This is one of the most readable and enjoyable academic books I have ever read. In short, this book was spectacular! And for those of you who might be daunted by reading an academic book, have no fear. It is gut-wrenching, eye-opening, and jaw-dropping all at the same time. Gonzales deftly navigates the reader through each of the major stages of of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and shows how being labeled as “illegal” and forced to the margins of society has affected these children at nearly every moment in their lives. Gonzales spent over 12 years interviewing over 150 undocumented youths in the Los Angeles metropolitan area to learn about the struggles they face growing up. Gonzales has crafted a book that is engaging on every single page. Tackling the issues of undocumented youths, “illegality,” and immigration laws in America head on, Prof. wow! I am completely blown away by this book, the amount of research that was put in, and how accessible it is to a broader audience. 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. 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. Gonzales introduces us to two 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. Due to a broken immigration system, they grow up to uncertain futures. Over two million of the nation’s eleven million undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States since childhood. I have grown up but I feel like I’m moving backward.
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