| Thousands of minors risk their lives every year by making the dangerous journey to come to the United States (U.S.) on their own and without the required documentation; these young people are termed unaccompanied minors by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). These youth come to the U.S. for a variety of reasons, including economic hardship, civil unrest in their indigenous country, and abandonment by their parents or other family members. Although there are about 500 of these young individuals detained every day, very little research has been conducted on them, as most immigration research focuses on other facets of immigration such as economic consequences. This study focused on unaccompanied minors from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico while they were housed at a shelter located in Southern California. It utilized both one-on-one individual interviews (20 participants) and a focus group (15 participants) which implemented open-ended questions. This research sheds light on the youth's reasons behind their motivations for coming to the U.S. It also unearths the realities experienced by these young individuals on their nearly always dangerous and extensive journeys from their homeland to the U.S. Finally, this study examines their narratives of the American Dream and compares those ideas with current main stream views of the Dream in the United States. An important aim of this study was that it would serve as an opportunity for the unaccompanied minors to describe their worlds in their own words. |
