Abstract
In 2012, President Barack Obama announced his implementation of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which allows young undocumented immigrants to be exempt from deportation and to receive work permits. In Living the Dream, Maria Chavez, Jessica L. Lavariega Monforti, and Melissa R. Michelson examine the lives of youth immigrants in the wake of this new policy.
After discussing the racialization of Latino immigrants in the first chapter, the authors dedicate a chapter to a discussion of the argument in favor of the DREAM Act. President Obama’s DACA responded to the lack of the passage of a federal DREAM Act. The authors discuss the history of immigration policy in the United States and the economic impact of such policies. In the next three chapters, the authors look at U.S. policy through the eyes of undocumented Latino youth. They collected 101 interviews of undocumented Latino youth (known as the DREAMers) in California, Oregon, Texas, and Washington in the summer of 2012, immediately after the announcement of DACA.
In the analysis of these interviews, they first discuss how respondents came to understand themselves as undocumented, finding that some had had traumatic experiences in which they were denied access to resources, jobs, or opportunities due to their status; the youth express frustration with being forced into hiding their status. In the following chapter, they discuss life “in limbo,” as respondents began to realize they could start to seek more opportunities, but uncertainty still dominated the future. The authors’ final substantive chapter is dedicated to the discussion of identity, including the way this new policy affected the construction of political identity and activism as well as ethnic identity.
This book provides a contemporary analysis of immigration policy and those affected by it, explaining how DACA and immigration policy have affected the lives of DREAMers. It gives insight into the circumstances these youth find themselves embedded in and the hope that DACA gives them for living a life in the open. This book is recommended for those who study immigration policy, racialization, and ethnic and immigrant identity construction, as well as those interested in qualitative research methods.