Guiding Through Barriers: How Undocumented Youth Fight Oppression with Mentor Support

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Sánchez, B., Garcia-Murillo, Y., Monjaras-Gaytan, L. Y., Thursby, K., Ulerio, G., de los Reyes, W., Salusky, I. R., & Rivera, C. S. (2022). Everyday acts of resistance: Mexican, undocumented immigrant children and adolescents navigating oppression with mentor support. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12755

Introduction

Sánchez et al. (2022) explore how Mexican immigrant children and adolescents with undocumented or DACA status experience systemic oppression in U.S. educational settings and how mentors help them resist these challenges. The authors frame their work using Suárez-Orozco et al.’s (2018) Integrative Risk and Resilience Model, emphasizing the cumulative impact of legal precarity, poverty, discrimination, and limited educational access on youth development.

Methods

The study uses qualitative narrative interviews with 17 young adults who retrospectively recounted their childhood and adolescent experiences. One-on-one interviews captured detailed stories of navigating educational barriers, discrimination, and emotional strain, as well as the adults—teachers, counselors, and community members—who supported them.

Results

Participants described persistent structural oppression: fear of deportation, unequal school resources, financial hardship, and exclusion from college pathways. Yet mentors played crucial roles by offering emotional validation, academic guidance, advocacy, and culturally attuned understanding. These everyday acts—providing information, challenging biased policies, or simply believing in students’ futures—helped youth resist oppressive conditions and maintain educational aspirations.

Discussion

The study highlights the dual reality undocumented youth face: systemic barriers that undermine wellbeing and mentors who serve as key resilience builders. Mentors counteract oppression not by eliminating it but by buffering its effects—supporting identity, hope, and persistence. The authors argue that understanding these mentoring dynamics is essential to dismantling structural inequities.

Implications for Mentoring Programs

Programs should train mentors to recognize systemic oppression, provide culturally responsive support, and act as informed advocates. Emphasizing emotional validation, resource navigation, and policy awareness can strengthen youths’ resistance and educational persistence.

Read the full paper here.