This dissertation explores the experiences and perspectives of unaccompanied migrant children in Johannesburg South Africa. The children are between the ages of thirteen to nineteen and are all from Zimbabwe. The research focuses on how the young immigrants undertook their journey managing to find ways around the spaces and people they met along the way. The research demonstrates how the vulnerability which research participants feel was not constant. It oscillated depending primarily on spaces and social relationships which children encountered. Through ethnography and the life history approach, the daily experiences of the young people are looked at to provide an understanding of the way they dealt and are still dealing with their vulnerability. The intention being to show that vulnerability is always shifting and being shifted by young people.

This study analyzes newspaper coverage of immigration reform in mainstream newspapers prior to, and following the debate in June 2007. The newspaper text is analyzed using metaphor interpretation supported by content analysis. The quantitative result categorizes the identified metaphors in three distinct metaphor categories about: immigrants and immigration, immigration policy and enforcement, and metaphors about the debate and immigration issue itself. The relative distribution of metaphors among categories is provided. Using an open coding process, emergent metaphor categories are identified. The qualitative findings describe metaphors and schemas that were potentially activated by particular metaphorical phrases in this context. Lastly, this research compares the similarities and differences of the immigration debate of the early 20th century with the contemporary U.S. and European debate.

The issue of undocumented immigration has recently taken center-stage in the media and national politics in the United States. A large population of undocumented youth grows up with legal access to public education through high school, following the Supreme Court decision of Plyler vs. Doe, but faces legal and economic barriers to post-secondary education. Following high school, undocumented Hispanic/Latino youth legal protections end, greatly limiting chances for upward mobility through traditional post-secondary education pipelines. In some cases, knowledge of future barriers to post-secondary education leads to a decline in educational motivation. The current political atmosphere makes this study a bit of a moving target as the Obama administration recently passed a reprieve. This reprieve, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Process (DACA) does not confer any legal status or open any future path to citizenship. It does, however, grant eligible applicants a work permit, and the opportunity to travel, work, and attend school with a sense of security. The purpose of this thesis is to better understand the perceptions and understandings of undocumented Hispanic/Latino youth and their pursuits of higher education in. It is primarily concerned with the educational issues and opportunities facing these students. This research explores the impact of Hispanic/Latino students' perceptions of legal status barriers on their educational attainment experiences. The different opportunities and obstacles present in access to post-secondary education for undocumented Hispanic/Latino students residing in the United States are examined. This study focuses on the time period just after high school graduation, a critical stage in these students' lives, when undocumented status is particularly consequential. Knowledge about students' perception of their educational progress sheds light on their educational attainment experiences; it illuminates important factors associated with their individual educational experiences. Interactions with teachers, school authorities, their parents, siblings, peers, and other authority figures could be described in connecting personal interpretations and emotional responses to specific events in their lives that they feel helped or hindered their educational progress. Knowing how undocumented Hispanic/Latino youth identify and understand the factors that facilitate or impede their navigation of post-secondary education, will further inform educators and researchers alike. This study offers the possibility of identifying additional factors for educators, researchers, and our communities that hinder or facilitate the educational navigation and success of undocumented students. This type of research is significant as this marginalized population lives and works within the American society; the successes and struggles of these students impacts the United States as a whole. Moreover, these students possess amazing potential; we need to better understand and serve this population in order to both improve their life experiences, and to benefit from their input and abilities.