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Lives in Limbo

Undocumented and Coming of Age in America

Roberto G Gonzales author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of California Press

Published:8th Jan '16

£25.00

Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.

Lives in Limbo cover

"My world seems upside down. I have grown up but I feel like I'm moving backward. And I can't do anything about it." (Esperanza). Over two million of the nation's eleven million undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States since childhood. Due to a broken immigration system, they grow up to uncertain futures. In Lives in Limbo, Roberto G. Gonzales introduces us to two groups: the college-goers, like Ricardo, who had good grades and a strong network of community support that propelled him to college and Dream Act organizing but still landed in a factory job a few short years after graduation, and the early-exiters, like Gabriel, who failed to make meaningful connections in high school and started navigating dead-end jobs, immigration checkpoints, and a world narrowly circumscribed by legal limitations. This vivid ethnography explores why highly educated undocumented youth share similar work and life outcomes with their less-educated peers, despite the fact that higher education is touted as the path to integration and success in America. Mining the results of an extraordinary twelve-year study that followed 150 undocumented young adults in Los Angeles, Lives in Limbo exposes the failures of a system that integrates children into K-12 schools but ultimately denies them the rewards of their labor.

"Based on an impressive ethnographic study carried out over twelve years, the book brings to light the rich and detailed voices and experiences of the 1.5 generation." NACLA: Report on the Americas "A must-read... This book is a critical addition to blossoming research on the undocumented 1.5-generation." City & Society

ISBN: 9780520287266

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm

Weight: 454g

320 pages