Soy de aquí, soy de allá: DACAmented homecomings and implications for identity and belonging

This article is based on in-depth interviews with deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries from California and Arizona who traveled to Mexico, their country of origin, for the first time since they had immigrated to the US as small children. Although DACA travelers have acculturated to the US, this article begins to uncover the complexities of national identification and belonging in the US, a country that has not allowed for a legal pathway to citizenship for them. We show how visiting their homeland served to highlight their American markers of identity and their hidden privilege, as DACA travelers were often treated as foreigners while in Mexico. However, encounters with their home country and family members in their hometowns allowed for reflection and reconciliation of both their Mexican and American identities.