Transition to “Illegality” for Young Immigrants
Once second generation children realize their legal status in the United States they engage in what Roberto G. Gonzales (2011) refers to as, “the transition to illegality”. In his study he identified three different stages to this transition. The first stage to this transition is the discovery stage, which usually happens between the ages of 16 to 18. In this stage these children experience dramatic changes as they discover that they cannot engage in the common adult like activities and benefits like their school peers. Gonzales (2011) states that, “respondents uniformly noted a jolting shift at around age 16, when they attempted to move through rites of passages associated with their age,” which …show more content…
Most of the times, this is due to the policies in place and as stated by Allport and Ferguson (2009) in their book, “although undocumented students did not purposefully break United States laws, their mere presence is consider a violation of United States federal immigration code.” As a result in their transition to the second stage, learning to be illegal, they find themselves in situation where they face inequality and instability in the jobs they find and uncertainty about their future. In this stage according to Gonzales (2011), “lacking a legal status and a college degree, early-exiters (people who drop-out of high school at an early age) confront some of the same limited and limiting employment options as their parents.” Often time those who manage to start their higher education at a community college or at a four years university are led to enter the workforce due to limited financial aid opportunities and their need to economically provide for their families. In the last stage of this process which Gonzales (2011) identified as the coping stage, many of the respondents found themselves living a life that was very different from the one they had planned in their early youth years. Many find themselves commuting from one job to another and often with lost hope about their …show more content…
This legislation was first introduced in 2001 as a bipartisan legislation however, ever since it was first introduced the DREAM Act has failed to receive full support by both parties and thus failing to be approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Rene Galindo states that, “undocumented immigrants can be considered semi-stateless economic refugees and are characterized in the popular discourse as expendable laborers and illegal aliens,” (Galindo, 2012). Thus, serving as “low-skilled laborers” in the labor market while conforming to minimum wage and job discrimination. Juan Garcia, a member of this pool of second generation immigrants that conform to work in environments that are sometimes undesirable and full of inequalities hopes that upon the approval of the DREAM Act he can be able
Once second generation children realize their legal status in the United States they engage in what Roberto G. Gonzales (2011) refers to as, “the transition to illegality”. In his study he identified three different stages to this transition. The first stage to this transition is the discovery stage, which usually happens between the ages of 16 to 18. In this stage these children experience dramatic changes as they discover that they cannot engage in the common adult like activities and benefits like their school peers. Gonzales (2011) states that, “respondents uniformly noted a jolting shift at around age 16, when they attempted to move through rites of passages associated with their age,” which …show more content…
Most of the times, this is due to the policies in place and as stated by Allport and Ferguson (2009) in their book, “although undocumented students did not purposefully break United States laws, their mere presence is consider a violation of United States federal immigration code.” As a result in their transition to the second stage, learning to be illegal, they find themselves in situation where they face inequality and instability in the jobs they find and uncertainty about their future. In this stage according to Gonzales (2011), “lacking a legal status and a college degree, early-exiters (people who drop-out of high school at an early age) confront some of the same limited and limiting employment options as their parents.” Often time those who manage to start their higher education at a community college or at a four years university are led to enter the workforce due to limited financial aid opportunities and their need to economically provide for their families. In the last stage of this process which Gonzales (2011) identified as the coping stage, many of the respondents found themselves living a life that was very different from the one they had planned in their early youth years. Many find themselves commuting from one job to another and often with lost hope about their …show more content…
This legislation was first introduced in 2001 as a bipartisan legislation however, ever since it was first introduced the DREAM Act has failed to receive full support by both parties and thus failing to be approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Rene Galindo states that, “undocumented immigrants can be considered semi-stateless economic refugees and are characterized in the popular discourse as expendable laborers and illegal aliens,” (Galindo, 2012). Thus, serving as “low-skilled laborers” in the labor market while conforming to minimum wage and job discrimination. Juan Garcia, a member of this pool of second generation immigrants that conform to work in environments that are sometimes undesirable and full of inequalities hopes that upon the approval of the DREAM Act he can be able