“Just Being Connected, It's Like a Way of Resisting”: Latinx Youth Strengthening Cultural Ties as Resilience and Resistance in the Deep South

Over the last decade, a range of research has demonstrated the detrimental impacts of policies criminalizing migration ("crimmigration") on Latinx mental health. In this study, we seek to examine youth perspectives on how crimmigration policies affect Latinx adolescents' connections to Latinx identity, culture, and communities and the implications for Latinx youth mental health. We explored how immigration enforcement policies affect Latinx youths' mental health using photovoice with ten youth in a high-deportation county in Atlanta in 2022. We held eight photo-elicited sessions using SHOWED/VENCER, a bilingual guide to elicit critical dialogue. Sessions were transcribed and coded for analysis, which included describing, comparing, and categorizing coded data into themes. We identified two parallel processes to describe how crimmigration policies affect Latinx youth cultural and community connections: (1) exclusionary spaces exert pressure to assimilate and bring emotional costs, (2) inclusive spaces for Latinx youth strengthen their cultural identity and connection to Latinx culture and community, promoting resilience and resistance. In their own words, youth described assimilation as a pressure that isolated them from their communities and included the adoption of a worldview that Latinx people have to prove they are worthy of citizenship and its benefits and explained how this was influenced by crimmigration policies. Furthermore, youth found resisting assimilation by preserving their culture was an important way of strengthening resilience against ongoing oppression. These important findings should shape future research and intervention in Latinx youth mental health by addressing crimmigration policies and promoting cultural assets for Latinx youth.