Journal
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Volume 38, Issue 3, Pages 675-695Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/socpro/spaa016
Keywords
immigrants; DACA; legal status; employment; education
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [1822787]
- American Sociological Association Spivack Community Action Research Award
- National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Sociological Initiatives Foundation
- University of California Center for New Racial Studies
- Chicano Studies Research Center
- UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment
- UC Davis Academic Senate Faculty Research Grant
- UC Davis Center for Regional Change
- University of California Institute for Social Sciences
- University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States
- UCLA Institute of American Cultures
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
- Divn Of Social and Economic Sciences [1822787] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The impact of the DACA program on education and employment among undocumented immigrants in California is varied, with some benefiting from access to college while others are discouraged. While some DACA recipients perceive increased occupational mobility, many remain in the secondary labor market, indicating limited and contingent impacts on socioeconomic integration without access to permanent legal status.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, implemented by executive order in 2012, granted a subset of undocumented youth temporary relief from deportation, work authorization, and other benefits. While theories of immigrant integration predict that legalization will enable immigrant socioeconomic mobility, past research on DACA's effects on education and employment have reached mixed conclusions, possibly reflecting the limitations of different methodological approaches to the question. Using multiple data sources and mixed methods, we analyzed both whether and how DACA impacted education and employment among undocumented immigrants in California. Our difference-in-differences analysis of the 2007-2017 waves of the California Health Interview Study employs a more precise definition of the DACA-eligible population than previous studies, yet we also find mixed effects. Our analysis of surveys and in-depth interviews collected with DACA recipients in California provides context for this finding. DACA enabled college for some, but discouraged it for others. DACA recipients perceived substantial occupational mobility, but this was not reflected in movement out of the secondary labor market for many. Our findings suggest that without access to permanent legal status, DACA recipients will experience liminal legality with limited and contingent impacts on socioeconomic integration.
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