Legal Power in Action: How Latinx Adult Children Mitigate the Effects of Parents’ Legal Status through Brokering

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel García Valdivia

Abstract Scholars have long demonstrated that Latinx children engage in cultural and linguistic brokering on behalf of their immigrant parents. This article adds to this literature by examining how the transition to adulthood enables adult children to deploy their legal power to assist their immigrant parents. This study identifies three types of brokering using legal power: securing loans or access to credit, sponsoring immigration petitions, and becoming a legal guardian for siblings. Using 37 in-depth interviews with adult children, parents, and extended family members with varying legal statuses in California, I show that citizen adult children have greater capacity than DACAmented adult children in mixed-status families to exercise legal power when brokering. In addition, adult children’s legal power may be enhanced or limited by incomplete paperwork, family tensions, and economic background. These findings provide an understanding of how the transition to legal adulthood affects the way adult children of immigrants help their undocumented parents access resources and information, negotiate the effects of immigration laws, and reduce some inequality suffered by their families.

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-145
Author(s):  
Sharon Erickson Nepstad

This chapter depicts some of the current debates and pressing issues around immigration reform and the treatment of refugees in the United States. It provides an overview of the Catholic Church’s teachings on immigration, which emphasize that all people have the right to emigrate when their lives are threatened or when they are unable to survive in their homelands. These teachings strongly mandate that all immigrants should be welcomed, assisted, treated with dignity, and given their basic human rights, regardless of their legal status. This chapter explores how American Catholics have responded to immigration concerns and crises. It documents the actions of the Sanctuary movement of the 1980s, which defied immigration laws to help Salvadorans and Guatemalans who were fleeing civil war violence in their homelands. Sanctuary activists assisted these refugees across the border and protected them in churches and synagogues throughout the United States. The chapter concludes with a summary of the New Sanctuary Movement in the twenty-first century, which is focused on reforming immigration policy and preventing the deportation of members in “mixed-status” families.


2020 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2096797
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Aranda ◽  
Elizabeth Vaquera ◽  
Heide Castañeda

The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enabled undocumented immigrant young adults to more freely participate in U.S. society. Guided by family systems theory, which emphasizes that individual actors are interdependent with others within family units, we analyze the experiences of young adult DACA recipients while members of their families remain deportable. We draw from 44 in-depth interviews with DACA recipients who are part of mixed-status families to answer three questions: How were the benefits of DACA distributed within mixed-status family units and discrepancies interpreted by recipients? How did obtaining DACA change recipients’ roles and responsibilities within their families? And to what extent did obtaining DACA shape young adults’ envisioned futures? We discuss potential results of the program, including changes in familial relationships, conflicting roles, and challenges in recipients’ efforts at individuation from their families.


2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 811-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN KNODEL ◽  
JIRAPORN KESPICHAYAWATTANA ◽  
CHANPEN SAENGTIENCHAI ◽  
SUVINEE WIWATWANICH

ABSTRACTThe consequences of adult children's migration from rural areas for older parents who remain behind are keenly debated. While the mass media and international advocacy organisations favour an ‘alarmist’ view of desertion, the academic literature makes more sanguine assessments using the ‘household strategy’ and ‘modified extended family’ perspectives. We examine the relationship between the migration of adult children and various dimensions of older parents' wellbeing in Thailand using evidence from a survey that focused on the issues. The results provide little support for the alarmist view, but instead suggest that parents and adult children adapt to the social and economic changes associated with development in ways not necessarily detrimental to intergenerational relations. The migration of children, especially to urban areas, often benefits parents' material support while the recent spread of cell phones has radically increased their ability to maintain social contact. Nevertheless, changing living arrangements through increased migration and the smaller family sizes of the youngest age groups of older people pose serious challenges for aspects of filial support, especially at advanced ages when chronic illness and frailty require long-term personal care. Dealing with this emerging situation in a context of social, economic and technological change is among the most critical issues facing those concerned with the implications of rapid population ageing in Thailand and elsewhere.


Author(s):  
Irang Kim ◽  
Sarah Dababnah

As the United States grows more racially and ethnically diverse, Koreans have become one of the largest ethnic minority populations. We conducted this qualitative study to explore the perspectives of Korean immigrant parents about their child’s future and the factors that shape those perspectives. We used modified grounded theory methods. Twenty Korean immigrant parents of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities participated in the study. Four themes emerged: navigating complicated and limited service systems, maintaining safety and relationships through work and higher education, ongoing parental care at home, and the need for culturally relevant adult services. We discuss implications for culturally responsive practice and inclusive research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoya Gubernskaya ◽  
Joanna Dreby

As the Trump administration contemplates immigration reform, it is important to better understand what works and what does not in the current system. This paper reviews and critically evaluates the principle of family unity, a hallmark of US immigration policy over the past 50 years and the most important mechanism for immigration to the United States. Since 1965, the United States has been admitting a relatively high proportion of family-based migrants and allowing for the immigration of a broader range of family members. However, restrictive annual quotas have resulted in a long line of prospective immigrants waiting outside of the United States or within the United States, but without status. Further policy changes have led to an increasing number of undocumented migrants and mixed-status families in the United States. Several policies and practices contribute to prolonged periods of family separation by restricting travel and effectively locking in a large number of people either inside or outside of the United States. On top of that, increasingly aggressive enforcement practices undermine family unity of a large number of undocumented and mixed-status families. Deportations — and even a fear of deportation —cause severe psychological distress and often leave US-born children of undocumented parents without economic and social support. A recent comprehensive report concluded that immigration has overall positive impact on the US economy, suggesting that a predominantly family-based migration system carries net economic benefits. Immigrants rely on family networks for employment, housing, transportation, informal financial services, schooling, childcare, and old age care. In the US context where there is nearly no federal support for immigrants' integration and limited welfare policies, family unity is critical for promoting immigrant integration, social and economic well-being, and intergenerational mobility. Given the benefits of family unity in the US immigrant context and the significant negative consequences of family separation, the United States would do well to make a number of changes to current policy and practice that reaffirm its commitment to family unity. Reducing wait times for family reunification with spouses and children of lawful permanent residents, allowing prospective family-based migrants to visit their relatives in the United States while their applications are being processed, and providing relief from deportation and a path to legalization to parents and spouses of US citizens should be prioritized. The cost to implement these measures would likely be minor compared to current and projected spending on immigration enforcement and it would be more than offset by the improved health and well-being of American families.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 296
Author(s):  
Aryani Witasari

Article 2 of Law Number 30 Year 1999 concerning Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Settlement indicates that dispute settlement or disagreement among parties in a certain legal relationship shall be the authority of the arbitration institution, if it has been agreed in an arbitration agreement. This research tried to criticize the concept of absolute nature of the arbitral decision in the settlement of business dispute in the perspective of the theory of justice. Method of data retrieval used in this research was by collecting literature study by studying data and analyzing the entire contents of library by linking to existing problems. The final and legally binding arbitral decision, if associated with Aristotle's corrective theory of justice, does not at all reflect the basic value of justice. This is indicated by not giving an opportunity for another party whose position is higher to correct the decision, whereas in the judicial system, the court as an ordinary court having legal status (legal statue) and legal authority (legal authority/legal power). Verdict the panel of judges can still be corrected through the usual remedies (appeals) and extraordinary reviews.


Author(s):  
Kendra Larrisha Blakely ◽  
Chiquita Long Holmes ◽  
Eugenie Joan Looby ◽  
Kevin Merideth ◽  
Alexis M. Jackson ◽  
...  

This chapter focuses on children in mixed-status families. The authors provide demographic data and the definition of a mixed-status family, then outline the challenges experienced by these families. The authors delineate developmental, educational, and psychological risk factors for these children. Intervention and advocacy initiatives in which school counselors can engage are examined. Authors provide practical solutions, suggestions for future research, a glossary of terms, and further readings. Finally, each topic discussed includes application strategies for school counselors.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document