Berkeley Talks

In Berkeley Talks episode 218, sociology professor Stephanie Canizales discusses her 2024 book, Sin Padres, Ni Papeles, about the experiences of undocumented immigrant youth as they come of age in the United States without their parents. Over six years, Canizales conducted 75 in-depth interviews with adult immigrants living in Los Angeles who came to the U.S. as unaccompanied children years before.  “Many arrive in the U.S. to find that long-settled relatives who are constrained by their own legal and socioeconomic status are unable to offer material and emotional support, rendering children unaccompanied upon their arrival,” says Canizales, faculty director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI), at a December 2024 event on campus. “Young people might feel disoriented as they are thrust into material and emotional independence, and their role as low-wage workers in the U.S.”Today, about 146,000 unaccompanied children from Central America, Mexico and other countries are appreh