Dean's Lecture Series on Race, Ethnicity, and Criminal Justice

The Department of Sociology welcomes Amada Armenta, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, to a lecture titled "Immigrants and the Law: Crafting Moral Selves in the Face of Immigration Control."

U.S. immigration law criminalizes unauthored immigrants and render many of immigrants' daily activities "illegal". How does this affect immigrants' attitudes and practices toward the law?

Drawing on interviews with unauthorized Mexican immigrants in Philadelphia, Professor Amada Armenta will show how time spent in the United States transforms migrants' legal attitudes from one of "resolviendo" (solving problems or getting by) to one of "doing things the right way". Armenta will highlight the implications of this legal transformation for the moral economy of immigration policy, for immigrant claims-making, and for Latino immigrants' place in the racial hierarchy.