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ObjectivesInformed by a social-ecological framework, this study nested undocumented students' individual mental health needs within micro-level campus factors and the macro-level immigration policy context to examine how these are associated with undocumented Latina/o/x college students' use of on-campus mental health services.MethodA large-scale survey was administered to 1,277 undocumented college students attending 4-year public universities in California. Only Latina/o/x respondents were included in this study (N = 1,181). Fifty percent of students attended a UC system (n = 589). On average, students were 21.84 years old (SE = .15), and most were women (75.3%, n = 890).ResultsGreater level of mental health symptoms and perceived mental health need, and greater use of campus-wide resources and undocumented student services predicted greater likelihood of using on-campus mental health services. Greater perceptions of social exclusion due to the immigration policy context predicted lower use of mental health services.ConclusionsResults indicate that a greater use of resources and an inclusive campus environment, as well as efforts to minimize policy-related feelings of social exclusion, may facilitate undocumented students' professional mental health help-seeking. These findings emphasize the need to take multiple and multi-level ecological factors into account when considering mental health service use, particularly in the case of undocumented immigrants and likely other structurally marginalized groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

In the current era of citizenship politics, both legal citizenship and cultural citizenship have become highly contested social categories and new bases for social discrimination. Psychological studies of migration thus need to consider more explicitly how shifting sociopolitical contexts shape migrant life opportunities and how migrants respond to their shifting circumstances. Cultural psychologists have much to contribute to this project given their focus on the ways cultural experiences are shaped at once by broader social determinants and the intentional acts of social agents who navigate diversely organized worlds. However, we argue that cultural psychologists need to integrate critical concepts into cultural psychological studies of migration to avoid both overlooking important determinants of migrant lives and inadvertently perpetuating social inequalities and discriminatory policies. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted with Polish "irregular" migrants in Canada and Sikh Americans, we show how critical concepts such as "illegalization," "deportability," and "cultural citizenship" can help expand cultural psychological inquiry to better understand contemporary immigrant experiences. We conclude with discipline-specific recommendations for building a cultural psychology fit for the study of migration in the 21st-century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical migration scholars argue that undocumented 1.5-generation immigrants occupy distinct forms of "abject" statuses, as legally excluded yet physically included members of society. Implemented in June 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program promised to alleviate the situation of many undocumented young persons in the United States by providing them with temporary work authorization, social security numbers, and protection from deportation. Using critical psychological theory, we examine how DACA altered the condition of "abjectivity" characterizing DACA recipients' lives, revealing how partially inclusive immigration policies can (re)create liminal subjectivities and give rise to new modes of agency and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, migration scholars have challenged reified categories of 'illegal' migrants and observed migrant 'illegalization' and deportability as exploitative sociopolitical processes. Yet, in the move away from studying 'undocumented migrants' as distinct epistemic subjects, we argue that scholars have lost sight of migrants as agents. Consequently, migrant lives are explained in terms of social determinants rather than migrants' intentional acts or cultural meaning systems. This paper shows how a cultural psychological study of migrant 'illegality' can help restore focus on the migrant as situated agent without reifying or legitimizing categories of migrant 'illegality.' To this end, we discuss ethnographic research conducted with Polish 'irregular' migrants living in Toronto and Mississauga in Canada. From a cultural psychological perspective, we examine how these migrants understood and navigated their unique status-related challenges to build meaningful lives in contradictory and precarious conditions. Our research reveals how Polish migrants learn to become 'irregular' as they develop common modes of being suitable for navigating the underground of Canada's Polish Canadian enclave. Importantly, becoming 'irregular' is neither a passive nor unilaterally imposed process but involves discernible psychosocial dynamics characterized by recurrent threats and fears as well as migrants' deliberate attempts to address and overcome these. We discuss these dynamics as cycles of deportability to mark their cyclical and recurrent nature and argue that they are central for the development of migrant 'illegality' and deportability. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for understanding agency in the context of migrant 'illegalization.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]