Angela S. Garcia

Angela S. Garcia

Assistant Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

crown school

Angela S. García is a sociologist and Assistant Professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Her research interests include international migration, law and society, race and ethnicity, urban sociology, social policy, and mixed and comparative methods. García studies the consequences of socio-legal inclusion and exclusion for undocumented immigrants across the United States, Mexico, and Spain. Focusing on subnational (state and local) immigration laws and executive administrative action, she charts how immigrants’ everyday lives, incorporation, and well-being are shaped by the legal contexts in which they reside.

Angela S. García is a sociologist and Assistant Professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.  Her research interests include international migration, law and society, race and ethnicity, urban sociology, social policy, and mixed and comparative methods.  García studies the consequences of socio-legal inclusion and exclusion for undocumented immigrants across the United States, Mexico, and Spain. Focusing on subnational (state and local) immigration laws and executive administrative action, she charts how immigrants’ everyday lives, incorporation, and well-being are shaped by the legal contexts in which they reside.

García’s book, Legal Passing: Navigating Undocumented Life and Local Immigration Law (University of California Press 2019), comparatively analyzes the effects of accommodating and restrictive local immigration laws from the perspective of undocumented Mexican immigrants, the primary targets of these measures in the US. Her work has been published in Social ProblemsANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social ScienceInternational Migration Review, Ethnic and Racial StudiesJournal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and International Migration.

García’s research has earned awards from the American Sociological Association's International Migration Section and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics.  Her work on the lives of undocumented immigrants in restrictive destinations was cited in a 2015 amicus brief filed by states to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) executive actions.

At the University of Chicago, García is Associate Faculty Member in the Department of Sociology (by courtesy). She is an Associate at the Population Research Center; Fellow at the Center for Health Administration Studies; and Faculty Affiliate at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture; the Katz Center for Mexican Studies; and the Center for Latin American Studies.  At the University of California San Diego, she is an External Research Associate with the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.  She is also a Scholar Affiliate with the Scholars Strategy Network.

García holds a PhD in Sociology from the Department of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego and a MA in Latin American Studies, also from UCSD.