We Are Not Dreamers

“We Are Not Dreamers is a captivating counternarrative that smashes the false distinction between deserving and undeserving immigrants worthy of human rights in the United States. By centering the voices of undocumented scholars, Leisy J. Abrego and Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales capture the complexity of experiences, the intersectionality of identities, and the raw devastation and resilience of undocumented life. This book has the power to transform both public discourse and public policy on immigration and is required reading for my documented friends, family, and colleagues—as well as my undocumented students.” - Laura Emiko Soltis, Executive Director and Professor of Human Rights, Freedom University

“We Are Not Dreamers has the potential to shape both the focus and practices of immigration scholarship by encouraging scholars to write with rather than merely about undocumented groups and by highlighting the particular insights that come from experiencing illegalization. This volume is a model for how faculty can support students and will be an inspiration to others. Powerful and informative.” - Susan Bibler Coutin, author of Exiled Home: Salvadoran Transnational Youth in the Aftermath of Violence

“Rich with the details about the unique ways undocumented scholars grapple with the realities of what they are thinking and living through, this book is for families, parents, self-proclaimed dreamers and non-dreamers, citizens, students, and scholars in all fields.” - Silvia Rodriguez Vega, Latinx Project

"Editors Abrego (Univ. of California, Los Angeles) and Negrón-Gonzales (Univ. of San Francisco) argue persuasively for the value of the authors’ lived experiences in developing theory and research on undocumented youth." - M. Morrissey, Choice

“We Are Not Dreamers ... forcefully addresses limitations in the research on undocumented immigrants and aggressively counters the reductive framings of undocumented life so often seen as necessary for political advancement.” - William D. Lopez, Journal of American Studies

"The anthology’s most clear and remarkable accomplishment is this (re)assertion of the agency and voice of undocumented scholars. They had for too long only read scholarship about the experiences of undocumented migrants by authors who were not undocumented themselves. And meanwhile, undocumented scholars had often been denied the opportunity to participate in academic institutions as producers of knowledge. . . . . Taken together, their essays offer deep insight into the work produced by undocumented scholars who are redefining 'research' and 'academic production': both who gets to produce these and the form and methods through which they are produced." - Debbie M. Duarte, Public Books

“An essential read for students and scholars of immigration, [We Are Not Dreamers] offers important theoretical and empirical contributions to topics as varied as racialization processes, schooling, activism, illegality, liminality, gender and sexuality, family, citizenship, and the experiences and (lack of) opportunities that undocumented immigrants encounter more broadly. . . . Several of the book’s takeaways will be . . . illuminating and generative for students and researchers across contexts.” - Carlos Aguilar, Anthropology & Education Quarterly