Early in Stephanie L. Canizales’ recent book, she presents Tomás, a boy who lived in poverty in Guatemala. Abandoned at 10 years old, he joined his sister in the U.S. at age 14. Though seeking a better future, his undocumented status caused his sister to worry about her child’s safety, leading Tomás to sleep on the floor of a garment factory. “Why,” he wondered, “am I not a kid who was born here?”
Canizales, a UC Berkeley sociology professor, explores how legal policies impact undocumented young people in “Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States.” While some find stability, others face labor exploitation and lack of family support, maturing in a country that often vilifies them.
The book reflects Canizales’ ambition to challenge perceptions of immigrants: “I’m really trying to challenge this idealized-on-a-pedestal idea of who immigrants should be for us to consider them human, worthy of inclusion and deserving of protection.”
Canizales, also director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, is a noted scholar of undocumented youth. Her upcoming book, “Everyday Futures: Language as Survival for Indigenous Youth in Diaspora,” and a third project on asylum seekers draw from numerous interviews and a decade of research in Los Angeles.
Her findings highlight the contrast between political promises to protect children and policies punishing them. “If not leverageable for the sake of agenda-setting or even tone-setting to the public, the population is completely forgotten,” she said. “And that really haunts me.”
Canizales has dedicated years to studying undocumented teens in California, a journey inspired by her experience as a volunteer coordinator for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. She describes the event as emotionally rewarding yet exhausting, sparking her drive to educate university students on social issues.
While at the University of Southern California, she conducted research on undocumented teens working low-wage jobs. Her work is contextualized against the backdrop of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, which have heightened the challenges these individuals face.
Canizales’ research revealed that unaccompanied children arriving in the U.S. often encounter struggles as relatives view them as threats to their legal status. “We have assumptions about what immigrant incorporation, a ‘successful’ immigrant, a ‘good’ immigrant look like,” Canizales explained. “Why do we hold certain groups to account when…those of us who have, by every other marker, the ability to reach those things have not done so?”
Her reflections in “Sin Padres, Ni Papeles” include personal anecdotes and stress the importance of empathy in academia. Canizales recounts her own anxiety during her research, emphasizing the value of understanding for future scholars. “I wanted to really capture the uncertainty, the quicksand that was under me.”
Now more confident, she emphasizes the need to listen to children and their stories. By making readers remember individuals like Tomás, she aims to advance understanding and care for these young lives.
