The expansion of U.S. immigration enforcement into everyday spaces has intensified fear, uncertainty, and material hardship among undocumented and mixed-status families. This talk highlights the emotional and practical labor of young adults, who often assume parental, emotional, and legal responsibilities as they develop strategies to protect their families from the consequences of immigration enforcement, and what can be done to support them.

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Pacific Time)
UC Berkeley Social Sciences Building 402 & Online

Immigration policy and enforcement practices in the United States now extend beyond the border to the country's interior, impacting the private lives of millions of undocumented and mixed-status families in new ways. Sanctuary Making traces this shift, showing how as enforcement has expanded and deepened, new "hot spots" have appeared across nontraditional sites such as neighborhoods, roads, worksites, hospitals, grocery stores, and homes. Undercurrents of fear, anxiety, and loss permeate the everyday lives of the families navigating these terrains of enforcement.

Carolina Valdivia reveals the emotional and material labor of young adults that often underpins families' sanctuary making efforts--strategies to shield against the worst outcomes of enforcement. Many young adults are compelled to take on parental responsibilities and serve as a primary source of emotional support for family members while also brokering legal processes tied to their family's immigration cases. How might policymakers, organizers, educators, and the wider community better support these young people in their efforts to create sanctuary for their families in an increasingly hostile landscape?

Carolina Valdivia (PhD, Harvard) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine, with affiliations in the Department of Sociology, Department of Chicana/o Studies, the School of Education, and the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy. Carolina's research interests include immigration, law and society, the sociology of education, race and ethnicity, youth and families, and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Her work explores how various forms of legal and social exclusion impact the lives of immigrant youth and their families, including their educational trajectories, mental health, and political participation.

This event is cosponsored with the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, UC San Diego Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, UC Davis Global Migration Center, the UC Los Angeles Center for the Study of International Migration, and in collaboration with the UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies as part of the UC Migration Centers book talk series.

Download file: Sancturary-Making-ag-fch.pdf

Sponsor(s): Center for Study of International Migration, Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, UC Davis Global Migration Center, UC San Diego Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies