Over two million of the nation’s eleven million undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States since childhood. Due to a broken immigration system, they grow up to uncertain futures. Roberto G. Gonzales explores the trajectories of two groups of differently achieving young adults: the college-goers and the early-exiters.

Mining the results of an extraordinary twelve-year study that followed 150 undocumented young adults in Los Angeles, Harvard Sociologist Roberto G. Gonzales sheds light on the disastrous effects immigration policies have had on more than two million children coming of age in the United States. He shows that highly educated undocumented youth share similar work and life outcomes with their less-educated peers despite the fact that education is touted as the path to integration and success for immigrants in America. With powerful prose, Lives in Limbo questions the function of a system that integrates children into K-12 schools but ultimately denies them the rewards of their labor.

This event is made possible with support from the Carl A. Grant Scholars program, in collaboration with ITP, The Network, Social Psychology and Microsociology brownbag (Sociology).