Emotional Rollercoaster: How Immigration Policy and Agency Shape Mental Health among Undocumented College Students

Exclusionary immigration laws and policies have been shown to produce adverse mental health outcomes. However, less work has traced the processes through which mental health experiences arise and how undocumented college students employ their agency to protect their mental health. Drawing on 66 in-depth interviews, I build on my interviewees' descriptions of mental health as a rollercoaster to illustrate how their stress process is shaped by immigration laws and students' agency. I find that ever-changing and unpredictable immigration laws and policies promote feelings of emotional distress. However, students utilize their agency to uplift themselves and support their psychological well-being. Yet despite their actions, emotional distress and psychological well-being coexist in students' everyday lives. Ultimately, I argue that students' agency supports their psychological well-being, but the immigration law and policy context they are embedded in limits their efforts and instead places them in a perilous emotional rollercoaster.