Abstract
In this article, we draw on ecocultural theories of risk and resilience to examine qualitatively the experiences of U.S. citizen children living with their undocumented Mexican parents. Our purpose is to render visible the various ways in which citizen children confront and navigate the possibilities—and realities—of parental deportation. We develop a framework to conceptualize the complex multidimensional, and often multidirectional, factors experienced by citizen children vulnerable to or directly facing parental deportation. We situate youth well-being against a backdrop of multiple factors to understand how indirect and direct encounters with immigration enforcement, the mixed-status family niche, and access to resources shape differential child outcomes. In doing so, we offer insights into how different factors potentially contribute to resilience in the face of adversity.
- © 2017 Russell Sage Foundation. Gulbas, Lauren E., and Luis H. Zayas. 2017. “Exploring the Effects of U.S. Immigration Enforcement on the Well-being of Citizen Children in Mexican Immigrant Families.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 3(4): 53–69. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2017.3.4.04. Support for this research was provided by National Institute for Child Health and Human Development grant HD068874 to Luis H. Zayas. We express our gratitude to the families who participated in this study. Direct correspondence to: Lauren E. Gulbas at laurengulbas{at}austin.utexas.edu, School of Social Work, University of Texas, 1925 San Jacinto Blvd., D3500, Austin, TX 78712; and Luis H. Zayas at lzayas{at}austin.utexas.edu, School of Social Work, University of Texas, 1925 San Jacinto Blvd., D3500, Austin, TX 78712.
Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.