I am a sociologist of law, migration, race/ethnicity, and state power who researches and writes about how states create and enforce systems of classification, governance, and social control—and what these systems mean for the people who live within, between, and across them. Using qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and ethnography, I am particularly interested in how people experience, navigate, and respond to state power, especially when systems of classification and control shift, collide, or are contested.
PUBLICATIONS
JOURNAL ARTICLE
REMNANTS OF ILLEGALITY
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies | Robles 2025
Based on in-depth interviews with formerly undocumented immigrants, I argue that transitioning through statuses leaves behind remnants of illegality—lingering effects of previous legal designations that continue to impact a person even after they are no longer in that status.
Winner of the 2025 ASA Latina/o Sociology Section’s Cristina Maria Riegos Student Paper Award
JOURNAL ARTICLE
PLACING MEXICAN ETHNIC ENCLAVES
Critical Sociology | Robles & Thacker Thomas (2023)
We draw on twenty interviews with Mexican immigrants in the U.S. to examine how individuals form attachments to La Calle Cuatro, a Mexican ethnic enclave in California. Our model of place attachment reveals paradoxical and recursive outcomes that produce belonging within the enclave alongside broader experiences of alienation.
BOOK CHAPTER IN EDITED VOLUME
LEGAL CONTROL & MIGRANTS
DeGruyter Handbook of Political Control | Vega and Robles (2026)
In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive analysis of US immigration enforcement as a form of repression targeting Latinx immigrant communities.
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW OF “GREEN CARD SOLDIER” BY SOFYA APTEKAR
Journal of Development Studies | Robles (2026)
Aptekar’s Green Card Soldier argues that noncitizen enlistees, whom she terms ‘green card soldiers’, navigate a dual position: as strategic actors making choices under constraint, and as agents of an American imperial project that deploys foreign-born labor to sustain its global reach.
PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY
AGENTS OF AFFECT: THE EMOTIONAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN IMMIGRANTS AND IMMIGRATION AGENTS
Oxford Faculty of Law Blog | Border Criminologies | Robles 2026
I underscore how immigrants and immigration agents manage their affective states amidst high-stakes encounters, revealing moments of humanity and emotional conflict within an impersonal and rigid bureaucratic structure.
Jozef Callan Robles, PhD 