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

本论文探讨中美洲无成人陪伴青年在家庭、工作、学校及当地社区的参与范围。 我试图了解青年定义和感知社会成员和归属感的方式，从而体验在美国的融合。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。作为第一个社会学研究，考虑无人陪伴的中美洲青年工人的整合经验，这项研究具有理论和实证意义的研究，未经授权的青年融合，生命历程，和新兴的文学无人陪伴的未成年人移民的经验。这项研究也是独特的准备发言的社会融入其他边缘化的青年群体，包括无家可归和寄养青年在美国。专注于无人陪伴的青年如何定义，感知和体验融入和归属感，本研究扩展了同化和公民资格应得的模型，这些模型塑造了我们对移民青年融入的理解，以指导未来的移民研究以及移民融合政策。无人陪伴的中美洲青年是否像分段同化所预测的那样经历了向下流动，或者他们是否发展了替代空间和叙事，尽管他们社会和经济边缘化？ 我制定了一个理论框架，认为同化和公民理论从以主题为中心的方法，突出青年如何感知，定义和衡量纳入和归属。我采用多种方法和数据来源，包括深入，半结构化的采访和参与者和非参与者的观察与无人陪伴的中美洲青年在洛杉矶。使用美国社区调查，我还包括一个本地和外国出生的儿童生活在美国，加州，和洛杉矶谁是无关的其他户主概念化的模式，纳入全国边缘化的青年人口快照。本研究的目的是建立和扩展目前的同化理论的移民纳入，同时提供大量的经验数据和影响，无人陪伴的青年在移民管道的经验。

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.