Latin American Immigrant Juveniles in the U.S.: an Army of Delinquents or the Victims of a Racist System?

Abstract

Leaving one's homeland in pursuit of a better life has always been a difficult experience and such experience becomes even more intense when the ones who undergo this ordeal are children. But even though immigrants might expect this move to a foreign country to present some difficulties, such as struggling with economic stability, adapting to a different culture or learning a new language, they are not always prepared for the racist treatment the recipient land gives to them. Teun A. van Dijk (1991) defines racism as a system of group dominance which is both structural an ideological. This system embodies, first, political, economic, and socio-cultural structures of inequality along with processes and practices of exclusion and marginalization and, second, socio-cognitive representations required by said structures and processes. The aim of this paper is to portray, expose, analyse and provide examples of racist discourses and practices toward Latin American immigrants in the United States, specifically juveniles, in three interrelated spheres: the labor area, Immigration Law, and the Press..