inclusion of Latino populations into the U.S. body-politic, also render some Latinos part of a class of people that are subjugated based on their origins. We conclude this int...
For most Latino youth, Latinos constitute a separate, while diverse, racial group. Our study demo... more For most Latino youth, Latinos constitute a separate, while diverse, racial group. Our study demonstrates that, when asked about their identities, Latino youth do not follow conventional U.S. racial categories. Although they prefer to identify by national origin or panethnicity, they consider themselves to be part of a racial group rather than an ethnic group, as the U.S. Census designates them. Using findings from in-depth semistructured interviews with two samples of young adults in Chicago and Central Florida, this research joins the long-standing debate on the conceptual division between race and ethnicity arguing that there is a mismatch between existing sociological understandings of race and ethnicity and the current racial ideas and racial practices among Latino youth. There is also a mismatch between institutional measures of “race,” such as those found in the U.S. Census, and Latinos’ self-understandings of where they belong in the U.S. racial hierarchy. We suggest that no...
In recent years, the largest population movement from Puerto Rico to the continental United State... more In recent years, the largest population movement from Puerto Rico to the continental United States in over fifty years has occurred following a prolonged economic crisis, exacerbated by the humanitarian disaster that took place after the archipelago was struck by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Since September 2017, just under 200,000 Puerto Ricans have relocated to the continental United States, the largest number migrating to Florida. Yet not much is known about the adaptation of this population who relocated postdisaster. To contribute to the scholarly literature on Latino integration and based on data from in-depth interviews with 19 Puerto Ricans who moved to Central Florida both before and after the hurricanes of 2017, we focus on the ways in which Puerto Ricans conceptualize home and belonging. We also examine how place-making and belonging are related to emotions, an often-neglected dimension in the study of migrant integration. We engage with literature on space and plac...
Using data from a random representative survey of South Florida immigrants (n=1,268), our researc... more Using data from a random representative survey of South Florida immigrants (n=1,268), our research examines different facets of transnationalism and how they relate to a typically overlooked component of immigrant incorporation–subjective well-being. We examine separately the affective and evaluative components of immigrants’ well-being in their country of reception—the United States — by differentiating between self-reported emotional well-being and self-reported satisfaction with life in the U.S. Findings support that the kinds and frequency of connections that immigrants maintain with the home country are important factors for understanding immigrants’ subjective well-being.
The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enabled undocumented immigrant you... more The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enabled undocumented immigrant young adults to more freely participate in U.S. society. Guided by family systems theory, which emphasizes that individual actors are interdependent with others within family units, we analyze the experiences of young adult DACA recipients while members of their families remain deportable. We draw from 44 in-depth interviews with DACA recipients who are part of mixed-status families to answer three questions: How were the benefits of DACA distributed within mixed-status family units and discrepancies interpreted by recipients? How did obtaining DACA change recipients’ roles and responsibilities within their families? And to what extent did obtaining DACA shape young adults’ envisioned futures? We discuss potential results of the program, including changes in familial relationships, conflicting roles, and challenges in recipients’ efforts at individuation from their families.
Uploads
Papers by Elizabeth Aranda