Displaying 1 of 1 2025 Format: Book Author: Dick, Alix author Title: The cost of being undocumented : one woman's reckoning with America's inhumane math / Alix Dick & Antero Garcia. Publisher, Date: Boston : Beacon Press, 2025. Description: xiv, 271 pages ; 24 cm Summary: "Flips the traditional narrative about the economics of immigration on its head by tallying the costs of undocumented life, presenting a final bill of what is owed to the immigrant community"-- Provided by publisher. Target Audience Note: 0 Lexile. Subjects: Dick, Alix. Immigrants -- Biography. Community organization Women immigrants Noncitizens -- Government policy -- United States -- 21st century. Noncitizens -- United States -- Biography. Genre: Autobiographies. Other Author: Gracia, Antero, author. Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Publishers Weekly,040725 Booklist, 060125, p. 5 LCCN: 2025007264 ISBN: 9780807014943 * 9780807014950 Other Number: 1457079745 System Availability: 2 # Local items: 1 Call Number: 304.8/73009 # Local items in: 1 # System items in: 2 Current Holds: 0 Place Request Add to My List Expand All | Collapse All Where is it? Suggestions and more Large Cover Image Trade Reviews Publishers Weekly ReviewIn this illuminating account, Garcia (Pose, Wobble, Flow), an education professor at Stanford, helps tell the life story of filmmaker Dick. The authors' aim is to cast light on the material cost to Dick of America's burdensome immigration system. Dick grew up in a "very wealthy family" in Sinaloa, Mexico. In 2011, when she was 20 years old, her family was threatened by drug cartels and she fled to America. She eventually landed in California, where she supported herself as a nanny. Dick explains how as an undocumented immigrant, she suffered losses of time, mental health, and faith. She calls the system an "exhausting mental game" because, contrary to popular belief, undocumented immigrants are actually not unknown to the government ("The IRS, the DMV, the police, they all know you exist.... You are assigned a personal identification number that you use to pay taxes"). Rather, Dick suggests, undocumented immigrants are intentionally kept undocumented so they can't collect government benefits and can be exploited at work. The authors tally the price extracted from Dick between 2011 and 2023, incorporating some estimates like how much she was likely being underpaid; the total comes to $1,912,177. Part harrowing memoir, part rigorous case study, this makes for an eye-opening glimpse of undocumented life in America. (June)Booklist ReviewAs conditions for immigrants, refugees, and our undocumented neighbors become ever more precarious, this book provides welcome insight and context. Dick and Garcia carefully lay out their approach to the research process as centering care and reciprocity, which--significantly--converts those who have traditionally been the subjects of research into partners who participate equally in the process as "co-constructor(s) of knowledge." This research project comes to life through coauthor Dick's story. Dick, who was hired by Garcia as a nanny for his household, narrates with a heartfelt and raw voice as she delves into the circumstances that led her from a privileged childhood in cartel-ridden Sinaloa to a precarious and vulnerable position in Georgia and later, in Southern California. This candid and often painful examination of cost includes chapters on employment, mental health, healthcare, and dreaming. Besides an accounting, Dick's story is also a propina (gift) to inspire understanding, dialogue, and action among readers. In addition to the careful explanation of their research methodology, the authors include meticulous notes and extensive references. The result is a formidable yet wholly accessible and relatable exposé of the unconscionable cost of undocumented immigration. An essential addition to all nonfiction collections. Summary An undocumented activist and a social scientist come together to tally of the structural costs of undocumented life An inhumane math pervades this country: even as our government extracts labor and often taxes from undocumented workers, it excludes these same workers from its social safety net. As a result, these essential workers struggle to get their own basic needs met, from healthcare to education, from freedom of association to the ability to drive to work without looking for ICE in the rearview mirror. When Alix Dick's family found themselves in the crosshairs of cartel violence in Sinaloa, Mexico, she and her siblings were forced to flee to the U.S. Many of the scenes that she shares are difficult and unforgettable: escaping from a relationship in which her partner threatened to report her to immigration; getting root canals done in an underground dental clinic. But there are moments of triumph, too: founding her own nonprofit; working on films that tell important stories; and working with her co-author Dr. Garcia to tell her story in a framework that lays bare the realities of structural oppression. As Alix and Antero tally the costs of undocumented life, they present a final bill of what is owed to the immigrant community. In this way, their book flips the traditional narrative about the economics of immigration on its head. Table of Contents A Note on Our Research ProcessviiIntroduction The Balance1Chapter 1The Cost of Time9Chapter 2The Cost of Being Mexicana23Chapter 3The Cost of Living in a Cartel War35Chapter 4The Cost of Border Crossing55Chapter 5The Cost of Employment73Chapter 6The Cost of Love91Chapter 7The Cost of Faith113Chapter 8The Cost of Mental Health129Chapter 9The Cost of Healthcare145Chapter 10The Cost of Dreaming150Conclusion Reckoning with Inhumane Math169Acknowledgments181Notes185References197Index213 Librarian's View Series Information Similar Titles Similar Series Summary Reader Reviews Displaying 1 of 1
