Stratified Private Safety Nets: How Legal Status Shapes Financial Contributions by Immigrant-Origin Young Adults

Abstract

Abstract Previous research documents how immigrant-origin Latino/a young adults are more likely to “give back” financially to their immigrant families. However, we know less about how immigration status complicates the financial contributions young adults are known to provide to their immigrant parents. Drawing on 120 in-depth longitudinal interviews with Latino/a young adults from undocumented, mixed-status, and documented families, I argue that parental immigration status shapes young adults’ decisions to financially contribute, and the immigration status of the young adults shapes the extent to which they are able to “give back.” The findings demonstrate that young adults with undocumented parents were more likely to financially contribute because their parents face extreme economic exclusion. Most undocumented participants were Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and shared similar money sharing patterns as citizen participants; however, DACAmented young adults, unlike citizens, worried about their legal precarity when sharing money with their undocumented parents. Citizens with documented parents felt less pressure to economically contribute to their households; if they did support, it was often situational to help parents weather a temporary hardship. This study contributes to the fields of family sociology, racial/ethnic wealth inequality, and aging and the life course.