Support and setback: how religion and religious organisations shape the incorporation of unaccompanied indigenous youth

Churches are recognised as pillars of solidarity and support within immigrant communities but rarely in regard to youths’ social incorporation. Drawing on 24 months of participant observation of two Catholic churches and in-depth interviews with unaccompanied Guatemalan Maya youth church members in a Los Angeles, California community, this study examines the role of the church and religion in youth’s incorporation trajectories. I find that the church and its religious practices provide unaccompanied youth with spaces and resources of incorporation support. Over time, youth also experience financial and socioemotional setback as they become involved in church subunits that are organised by an ethnoracial hierarchy that disparages indigenous Latinos, require financial contributions, and teach reliance on God to change one’s circumstances. This study shows that immigrant-serving organisations can unwittingly reproduce inequality when they offer individualised solutions to structural marginalisation. Findings also demonstrate that incorporation is as much a socio-economic process as a socioemotional one, as immigrant youths’ mental and emotional health instability can impinge on their social participation.