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Of Love and Papers: How Immigration Policy Affects Romance and Family

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A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

Of Love and Papers explores how immigration policies are fundamentally reshaping Latino families. Drawing on two waves of interviews with undocumented young adults, Enriquez investigates how immigration status creeps into the most personal aspects of everyday life, intersecting with gender to constrain family formation. The imprint of illegality remains, even upon obtaining DACA or permanent residency.

Interweaving the perspectives of US citizen romantic partners and children, Enriquez illustrates the multigenerational punishment that limits the upward mobility of Latino families. Of Love and Papers sparks an intimate understanding of contemporary US immigration policies and their enduring consequences for immigrant families.

184 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2020

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
307 reviews
December 9, 2025
Laminated hardcover, despite hardcovers not being for sale to normal consumers. Thank you library system

Anyways, I was invested a lot more in the narrative when it was talking about dating markets, how men have to distance themselves from their blue collar jobs to present ăn economically stable image tô potential mates, have to negotiate gender roles and get discounted based on undocumented immigration status. Also, sometimes undocumented partners keep all the relationship issues under the surface for fear of causing a conflict that could lose thêm their immigration status. Sometimes toxic partners will use that as a sticking point to get the women back and the women just have to play along until their status kicks in. Also, becoming a spouse to a citizen does not automatically make you a citizen if you were in the US without documents for a long period of time.
58 reviews
March 2, 2021
Well written, many good quotes like "gendered provider expectations
make material barriers particularly salient for men, disproportionally disrupting
their participation in the family formation process", "multigenerational punishment, wherein the sanctions intended for a specific population spill over to harm individuals who are not targeted by the law". The book does discuss the intersectionality to LGBT, that's nice. But it only focuses on the situation in USA, ignoring the rest of the world. Some comparison might have been interesting.
Profile Image for Maria Scetta.
89 reviews
May 26, 2025
5/5
Etnografia molto scorrevole che tratta il tema dei senza documenti e di come questo impatti le loro possibilità di avere relazioni e formare una famiglia negli Stati Uniti. Oltre a ciò l'autrice ha inserito un analisi molto accurata di come i copioni di genere influenzano le discriminazioni dei senza documenti in USA in maniera differente.
Bella lettura.
Profile Image for B Frizz.
37 reviews1 follower
April 17, 2025
had to skim some of the chapters but i really appreciate how clear the author is in making her points. overall, great read, maybe i'll come back and read more closely since immigration and family are two of my research areas
Profile Image for Casey Browne.
218 reviews15 followers
February 1, 2022
Well written, BUT the book only focuses on the situation in the USA, ignoring the rest of the world so some comparisons might have been interesting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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