Migrant Illegality across Uneven Legal Geographies: Introduction to the Special Issue of Law & Policy

• Author: Carolina Valdivia,Andrea Flores,Joanna Perez,Lisa M. Martinez,Edelina M. Burciaga,Kevin Escudero
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12116
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• Date: 01 January 2019

Migrant Illegality across Uneven Legal Geographies:

Introduction to the Special Issue of Law & Policy

EDELINA M. BURCIAGA, LISA M. MARTINEZ, KEVIN ESCUDERO,

ANDREA FLORES, JOANNA PEREZ and

CAROLINA VALDIVIA, GUEST EDITORS

A growing body of scholarship exploring immigrant illegality makes clear that assimila-

tion and incorporation patterns for members of the undocumented immigrant commu-

nity do not follow the same trajectory as those of other immigrant groups (De Genova

2002; Abrego 2006; Menjı

´var 2006; Gonzales 2011). Instead, these scholars find that

immigrant illegality profoundly shapes undocumented immigrants’ economic, social,

and political incorporation into the nation-state, with especially critical effects on youth

(referred to as the undocumented 1.5-generation) who experience limited social incorpo-

ration as children only to face illegality as emerging adults (Abrego 2011; Gleeson and

Gonzales 2012; Greenman and Hall 2013; Enriquez 2015). Contributing to undocu-

mented individuals’ distinctive experiences of assimilation is the devolution of immigra-

tion law. Despite immigration law functioning at the national level, local governments

have increasingly implemented immigration law at the state and local levels, producing

uneven social and political terrains that undocumented immigrants must engage with

daily. This special issue of Law & Policy engages with the fundamental question of how

undocumented immigrants, and undocumented youth specifically, navigate the everyday

experiences and increasingly variegated local terrains of illegality. In particular, this

issue focuses on the uneven legal geography of immigration.

Building on rich literature in sociology, anthropology, sociolegal studies, geography,

and law, we employ the term “illegality” to capture the experiences of a broad group of

immigrants who are living in the United States in various states of legality (De Genova

2002; Chavez 2007; Willen 2007; Menjı

´var and Abrego 2012). Following the lead of

scholars in this field (De Genova 2002; Menjivar and Kanstroom 2015), we seek to

We are grateful to the American Sociological Association for awarding us a Fund for the Advancement of the

Discipline grant to host the migrant illegalities conference, the University of Denver Latino Center for Com-

munity Engagement and Scholarship, the University of Colorado Office of Academic Affairs, and the CU-

Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Diversity Council for additional conference support. We are also

grateful to Monica Varsanyi, Professor of Political Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY,

for lending her expertise and providing valuable commentary on early versions of the contributors’ papers, and

to the reviewers whose timely feedback strengthened the articles and benefitted the special issue as a whole.

Address correspondence to: Edelina M. Burciaga, Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Den-

ver, CO 80217, USA. Email: edelina.burciaga@ucdenver.edu.

LAW & POLICY, Vol. 41, No. 1, January 2019

©2018 The Authors

Law & Policy ©2018 The University of Denver/Colorado Seminary

doi: 10.1111/lapo.12116

ISSN 0265-8240