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

本文考察了无人陪伴的中美洲青年参与家庭、工作、学校和当地社区的范围。我试图了解年轻人如何定义和感知社会成员身份和归属感，从而体验在美国的融入。我将采访那些作为无人陪伴的未成年人来到美国的年轻人和年轻人，他们打算努力支持继续生活在国外的家庭。作为第一个考虑无人陪伴的中美洲青年工作者融入经历的社会学研究，本研究对未经许可的青年融入、生命历程以及关于无人陪伴的未成年人移民经历的研究具有理论和实证意义。这项研究还独一无二地准备好谈论其他边缘化青年群体的社会融入问题，包括美国的无家可归者和寄养青年。这项研究着眼于无人陪伴的青年如何定义、感知和体验融入和归属感，扩展了同化和公民认同感模型，这些模型塑造了我们对移民青年融入的理解，将其作为指导未来移民研究和移民融合政策的一种方式。从理论上讲，本论文提出的问题是：无人陪伴的中美洲青年是否像分段同化预测的那样经历向下流动，或者他们是否发展了替代空间和叙事，尽管他们在社会和经济上被边缘化，但他们仍然促进了融入和归属感？我构建了一个理论框架，从以主体为中心的方法来考虑同化和公民身份理论，强调年轻人如何感知、定义和衡量融入和归属感。我采用了多种方法和数据来源，包括深入的、半结构化的访谈，以及对洛杉矶无人陪伴的中美洲青年的参与者和非参与者的观察。使用美国社区调查，我还包括了居住在美国、加利福尼亚州和洛杉矶的本地和外国出生的儿童的人口统计快照，这些儿童与其他户主无关，以概念化全国边缘化青年的融入模式。这项研究的目的是在现有移民融入同化理论的基础上发展和扩展，同时提供大量的经验数据和关于无人陪伴的青年在移民管道中的经历的影响。

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.