BECOMING ILLEGAL: MODELING RATIONALITY AND MORALITY OF UNAUTHORIZED MIGRANTS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Emily Ryo August 2011 © 2011 by Emily Ryo. All Rights Reserved. Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/pb496ks0860 ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. David Grusky, Primary Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Michele Dauber I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Tomas Jimenez Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies. Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in University Archives. iii Abstract Why do millions of otherwise law-abiding people violate immigration laws? Past research on legal noncompliance shows that people’s views about the law and legal authority are important determinants of their willingness to comply with the law, above and beyond economic considerations. A more comprehensive understanding of unauthorized migration thus requires a serious consideration of normative factors such as people’s moral values and beliefs about the legitimacy of legal authority. This dissertation takes up that task through three papers that investigate the ways in which current and prospective unauthorized migrants view the U.S. immigration system and their acts of legal noncompliance. The first paper draws upon a unique set of focus group data with current and prospective unauthorized migrants from Latin America to analyze how they make sense of their noncompliance with U.S. immigration law. The second paper uses data obtained from a survey that was designed specifically for this study, to examine three important dimensions of legal values among prospective migrants from Mexico. The third paper develops and tests a decision-making model of unauthorized migration that considers not only the economic motivations of prospective migrants, but also their beliefs, attitudes, and social norms regarding U.S. immigration law and legal authorities. Together, these papers show that even in the context of unauthorized migration in which individuals are strongly motivated by economic need, the decision to migrate illegally cannot be fully understood without considering an individual’s underlying values and norms. iv Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude to a great many individuals who made this project possible. David Grusky was the consummate advisor, providing me with incredible support and encouragement throughout my graduate education and the undertaking of this project. He expertly guided me through all the heady logistics and pitfalls of designing and administering a large-scale survey, and spent countless hours patiently guiding me through numerous theoretical and empirical issues. He gave me a home at the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality and provided all the resources that a graduate student could possibly want or need. I am immeasurably grateful for his kindness, patience, humor, and intellectual brilliance. I will always look to him as a model for what it means to be a great teacher, mentor, and scholar. Michele Dauber gave me the original inspiration for this project and provided the means possible to pursue it. Over the years, she single-handedly pulled me back into my work every time I lost my way, and never lost faith in the importance of my work and my ability to complete it. She is a mentor and role model like no other, and she taught me how to nurture and mentor other students. Her commitment to social justice and equality is a source of great inspiration that grounds my work in general and this project in particular. It is an understatement to say that her brutal honesty, caring mentorship, and steadfast friendship have been, and will continue to be, critical to my growth as a scholar. I owe very special thanks to Michael Rosenfeld, whose kind advice and encouragement over the years were critical to my endeavors and successful completion of this project. He guided me through the early field work days of this project, and taught me how to not fret the small stuff but do obsess over getting the important things right. It v was his idea for me to collect my survey data through the Mexican Migration Project (MMP); without his efforts and confidence in my abilities, I might not have had the opportunity to collaborate with the MMP. He always found the time to read my writing, especially at critical junctures, and I am extremely thankful for his generous gifts of time, insight, and understanding. I am also deeply grateful to Tomás Jiménez, Abel Valenzuela, and Mark Granovetter. They each played a critical role in shaping my graduate education, supporting me through this project, and reading various drafts of different papers that comprise this dissertation. I might still be stuck in dissertation purgatory had Tomás Jiménez not come at the right time to push me along; for that, I am eternally grateful. I cannot begin to thank him sufficiently for his meticulous readings of my writing, for his incisive critiques, and for his constant support and encouragement. I might not have made it through the Institutional Review Board process to have gotten this project off the ground had it not been for Abel Valenzuela and his sage advice. I am also indebted to Abel for his unfailing support over the years—both personal and professional. Finally, I might not have ended up at Stanford at all had it not been for Mark Granovetter, who persuaded me that Stanford was exactly where I needed to be to experience the “strength of weak ties.” My training and my work at Stanford have been influenced in so many ways by Mark’s scholarship and his dedication to and love of teaching. This project simply would not have been possible without the support of Douglas Massey and Jorge Durand, co-directors of the Mexican Migration Project (MMP). They generously allowed me to participate in the MMP, provided invaluable guidance and encouragement along the way, and afforded me enormous freedom to pursue my work in vi collaboration with the MMP. The time that I spent working with the MMP has been one of the most significant and rewarding learning experiences of my life. I am much indebted to Jorge Durand for his extraordinary openness to new ideas, his creativity, and his patient, hands-on shepherding of my survey. I also owe a great deal to the MMP interviewers and staff. In particular, I was extremely fortunate to have met and worked with Quike González, who oversaw the administration of my survey in Mexico. He is easily one of the most talented and compassionate people I have met; I am proud to call him my hermanito. I am also very grateful to Karen Pren and Verónica Lozano for their tireless assistance with data entry and management. I have been blessed to work with a number of very special undergraduate research assistants at Stanford over the years. In particular, Maggie Guadalupe, Estella Cisneros, and Bianca Ordaz deserve much credit for their contributions to this project. I have benefited greatly from the helpful feedback and insightful comments that Tino Cuéllar, Allegra McLeod, and Nancy Abelmann provided on different parts and drafts of this dissertation. Others, especially Soo Kang, Jane Paek, Betsy Schmitt, Chris Queen, Jinny Kim, Rosanna D’Costa, Renata Miller, Martha Chiu, Tahu Kukutai, Asaf Levanon, Lynny Chin, Kendra Bischoff, Songhua Hu, and Victor Thompson have cheered me on for a long time; I count my blessings to have had their faith and friendship. I am especially thankful to Victor for the many laughs and conversations we have shared during our years at Stanford; they have been a source of much emotional and intellectual sustenance. I owe heartfelt thanks to Brisia Lopez and Roxana Torres, two women with enormous hearts who gave me precious breaks from my childcare duties so I could write. vii To Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, for whom I served as a judicial clerk during my leave of absence, I owe an incredible year of “break” from this project. She provided me the rare opportunity for the kind of intellectual and personal development that law students and lawyers only dream about. She allowed me to gain an insider’s view of the judicial system that has had a deep impact on my thinking and research agenda. I am deeply grateful for her interest in my work, investment in my future, and her mentorship. Words cannot express how thankful I am to my parents and sisters. When I was little, my parents uprooted and transplanted our family from Korea to the United States in search of a better life for their five girls. My parents did not speak the language nor knew the culture, but against all odds and with very little means, they persevered through unimaginable hardship to keep us here.