Everyday Acts of Resistance: Mexican, Undocumented Immigrant Children and Adolescents Navigating Oppression With Mentor Support

Bernadette Sánchez; Yesenia Garcia-Murillo; Lidia Y. Monjaras-Gaytan; Kay Thursby; Grevelin Ulerio; Wendy de los Reyes; Ida R. Salusky; Claudio Santiago Rivera

doi:10.1111/jora.12755

Everyday Acts of Resistance: Mexican, Undocumented Immigrant Children and Adolescents Navigating Oppression With Mentor Support

Bernadette Sánchez^*, Yesenia Garcia-Murillo, Lidia Y. Monjaras-Gaytan, Kay Thursby, Grevelin Ulerio, Wendy de los Reyes, Ida R. Salusky, Claudio Santiago Rivera

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Study aims were to examine oppression in education among Mexican immigrant youth with undocumented status and how mentors and other adults helped them resist oppression. Qualitative, narrative one-on-one interviews were conducted with 17 Mexican immigrant young adults with undocumented or DACA status in the U.S. Participants provided retrospective accounts from childhood through older adolescence. Analyses revealed critical junctures in which participants experienced oppression: (1) developmental milestones and school events, (2) college application process, (3) unforeseen life events, and (4) incidents of racial discrimination. Mentors and other adults helped participants to resist oppression through advocacy, social capital efforts, role modeling, and emotional, instrumental, and financial support. This study fills gaps in the literature on mentoring and immigrant youth who are undocumented.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	398-416
Number of pages	19
Journal	Journal of Research on Adolescence
Volume	32
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12755
State	Published - Jun 2022

Keywords

Latinx/Latino
adolescents
education
mentoring
mexican
oppression
undocumented immigrants

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cultural Studies
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Behavioral Neuroscience

Access to Document

10.1111/jora.12755

Cite this

@article{7257531877394b68a1b1fe47cfd661d4,

title = "Everyday Acts of Resistance: Mexican, Undocumented Immigrant Children and Adolescents Navigating Oppression With Mentor Support",

abstract = "Study aims were to examine oppression in education among Mexican immigrant youth with undocumented status and how mentors and other adults helped them resist oppression. Qualitative, narrative one-on-one interviews were conducted with 17 Mexican immigrant young adults with undocumented or DACA status in the U.S. Participants provided retrospective accounts from childhood through older adolescence. Analyses revealed critical junctures in which participants experienced oppression: (1) developmental milestones and school events, (2) college application process, (3) unforeseen life events, and (4) incidents of racial discrimination. Mentors and other adults helped participants to resist oppression through advocacy, social capital efforts, role modeling, and emotional, instrumental, and financial support. This study fills gaps in the literature on mentoring and immigrant youth who are undocumented.",

keywords = "Latinx/Latino, adolescents, education, mentoring, mexican, oppression, undocumented immigrants",

author = "Bernadette S{\'a}nchez and Yesenia Garcia-Murillo and Monjaras-Gaytan, {Lidia Y.} and Kay Thursby and Grevelin Ulerio and {de los Reyes}, Wendy and Salusky, {Ida R.} and Rivera, {Claudio Santiago}",

note = "Funding Information: This study was funded through a dissertation grant award from the Society of Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) to the last author and a faculty summer grant from DePaul University. We are grateful to the community organizations and participants for their support of this project. We also thank Mariana Bednarek who summarized relevant literature for this paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors. Journal of Research on Adolescence published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research on Adolescence.",

year = "2022",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1111/jora.12755",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "32",

pages = "398--416",

journal = "Journal of Research on Adolescence",

issn = "1050-8392",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Everyday Acts of Resistance

T2 - Mexican, Undocumented Immigrant Children and Adolescents Navigating Oppression With Mentor Support

AU - Sánchez, Bernadette

AU - Garcia-Murillo, Yesenia

AU - Monjaras-Gaytan, Lidia Y.

AU - Thursby, Kay

AU - Ulerio, Grevelin

AU - de los Reyes, Wendy

AU - Salusky, Ida R.

AU - Rivera, Claudio Santiago

N1 - Funding Information: This study was funded through a dissertation grant award from the Society of Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) to the last author and a faculty summer grant from DePaul University. We are grateful to the community organizations and participants for their support of this project. We also thank Mariana Bednarek who summarized relevant literature for this paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Research on Adolescence published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research on Adolescence.

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - Study aims were to examine oppression in education among Mexican immigrant youth with undocumented status and how mentors and other adults helped them resist oppression. Qualitative, narrative one-on-one interviews were conducted with 17 Mexican immigrant young adults with undocumented or DACA status in the U.S. Participants provided retrospective accounts from childhood through older adolescence. Analyses revealed critical junctures in which participants experienced oppression: (1) developmental milestones and school events, (2) college application process, (3) unforeseen life events, and (4) incidents of racial discrimination. Mentors and other adults helped participants to resist oppression through advocacy, social capital efforts, role modeling, and emotional, instrumental, and financial support. This study fills gaps in the literature on mentoring and immigrant youth who are undocumented.

AB - Study aims were to examine oppression in education among Mexican immigrant youth with undocumented status and how mentors and other adults helped them resist oppression. Qualitative, narrative one-on-one interviews were conducted with 17 Mexican immigrant young adults with undocumented or DACA status in the U.S. Participants provided retrospective accounts from childhood through older adolescence. Analyses revealed critical junctures in which participants experienced oppression: (1) developmental milestones and school events, (2) college application process, (3) unforeseen life events, and (4) incidents of racial discrimination. Mentors and other adults helped participants to resist oppression through advocacy, social capital efforts, role modeling, and emotional, instrumental, and financial support. This study fills gaps in the literature on mentoring and immigrant youth who are undocumented.

KW - Latinx/Latino

KW - adolescents

KW - education

KW - mentoring

KW - mexican

KW - oppression

KW - undocumented immigrants

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127394529&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85127394529&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/jora.12755

DO - 10.1111/jora.12755

M3 - Article

C2 - 35365904

AN - SCOPUS:85127394529

SN - 1050-8392

VL - 32

SP - 398

EP - 416

JO - Journal of Research on Adolescence

JF - Journal of Research on Adolescence

IS - 2

ER -

Everyday Acts of Resistance: Mexican, Undocumented Immigrant Children and Adolescents Navigating Oppression With Mentor Support

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this