{"id":291374,"date":"2019-11-12T14:14:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T19:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=291374"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:28:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:28:35","slug":"study-tracks-dacas-benefits-limitations-for-undocumented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/11\/study-tracks-dacas-benefits-limitations-for-undocumented\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise in social mobility of DACA recipients"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"Roberto

Harvard Professor Roberto Gonzales was the co-author of a new study that surveyed nearly 2,700 young people eligible for the DACA program in 2013.<\/p>

Rose Lincoln\/Harvard file photo<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tRise in social mobility of DACA recipients\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\tLiz Mineo\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tStudy tracks program\u2019s benefits and limitations for undocumented young immigrants\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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Undocumented young immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy have seen a rise in social mobility since entering the program, according to a new report<\/a> by the Immigration Initiative at Harvard. Co-authored by Roberto Gonzales<\/a>, professor of education at the Graduate School of Education<\/a> (HGSE), and researchers Sayil Camacho, Kristina Brant, and Carlos Aguilar, the study arrives as the Supreme Court begins hearings over the fate of the program this week. The Trump administration announced plans to end DACA in 2017, and recipients \u2014 there are more than 800,000 in the program \u2014 sued the government. The Gazette sat down with Gonzales to talk about the report\u2019s findings, DACA\u2019s impact and limitations, and why he thinks it should be kept and expanded.<\/p>\n

Q&A<\/h2>\n

Roberto Gonzales<\/h3>\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> Your group followed young undocumented immigrants in DACA, the program that shields them from deportation, for seven years. What was the goal of your study?<\/p>\n

gonzales:<\/strong><\/strong> When President [Barack] Obama announced DACA in 2012, I was at the tail end of a 12-year study following a group of undocumented young adults in Los Angeles. I had spent so much time thinking about how undocumented status thwarted the aspirations and trajectories of these young people, so I jumped at the chance to study the effects of a policy seeking to remedy some of the issues that had narrowly circumscribed their young lives. Simply put, our DACA research sought to understand how young adults were experiencing this new status and how other contexts in their lives were mediating this status. So, we carried out a national survey of young people eligible for the program in 2013, surveying nearly 2,700 respondents. Then we carried out case studies in six U.S. states, and interviewed 408 DACA beneficiaries in 2015, 2016, and then again in 2019.<\/p>\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> And you found that the impact of DACA was overwhelmingly positive. What have been the outcomes in terms of higher education and employment?<\/p>\n\r\n

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More like this<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t