Selective Disclosure as a Self-Protective Process: Navigating Friendships as Asian and Latino Undocumented Young Adults

Drawing on in-depth interviews with sixty-three undocumented, 1.5-generation Korean-origin and Mexican-origin young adults in the United States, I bring attention to the deep-seated effects of immigration status that extend into the most intimate aspects of undocumented immigrants’ lives. Findings show that the stigma of being undocumented leads undocumented young adults to be selective about whom they befriend and to whom they decide to disclose their status, feeling safer with those of shared immigrant descent. Furthermore, ethnoracial background shapes pathways of selective disclosure. Korean undocumented young adults in the study were more likely to be prompted to disclose their status to justify another personal circumstance, whereas Mexican respondents primarily sought empathy and community in times of distress. Moreover, Korean respondents more often created a distinction between individuals with whom they discussed the intimate details of their legal situation and those they deemed close but from whom they hid their status. This work demonstrates the ways in which undocumented immigrants engage in selective status disclosure as one of myriad strategies to mitigate the harmful affective and material effects of undocumented immigration status. By using a comparative qualitative approach, this study points to the nuanced and very personal ways in which ethnoracial background shapes everyday experiences of illegality.