Luchando Para Salir Adelante: Economic Migration, Social Ties and Poverty Resistance Strategies of Undocumented Latin American Immigrants to Texas

Background. The United States currently faces the deepest inequality since the Great Depression. Fifteen percent of its population lives in poverty. Economic uncertainty often turns political rhetoric to policies of immigrant exclusion. Latino immigrants, particularly the undocumented and excluded from formal employment and state resources, have been increasingly targeted. Still, over 6 million undocumented Latinos make the U.S. their home. In the face of this economic and social exclusion, how do they make ends meet? Research on this ‘survival question’ has shifted from understanding survival as reliant on strong social ties, to weaker ties, to ties considered “disposable.” Is this consistent among all groups? This study aimed to contribute to the discourse on survival strategies and social ties via qualitative investigation into the economic practices of undocumented Latinos.

Methods. The question of how undocumented Latinos rely on social ties as part of their economic strategies was interrogated using in-depth interviews informed by ethnographic observation. In-depth interviews (n=49) with undocumented Latinos in Austin were collected over three years and supplemented by field notes from interviews with practitioners and participant observation conducted during work with the local worker center and at community events. Interviews conducted in 2013 (n=20) and 2014 (n=15) were part of the Parenting in the Context of Deportation Risk study. I used thematic analysis to structure the interrogation.

Results. La lucha, the struggle, frames participation in economic life by connecting economic experiences to economic and sociopolitical forces, to a strategy for coping with life in an increasingly hostile context, and to a goal, salir adelante, to get ahead. Framing economic life in terms undocumented Latinos use highlights their agency in economic decision-making and places that agency in structural context. It shows how by associating with a positive identity, the hard worker, to reclaim their experience, strategies for economic survival become strategies for adapting to and coping with these challenges. Palancas, connections, structure access to the resources and stability necessary for getting ahead in the context of extreme exclusion. Defined by connection to a resource, las palancas allow analysis of social ties in functional terms. Central to their structure is family, key to migration and resource-sharing strategies (co-housing, cash loans and childcare). Friends and neighbors are key to location of resources, like work and housing. Palancas play a pivotal role in navegando, navigating, la lucha. A framework for understanding how undocumented Latinos implement a variety of practices, navegando means negotiating the practices of administration (prioritization and budgeting) and income generation (formal sector work to informal sales) that provide resources in efforts to salir adelante.

Implications. Findings suggest increasing reliance on weaker social ties may not be universal. How undocumented Latinos rely on ties to navigate practices of survival in a context of economic exclusion point to interventions that strengthen ties to reinforce economies of scale. Challenges undocumented Latinos face in getting ahead point to both immigration and economic policy interventions social workers could support, as well as insights into practice, to ensure the undocumented salir adelante out of the shadows.