Localized Immigration Policy and Migrant Life Experiences: The Case of Mexican Migrants in Southern California

How do Mexican migrants experience and respond to policies designed to affect their migration and settlement plans in Los Angeles? Which policies prove most salient? Drawing on life history interviews with authorized and unauthorized migrants in Los Angeles, we find that a mix of federal, state and local level policies affect the daily lives and behaviors of our migrant informants. Once in the U.S., however, given the current state of federal level policy, it is routine encounters with restrictive local level policies that shape our informants' daily strategies and settlement considerations. The outcome of these encounters is further mediated by the local context and the personal circumstances of the migrants themselves. Our findings suggest that it is crucial to consider a broad range of policy and practice, beyond formal immigration policy, not only in assessing policy's impact on migration trends but also in constructing comparative research designs in future work.