“I used to be one of them”: reflections on researching DACA students as a DACA beneficiary

Abstract

This article examines my experiences as a Latina DACA-benefited researcher conducting qualitative research with Latinx DACA-benefited college students. Drawing from an interview study across two states, I describe my actions and responses to three stages I experienced in the field: reflexive analysis of positionality, acknowledgement of shared identity, and coming out to participants. In discussing my experiences during interviews, I showcase instances in which I pushed boundaries to adopt a methodology of compassion and humanity necessary in research by, for, and with undocumented immigrants. I draw from W.E.B. Du Bois’s double consciousness to consider undocumented researchers’ compartmentalized identities and experiences in the field, and I use Gloria Anzaldúa’s mestiza consciousness to contest dichotomies around legal status, nationality, and belonging. I propose the adoption of flexible methodologies to disrupt existing rigidities in qualitative research in immigrant communities and static epistemologies produced in contexts where researchers hold legal privilege over their undocumented/liminally documented participants.

Keywords:

• Undocumented
• DACA
• coming out
• shared identity
• reflexivity

Acknowledgements

This article would not have been possible without the courage of the 37 students who trusted me with their educational experiences, fears, and hopes for a future where they no longer lived in legal precarity. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and graceful feedback, and to Sophia Rodriguez and Denni Blum for their encouragment in drafting this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Although both the participants and I were DACA beneficiaries, in this paper I also use the terms undocumented researcher and undocumented participants to convey that both participants and I were subject to losing DACA at any time, especially after the threats to the program that followed the 2016 Presidential election.

2 Advance Parole allows noncitizen immigrants in need to travel outside the United States for educational, humanitarian, or employment reasons, to do so for a limited amount of time, and return lawfully.

3 The DREAM 9 was a group of undocumented activists from North Carolina who became known for staging one of the most notable political demonstrations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alessandra Bazo Vienrich

Alessandra Bazo Vienrich is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Worcester State University. Her research focuses on the impact of legal status on Latinx immigrants' educational experiences. She is writing a book about how DACA benefited undocumented Latinx students in Massachusetts and North Carolina navigate access to college.