If you are looking for books to add to your summer reading list, check out this set of books on immigration that are out this year!
Bordering on Indifference: Immigration Agents Negotiating Race and Morality by Irene I. Vega
“In Bordering on Indifference, Irene Vega offers an original, detailed analysis of the rationales that shape how U.S. immigration agents understand and carry out their professional responsibilities. Drawing on interviews with ninety immigration agents—Border Patrol Agents and ICE Deportation Officers, most of whom are Mexican Americans from the region around the border—Vega examines why they took the job and how their training and socialization shape the ways that they grapple with the racial and moral issues raised by their work.”
The Borders of Privilege: 1.5-Generation Brazilian Migrants Navigating Power Without Papers by Kara B. Cebulko
“In The Borders of Privilege, Kara Cebulko tells the stories of a group of 1.5-generation Brazilians to show how their ability to be perceived as white—their power without papers—shapes their everyday interactions. By strategically creating boundaries with other racialized groups, these immigrants navigate life-course rituals like college, work, and marriage without legal documentation.”
Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change by Cristina Jiménez
“Cristina Jiménez’s family fought to stay afloat as Ecuador fell into a political and economic crisis. When she was thirteen, her family came to the US seeking a better life, landing in an overcrowded one-bedroom apartment in Queens, New York. She lived in fear of deportation and ashamed of being undocumented, but eventually, Cristina discovered she was not alone. She made it into college when students and advocates won a change in the law, allowing undocumented students to access higher education. She was proud to be the first one in her family to go to college, but she felt out of place until she met professors and student activists who opened a new world where she found her calling within a community of social justice organizers.”
COMING LATER IN 2025
On the Record: Papers, Immigration, and Legal Advocacy by Susan Bibler Coutin (available in August 2025)
“In this book, Susan Bibler Coutin analyzes how undocumented immigrants and the attorneys and paralegals who represent them attempt to surmount this and other documentary challenges. Based on four years of fieldwork and volunteer work in the legal services department of an immigrant-serving nonprofit and in-depth interviews with those seeking status, On the Record explores these complex dynamics by taking seriously both documents themselves and the legal craft that has developed around their use.”
Everyday Futures: Language as Survival for Indigenous Youth in Diaspora by Stephanie L. Canizales and Brendan H. O’Connor (available in August 2025)
“Drawing on the perspectives of Maya (primarily K’iche’)-speaking Guatemalan youth, Everyday Futures explores their experiences of language socialization in the broader Los Angeles immigrant community. Stephanie L. Canizales and Brendan H. O’Connor trace the factors that were most important to their quest for well-being and belonging across Guatemalan and American societies.”
Illegality and the Production of Affluence: Undocumented Labor and Gentrification in Rural America by Lise Nelson (available in September 2025)
“Drawing on fine-grained qualitative data, Lise Nelson explores how employers recruited an unfamiliar workforce to places “off the map” of immigrant settlement. The book also reveals insights into how business practices and profitability shifted through the use of racialized, “illegal,” and highly precarious labor. Finally, the book investigates the disjuncture between Latine immigrants’ vital role in rural gentrifying economies and their social, civic, and racialized exclusion in the spaces of everyday life.”
Now We Are Here: Family Migration, Children’s Education, and Dreams for a Better Life by Gabrielle Oliveira (available in November 2025)
“Through innovative and in-depth ethnographic research in schools and in homes conducted between 2018 and 2021, Gabrielle Oliveira takes readers into the lives of 16 migrant families from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. She interweaves stories of parental sacrifice, children’s experience of schooling, teachers’ understandings of the trauma experienced by these families, and the consequences of a global pandemic on already-vulnerable families.”
Illegality in the Heartland: Latinidad, Indigeneity, and Immigration Policies during Times of Hate by Andrea Gómez Cervantes (available in December 2025)
“Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic participant observations, Illegality in the Heartland interrogates existing understandings of illegality and Latinidad by centering the voices and experiences of Indigenous and mestizo Latino immigrants in the American heartland during the first Trump administration, a distinct era of political uncertainty.”
DON’T FORGET TO SHARE THIS PAGE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!
Don’t miss out on the latest resources available for undocumented students, make sure to “like” our page on Facebook and subscribe (it’s free)!
Are you interested in hosting an immigration presentation or workshop at your school or organization? Learn more about the range of speaking engagements we offer here.
At My Undocumented Life we provide up-to-date information and resources for undocumented immigrants and allies. We post scholarship opportunities that are open to undocumented students, strategies for navigating the educational system, information on how to apply for DACA/Advance Parole, news on DAPA, and much more. Most importantly, we want to provide a sense of community to our diverse group of readers. Learn more about our work here: “About Us“
Share this:
Categories: Get involved, Immigration Books
Leave a Reply