ABSTRACT

Many undocumented youths who come to the United States as children are unaware of their status until family disclosure; this likely has identity implications for youth. Through 40 semi-structured interviews with deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) college students, we explored how youth discovered their undocumented status, the type of information that was discussed during family disclosures, and how these youth perceived their identity changed after discovering their undocumented status. Most youths learned through direct parental disclosure, although several learned accidentally. Others reported always knowing, due in part to memories of crossing the U.S.–Mexico border. During disclosures, youth’s family helped youth make sense of what being undocumented meant. After disclosure, many youths felt cautious, experienced identity confusion, and felt dehumanized; however, some felt empowered. Our findings extend Communication Privacy Management Theory by highlighting environmental contextual features’ (e.g. political and legal systems) role in learning about and interpreting private information.

摘要

许多没有证件的青年还是儿童来到美国，直到家庭公开之前，他们才意识到自己的身份。这可能会对年轻人的身份产生影响。通过40次半结构化访谈（针对推迟到达的大学生），我们探索了青年如何发现其无证件身份，在家庭信息披露期间讨论的信息类型，以及这些青年在发现其无证件后如何看待自己的身份地位。大多数年轻人是通过父母直接公开学习的，尽管其中有一些是偶然学习的。其他人报告总是知道，部分原因是跨越美墨边境的记忆。在披露过程中，青年家庭帮助青年了解了无证件的含义。揭露后，许多年轻人感到谨慎，经历过身份混乱，并感到不人道；但是，有些人感到有能力。我们的发现通过强调环境上下文特征（例如，政治和法律制度）在学习和解释私人信息中的作用，扩展了通信隐私管理理论。