Angela S. García | Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Assistant Professor

Scholar Navigation

Research & Biography

Angela S. García is a sociologist and Assistant Professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Her research interests include international migration, law and society, race and ethnicity, urban sociology, social policy, and mixed and comparative methods. García studies the consequences of socio-legal inclusion and exclusion for undocumented immigrants across the United States, Mexico, and Spain. Focusing on subnational (state and local) immigration laws and executive administrative action, she charts how immigrants’ everyday lives, incorporation, and well-being are shaped by the legal contexts in which they reside.

García’s book, Legal Passing: Navigating Undocumented Life and Local Immigration Law (University of California Press 2019), comparatively analyzes the effects of accommodating and restrictive local immigration laws from the perspective of undocumented Mexican immigrants, the primary targets of these measures in the US. Her work has been published in Social Problems, ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, International Migration Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and International Migration.

García’s research has earned awards from the American Sociological Association's International Migration Section and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. Her work on the lives of undocumented immigrants in restrictive destinations was cited in a 2015 amicus brief filed by states to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) executive actions.

At the University of Chicago, García is Associate Faculty Member in the Department of Sociology (by courtesy). She is an Associate at the Population Research Center; Fellow at the Center for Health Administration Studies; and Faculty Affiliate at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture; the Katz Center for Mexican Studies; and the Center for Latin American Studies. At the University of California San Diego, she is an External Research Associate with the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies. She is also a Scholar Affiliate with the Scholars Strategy Network.

García holds a PhD in Sociology from the Department of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego and a MA in Latin American Studies, also from UCSD.

CV:

A._Garcia_CV_June_2020.pdf

Publications

BOOKS
García, Angela S. 2019. Legal Passing: Navigating Undocumented Life and Local Immigration Law. Oakland, CA: University of California Press (April 2019 release date).

Komarovsky Book Award, Eastern Sociological Society (2021)
Distinguished Book Award, Midwest Sociological Society (2021)
Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award, American Sociological Association, Racial and Ethnic Minorities section (2021)
Distinguished Book Award (honorable mention), American Sociological Association, Latina/o Sociology section (2021)
Thomas and Znaniecki Best Book Award, American Sociological Association, International Migration section (2020)
Reviewed in American Journal of Sociology, Contemporary Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies, International Migration Review, Law & Society Review, Social Forces
Author-meets-critics at Law and Society Association (2020), Midwest Political Science Association (2021), American Sociology Association (2021)

ARTICLES

García, Angela S. 2021. “Undocumented, not Unengaged: Local Immigration Laws and the Shaping of Undocumented Mexicans’ Political Engagement.” Social Forces. 99(4): 1658-1681.

Wong, Tom, Angela S. García, and *Carolina Valdivia. 2018. "The Political Incorporation of Undocumented Youth." Social Problems. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spy009.

FitzGerald, David S., David Cook-Martín, Angela S. García, and *Rawan Arar. 2018. "Can You Become One of Us? Legal Selection of 'Assimilable' Immigrants." Journal of Ethnic Migration Studies. 44(1): 27-47.

García, Angela S. and Leah Schmalzbauer. 2017. "Placing Assimilation Theory: Mexican Immigrants in Urban and Rural America." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 672(1): 64-82.

García, Angela S. 2017. "Labour Market Limbo: The Uneven Integration of Co-Ethnic Argentines in Spain." International Migration. 55(1): 175-188.

Wong, Tom and Angela S. García. 2016. "Does Where I Live Affect Whether I Apply? The Contextual Determinants of Applying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals." International Migration Review. 50(3): 699-727.

García, Angela S. 2014. "Hidden in Plain Sight: How Unauthorized Migrants Strategically Assimilate in Restrictive Localities." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 40(12): 1895-1914.

García, Angela S. 2013. "Return to Sender? A Comparative Analysis of Immigrant Communities in 'Attrition through Enforcement' Destinations." Ethnic and Racial Studies. 36(11): 1849-1870.

BOOK CHAPTERS
García, Angela S. 2017. "Illegal Lives: The Effects of Local Immigration Restrictions on Intimate Relationships." In Forced Out and Fenced In: Immigration Tales from the Field. ed. Tanya Golash-Boza. New York: Oxford University Press.

García, Angela S. 2014. "Law of the Land: Ethnic Selection in 16 Latin American Countries." In Culling the Masses: The Democratic Roots of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas, by David S. FitzGerald and David Cook-Martín. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

García, Angela S., Gloria Molina-Estolano, Mohammad Qureshi, Fernando Riedel, Rafael Solís, and Estefanía Castillo Balderas. 2013. "'They Want Us to Go Back to Mexico: Living Under the Radar." In The Wall Between Us: A Mixteco Community in Mexico and the US, ed. David S. FitzGerald, Jorge Hernández Díaz, and David Keyes. La Jolla: Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.

García, Angela S., Kathleen Griesbach, Jessica Andrade, Cristina González, and Guillermo Yrizar. 2011. "Pressure from the Inside: The Subnational Politics of Immigration." In Recession without Borders: Mexican Migrants Confront the Economic Downturn, ed. David S. FitzGerald, Rafael Alarcón, and Leah Muse-Orlinoff. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

García, Angela S., and Alex Barreno. 2007. "Tunkaseño Settlement in the United States." In Mayan Journeys: The New Migration from Yucatán to the United States, ed. Wayne Cornelius, David S. FitzGerald, and Pedro Lewin Fischer. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

Courses

Social Intervention: Programs and Policies I
Autumn quarter, SSA

This course offers an overview of contemporary social welfare policies affecting poor and lower-income people in the United States, with attention to their historical and philosophical foundations. We will focus on the core functions of the welfare state and the use of government intervention as a response to social welfare issues in the U.S. We will begin with an overview of how the U.S. approaches policy interventions related to poverty and a discussion of how poverty is defined and measured, focusing on both official and alternative definitions of poverty. Then, we will spend several weeks reviewing key periods in the history of U.S. social welfare policy. The course will end with extensive discussion about a variety of contemporary policies aimed at reducing poverty and inequality, including welfare and employment programs, early childhood and child care programs, and initiatives aimed at reducing group-based and place-based inequalities.

Offered: 2018-2019

Immigration, Law, and Society
Winter quarter, SSA and the College

Law is everywhere within the social world. It shapes our everyday lives in countless ways by permitting, prohibiting, protecting and prosecuting native-born citizens and immigrants alike. This course reviews the major theoretical perspectives and sociological research on the relationship between law and society, with an empirical focus on Latin American immigrants in the United States. To begin, we explore the permeation of law in everyday life, legal consciousness, and gap between “law on the books” and “law on the ground.” The topic of immigration is introduced with readings on types of immigrants, why people migrate, and U.S. immigration law at the national and subnational levels. We continue to study the social impact of law on immigrants through the topics of liminal legality; children, families, and romantic partnerships; policing, profiling, and raids; detention and deportation; and immigrants’ rights. This course adopts a “law in action” approach that focuses on the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts of law as it relates to immigration issues. It is designed to expose you to how social scientists study and think about law, and to give you the analytical skills to examine law and immigration relationally.

Offered: 2018-2019

Additional Information

@AGarciaUChicago

SSA Magazine

In the News

Angela S. García, Yanilda González, and Marci Ybarra. “College Supports for DACA Recipients are Necessary, Important, and Fundamentally Insufficient,” Huffington Post, November 13, 2017.
Wayne Cornelius, Angela S. García, and Monica Varsanyi. “Giving Sanctuary to Undocumented Immigrants Doesn’t Threaten Public Safety—It Increases It,” Los Angeles Times, January 2, 2017.
David FitzGerald and Angela S. García, “Crime and Sanctuary: Amend Policies, Don’t End Them,” San Diego Union Tribune, July 25, 2015.

Degree:

PhD

Angela S. García, PhD