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Berkeley Talks: Coming of age as an unaccompanied migrant youth in the US

UC Berkeley Professor Stephanie Canizales discusses her 2024 book, "Sin Padres, Ni Papeles," in which she chronicles the first-hand experiences of children who navigated a new country on their own.

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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.  

two images side by side: book cover of "Sin Padres, Ni Papeles" and headshot of Stephanie Canizales, author of the book
Stephanie Canizales, an assistant professor of sociology at UC Berkeley, is the author of the 2024 book, Sin Padres, Ni Papeles.

UC Berkeley

“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 apprehended every year at the U.S.-Mexico border, says Canizales. That’s double the number from 2014, when the U.S. declared a humanitarian crisis at the border

In addition to Canizales, the talk includes a panel of Berkeley professors who share their thoughts about the book, including Kristina Lovato, assistant professor of social welfare; Caitlin Patler, associate professor of public policy; and law professor Sarah Song, who moderates the conversation.

This event took place on Dec. 3, and is part of the Author Meets Critics series by the UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix. It was cosponsored by the Department of Sociology, the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI), the Center for Race and Gender, the Othering and Belonging Institute and the Latinx Research Center.