On the Record: Papers, Immigration, and Legal Advocacy

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​Immigrant residents seeking legal status in the United States face a catch-22: the documents that they must present to immigration officials--bank records, paycheck stubs, and contracts in their own names--are often challenging for undocumented people to obtain. In this book, Susan Bibler Coutin analyzes how undocumented immigrants and the attorneys and paralegals who represent them attempt to surmount this and other documentary challenges. Based on four years of fieldwork and volunteer work in the legal services department of an immigrant-serving nonprofit and in-depth interviews with those seeking status, On the Record explores these complex dynamics by taking seriously both documents themselves and the legal craft that has developed around their use.

Author: Susan Bibler Coutin
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 08/05/2025
Pages: 186
Weight: 0.93lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9780520422827