Youth Activism

This chapter explores how “illegality” and immigration status exclude undocumented youth from participating in formal political acts, such as voting and running for office, and may prevent them from legally driving and traveling. Undocumented youth also live under the constant threat and fear of deportation. At the same time, youth experience their immigration status in a way that gives them strength to become political participants within their communities, and to challenge restrictive laws through their organizing efforts, particularly as they explore enhanced possibilities for establishing national and transnational connections through the use of the internet and digital media. It examines the ways that undocumented young adults are building and sustaining critical spaces of belonging and resistance within a nation that legally excludes them. By “coming out of the shadows” and creating online petitions to stop deportations, immigrant youth show how being outside of political structures can also create spaces within them..