The Directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences offers postdoctoral research fellowships to provide opportunities for recent doctoral graduates to obtain additional training, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden their scientific horizons beyond their undergraduate and graduate training. Postdoctoral fellowships are further designed to assist new scientists to direct their research efforts across traditional disciplinary lines and to avail themselves of unique research resources, sites, and facilities, including at foreign locations. This postdoctoral fellowship award supports a rising social science scholar studying the costs and consequences borne by U.S. households as an outcome of local, state and federal immigration enforcement activity; and to examine the impacts of these financial burdens on everyday household decision-making, socio-economic vulnerability and long-term assimilation. he research has significant implications for U.S. immigration and boundary enforcement policy. For example, research already conducted in immigrant-sending communities shows how enforcement activity produces significant financial hardships that have counter-intuitive outcomes, driving patterns of unlawful migration as households and extended family networks seek to spread and mitigate risk. In cities like Tucson and Detroit, immigrant households concentrate disproportionately in low-income enclaves where residents deal with the burdens of under- or marginal employment; under-performing schools; high rates of crime; unstable housing conditions; and exclusion from mainstream financial institutions. This research examines the strategies used by such households to meet the acute financial burdens associated with a household member's exposure to immigration detention and removal, and how these strategies affect household members' short- and long-term socio-economic opportunities, vulnerabilities, and assimilation into the fabric of U.S. life. A key feature of the research involves the recruitment, training, coaching and supervision of bilingual first-generation undergraduate students, who will assist in the collection and analysis of data and dissemination of research results. The involvement of these students is intended to encourage their completion of a four-year degree and to increase their familiarity with and excitement about SBE-related fields. At the conclusion of research activities, the PI and sponsoring scientist will conduct a program evaluation with participating undergraduate student researchers. This will allow for assessment of research, training and mentorship activities, and will inform the dissemination of the research and training model for broader application and use by peer scholars and educators. Research data are collected using a 72-item, in-person detailed questionnaire, with questions related to household finances, assets, immigration history, and social networks of instrumental support used to mitigate risks (e.g., extended family who provide loans or childcare services in an emergency). Responses are entered into a central database and analyzed for bivariate and multivariate associations and compared to national and local estimates of wealth and debt obtained by the U.S. Census Bureau. For purposes of comparison, data will be collected in two research sites: Tucson, Arizona and Detroit, Michigan. The target sample size is 100 interviews in each site. Respondents are identified using canvassing and snowball sampling at sites where immigrant families receive services such as churches, clinics and other non-profit organizations. Bilingual undergraduate students are recruited in Tucson and Detroit to assist with data collection and data entry. Student researchers are recruited through the University of Arizona (UA)'s ASEMS program, which provides coaching and support to undergraduate students pursuing a degree in a STEM field; the UA's Department of Mexican-American Studies, which promotes the research opportunities described above to students enrolled in its classes; and Pima Community College's "Upward Bound" program, a U.S. Department of Education-funded initiative that provides first-generation, low-income students with coaching and support to accomplish a four-year college degree. All undergraduate research assistants recruited and involved in research activities are trained in mixed-method data collection and human subjects protocols. Research assistants receive ongoing coaching, supervision and hands-on experience as they contribute to research outcomes. To disseminate these outcomes a "white paper" highlighting key findings will be produced and made available to local, state and national elected leaders and to not-for-profit advocacy organizations. Presentations of key findings, in English and Spanish, will be offered to all participants via recruitment sites, as well as to advocacy networks and policy-makers.