UC Santa Cruz

This article presents findings from a four-year collaborative research project on immigrant and mixed-status families in Santa Cruz County, California. The project employed a new model of critical community-engaged scholarship called Community Initiated Student Engaged Research (CISER) in order to gain access to and build trust with this vulnerable population. The study used an overarching theoretical framework of “belonging” to identify six key factors most consequential for belonging and/or exclusion, including access to education, economic security, legal immigration status, health services, opportunities for youth, and social networks. The findings reveal the complex and interconnected nature of these factors and demonstrate how exclusion experienced due to a lack of legal immigration status had far-reaching effects on interviewees’ job prospects and experiences of economic, health, and housing insecurity. The article highlights the importance of using an assets-based approach to draw out the myriad ways interviewees and communities create spaces, networks, and ways to promote and enhance both material and emotional forms of belonging. The CISER model and its participatory approach also provide tangible benefits for community partners and undergraduate researchers. This article contributes to the literature on immigrant experiences and critical community-engaged research while offering insights into sources of and systemic barriers to collective belonging.