Sanchez, Linette. “Mobilized in the Margins: Political Engagement Among Children of Undocumented Parents (CUPs)” under review.
This project examines how adult children of undocumented parents (CUPs) of various racial and ethnic groups engage in politics. While traditional models of political participation would suggest that limited resources would reduce political participation, using the 2020 CMPS, I find that CUPs display higher levels of political activity and political efficacy than children of documented parents (CDPs). I hypothesize that political threats, acting as information brokers, higher levels of resilience, and heightened empathy shape CUPs’ participation compared to CDPs. These findings shed light on political socialization and civic engagement among marginalized populations.
Carlos, Roberto F., Melissa Baker, Álvaro Corral, Bryan Gervais, Matt Lamb, Tanika Raychaudhuri, and Linette Sanchez. “Reciprocal Political Socialization Within Contemporary American families: Evidence From Two Randomized Experiments” manuscript in preparation.
Classic theories treat political socialization as top-down and unidirectional, from parents to children. We instead theorize a “trickle-up” influence, where children shape parents’ political socialization, conditioned on knowledge differentials. Three experiments and a validation survey support this. Parents show greater receptivity to recommendations from children than from neighbors or community leaders, and children’s messages increase parents’ willingness to display AI-regulation lawn signs. Parents defer more to children on AI than property taxes, where children hold no comparative knowledge advantage. This suggests political authority shifts conditionally, not through general salience.
Sanchez, Linette. “Politics from the Margins: Mobilization in the Lives of Children of Undocumented Parents” manuscript in preparation.
This paper is a part of a book-style dissertation examining the political socialization of children of undocumented parents, asks how being a Latine child of undocumented parents shapes political engagement, and whether regional context alters this relationship. Drawing on 42 semi-structured interviews with Latine children of undocumented parents (CUPs, 21 in Austin and 21 in Chicago, the study examines how familial connections to undocumented status shape political involvement across two distinct contexts. Chicago recruitment deliberately included more male CUPs than the Austin sample. Comparing children of undocumented parents (CUPs) to other Latines, I find CUPs show higher political activity and efficacy, driven by political threat, alongside greater empathy and resilience. Texas’s restrictive enforcement and Illinois’s sanctuary protections, complicated by recent federal activity in Chicago, offer a useful test of whether parental undocumented status remains the central driver of engagement regardless of regional context. I am currently analyzing my Chicago data.
Linette Sanchez 