CARE TO BELONG: CONSTRUCTING, NEGOTIATING, AND DISRUPTING LATIN AMERICAN (IM)MIGRANT YOUTH (UN)DESERVINGNESS IN A WELCOMING CITY

Abstract

Immigrant children and youth are one of the fastest growing populations in cities in the US. At the same time, they have been one of the groups most affected by dehumanizing and anti-immigrant discourses and practices depicting them as undeserving. Those discourses have critically affected how immigrant children and youth experience belonging and attachment to place. In this sense, this dissertations first argues that the construction of migrant youth as burdens, victims, and criminals' neglects to recognize youths' everyday agency. I indicate that ignoring youths' current experiences and care practices in urban and education spaces complicates their lives because they get involved in more vulnerable situations to secure their own and family survival. For example, during the pandemic, the lockdown did not stop youth from working to provide for their families. Through content analysis, observations, conversations, and participatory action research with recent migrant youth, this dissertations examines the construction of immigrant Latin American youth deservingness and the socio-cultural and spatial care practices of undocumented youths in various spaces: home, workspaces, the virtual, and the public sphere. Additionally, I examine youth experiences in Baltimore, a city that officially emphasizes inclusionary politics to push for economic growth and to battle urban disinvestment and depopulation. In this context, I ultimately argue that ‘inclusionary' frameworks in urban and education development can further exclude and make invisible migrant youth while also extracting cultural and economic value from them. I suggest that to be considered inclusionary, it should present material recognition of migrant youth of color in decision-making as well as valuing material and epistemic contributions such as their multiple care practices.