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Finalist, 2020 C. Wright Mills Award, given by the Society for the Study of Social Problems
Honorable Mention, 2021 Asian America Section Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association
An inspiring look inside immigrant youth’s political activism in perilous times
Undocumented immigrants in the United States who engage in social activism do so at great risk: the threat of deportation. In Organizing While Undocumented, Kevin Escudero shows why and how—despite this risk—many of them bravely continue to fight on the front lines for their rights.
Drawing on more than five years of research, including interviews with undocumented youth organizers, Escudero focuses on the movement’s epicenters—San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City—to explain the impressive political success of the undocumented immigrant community. He shows how their identities as undocumented immigrants, but also as queer individuals, people of color, and women, connect their efforts to broader social justice struggles today.
A timely, worthwhile read, Organizing While Undocumented gives us a look at inspiring triumphs, as well as the inevitable perils, of political activism in precarious times.
— Nadia Y. Kim, author of Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to LA
Organizing While Undocumented is a timely and powerful book that makes a major contribution to contemporary debates over immigration and citizenship. The courage and tenacity of undocumented Latino and Asian youth activists shine through in this book, revealing inspiring stories of personal and societal transformation.
— Rick Baldoz, author of The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898-1946
Since the massive immigrant-rights protests of 2006, the undocumented youth movement has emerged as one of the most powerful social movements of our time. Organizing While Undocumented offers an enlightening perspective of the more nuanced aspects of identify formation and cross-issue campaigns that undergird the importance and influence of this social movement. Timely and incredibly relevant, this book is a must-read for those interested in the contemporary processes of migration, identity, and protest.
— Roberto G. Gonzales, author of Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America
The book does a great job highlighting how immigrant-rights activists think about and mobilize their intersectional identities to advance their civil rights agenda locally and nationally. [...] Escudero’s work will certainly be a model to conduct further work on mobilizations around immigrant rights.