Jaqueline Mendez, Ph.D. Student | Sociology

Abstract:

This study examines the bureaucratic brokering within mixed-status Latina/o families, emphasizing the reciprocal dynamics of resource acquisition between adult citizen children and their undocumented parents. In the context of mixed-status families, bureaucratic brokering involves both undocumented parents and their U.S. citizen children leveraging their respective positions – legal, social, or familial – to overcome structural barriers tied to citizenship, documentation, and eligibility. To this end, the study illuminates how bureaucratic design and documentation requirements restrict access. Some of these processes include obtaining property deeds, vehicle ownership, and business licenses, which are often legally held in the children’s names. By shedding light on these resource-based interventions, this research illuminates the hidden labor and emotional toll carried by adult citizen children and their undocumented parents in navigating restrictive institutional frameworks contributing to sociological understandings of mobility, citizenship, family, illegality, and bureaucracy. In the process, the research reveals how these dynamics perpetuate inequalities and redistribute the burdens of illegality within mixed-status families.