Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T00:39:13.362Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 17 - DACAmented

Impossible Realities, Deferred Actions, Delegated Dreams and Stories of Resilience

from Part III - Confronting Marginalisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2020

By
Carlos Aguilar  and
Roberto G. Gonzales
Edited by
Jacqueline Bhabha ,
Wenona Giles  and
Faraaz Mahomed
Jacqueline Bhabha
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Wenona Giles
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
Faraaz Mahomed
Affiliation:
FXB Center for Health and Human Rights
Get access

Summary

The journey to higher education by undocumented students has been one of legal, financial and informational barriers. Despite ensured equal access to primary and secondary education, federal policies addressing access to post-secondary education are non-existent – a lack of action that has motivated some states to provide additional access and others to erect further barriers. While the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme in 2012 has attenuated the transition to ‘illegality’ that many undocumented young people experienced after high school graduation, access to post-secondary education remains a challenging endeavour for most undocumented youth. The recent announcement to rescind DACA and the lack of a solution for comprehensively managing immigration further obscure the future of this constituency. Placed at the intersection of contrasting political, economic and social contexts, this chapter explores the experiences of three undocumented immigrant youth in Texas who enter adult transitions at differing levels of educational attainment. This chapter illustrates how policies, school practices and families’ legal structures continue to create conflicting educational experiences of exclusion and belonging for undocumented young people living in the United States.

Keywords

Undocumented studentsDACAaccess to higher educationequity billsmixed-status familiesschool practices
Type
Chapter
Information
A Better Future
The Role of Higher Education for Displaced and Marginalised People
 , pp. 388 - 406
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrego, L. J. (2006). ‘I Can’t Go to College Because I Don’t Have Papers’: Incorporation Patterns Of Latino Undocumented Youth. Latino Studies; London, 4(3), 212–231.Google Scholar
Abrego, L. J. (2018). Renewed Optimism and Spatial Mobility: Legal Consciousness of Latino Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Recipients and Their Families in Los Angeles. Ethnicities, 18(2), 192–207.Google Scholar
Aguilar, C. (2017). Mi Casa es Tu Casa: DACAdemics Redefine Citizenship (M.S., The University of Texas at San Antonio). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1949775500/abstract/228AADF41C47445FPQ/1.Google Scholar
Aguilar, C. (2018). Undocumented Critical Theory. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Metodologies, 1–9.Google Scholar
Aguilar, C., Marquez, R., & Romo, H. (2018). From Dreamers to DACAdemics: A la escuela sin pasaporte. In Seen but Not Heard: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Child Migrants and Refugees. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Batalova, J., Hooker, S., Capps, R., Bachmeier, J., & Cox, E. (2013). Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals at the One-Year Mark: A Profile of Currently Eligible Youth and Applicants. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1820758318/?pq-origsite=primo.Google Scholar
Batalova, J., & McHugh, M. (2010). DREAM vs. Reality: An Analysis of Potential DREAM Act Beneficiaries. Retrieved from Migration Policy Institute website: www.immigrationresearch-info.org/system/files/DREAM-Insight-July2010.pdf.Google Scholar
Bozick, R., & Miller, T. (2014). In-State College Tuition Policies for Undocumented Immigrants: Implications for High School Enrollment among Non-citizen Mexican Youth. Population Research and Policy Review, 33(1), 13–30.Google Scholar
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
Cuevas, S. (2018). Apoyo Sacrificial, Sacrificing Support: Understanding Undocumented Latina/o Parents’ Engagement in Students’ Post-Secondary Planning and Success (Ph.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education). https://dash.harvard.edu/ handle/1/37935837.Google Scholar
Darolia, R., & Potochnick, S. (2015). Educational ‘When’, ‘Where’, and ‘How’ Implications of In-State Resident Tuition Policies for Latino Undocumented Immigrants. The Review of Higher Education, 38(4), 507–535.Google Scholar
Enriquez, L. (2011). ‘Because We Feel the Pressure and We Also Feel the Support’: Examining the Educational Success of Undocumented Immigrant Latina/o Students. Harvard Educational Review, 81(3), 476–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, S. M. (2010). State Dream Acts: The Effect of In-State Resident Tuition Policies and Undocumented Latino Students. The Review of Higher Education, 33(2), 239–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzales, R. G. (2010). On the Wrong Side of the Tracks: Understanding the Effects of School Structure and Social Capital in the Educational Pursuits of Undocumented Immigrant Students. Peabody Journal of Education, 85(4), 469–485.Google Scholar
Gonzales, R. G. (2011). Learning to Be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood. American Sociological Review; Washington, 76(4), 602–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzales, R. G. (2016). Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gonzales, R. G., & Chavez, L. R. (2012). ‘Awakening to a Nightmare’: Abjectivity and Illegality in the Lives of Undocumented 1.5-Generation Latino Immigrants in the United States. Current Anthropology, 53(3), 255–281.Google Scholar
Gonzales, R. G., Ellis, B., Rendón-García, S. A., & Brant, K. (2018). (Un)authorized Transitions: Illegality, DACA, and the Life Course. Research in Human Development, 15(3–4), 345–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzales, R. G., Heredia, L. L., & Negrón-Gonzales, G. (2015). Untangling Plyler’s Legacy: Undocumented Students, Schools, and Citizenship. Harvard Educational Review, 85(3), 318–341.Google Scholar
Gonzales, R. G., Murillo, M. A., Lacomba, C., Brant, K., Franco, M. C., Lee, J., & Vasudevan, D. S. (n.d.). Taking Giant Leaps Forward. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from Center for American Progress website: www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2017/06/22/434822/taking-giant-leaps-forward/.Google Scholar
Gonzales, R. G., Roth, B., Brant, K., Lee, J., & Valdivia, C. (2016). DACA at Year Three: Challenges and Opportunities in Accessing Higher Education and Employment. Special Report, American Immigration Council, pp. 30.Google Scholar
Gonzales, R. G., & Ruiz, A. G. (2014). Dreaming Beyond the Fields: Undocumented Youth, Rural Realities and a Constellation of Disadvantage. Latino Studies, 12(2), 194–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzales, R. G., Terriquez, V., & Ruszczyk, S. P. (2014). Becoming DACAmented: Assessing the Short-Term Benefits of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). American Behavioral Scientist, 58(14), 1852–1872.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guarneros, N. (2017). Freedom of Movement: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Physical Mobility and the Undocumented Spatial Consciousness of DACA Beneficiaries in Higher Education (Ph.D., The Claremont Graduate University). http://search.proquest.com/docview/1955178374/abstract/C54503DE39804785PQ/1.Google Scholar
Hagan, J. M., Rodriguez, N., & Castro, B. (2011). Social Effects of Mass Deportations by the United States Government, 2000–10. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(8), 1374–1391.Google Scholar
Hsin, A., & Ortega, F. (2017). The Effects of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on the Educational Outcomes of Undocumented Students. Demography, 55(4), 1487–1506.Google Scholar
Koohi, S. (2017). College Prospects and Risky Behavior among Mexican Immigrant Youth: The Effects of In-State Tuition Policies on Schooling and Childbearing. Economics of Education Review, 58, 162–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krogstad, J. M., Passel, J. S., & Cohn, D. (2018). 5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S. Retrieved February 23, 2019, from Pew Research Center website: www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/28/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/.Google Scholar
Massey, D. S., Durand, J., & Malone, N. J. (2002). Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration. Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Menjívar, C., & Abrego, L. (2012). Legal Violence: Immigration Law and the Lives of Central American Immigrants. American Journal of Sociology, 117(5), 1380–1421.Google Scholar
Negrón-Gonzales, G. (2013). Navigating ‘illegality’: Undocumented Youth & Oppositional Consciousness. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(8), 1284–1290.Google Scholar
Negrón-Gonzales, G. (2017). Constrained Inclusion: Access and Persistence among Undocumented Community College Students in California’s Central Valley. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 16(2), 105–122.Google Scholar
Olivas, M. A. (2011). The Political Efficacy of Plyler v. Doe: The Danger and the Discourse. UC Davis Law Review, 45(1), 1–26.Google Scholar
Perez, W., Espinoza, R., Ramos, K., Coronado, H., & Cortes, R. (2010). Civic Engagement Patterns of Undocumented Mexican Students. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 9(3), 245–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perez, W., Espinoza, R., Ramos, K., Coronado, H. M., & Cortes, R. (2009). Academic Resilience Among Undocumented Latino Students. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 31(2), 149–181.Google Scholar
Potochnick, S. (2014). How States can Reduce the Dropout Rate for Undocumented Immigrant Youth: The Effects of In-state Resident Tuition Policies. Social Science Research, 45, 18–32.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, N., & Hagan, J. M. (2004). Fractured Families and Communities: Effects of Immigration Reform in Texas, Mexico, and El Salvador. Latino Studies, 2(3), 328–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silver, A. M. (2018). Shifting Boundaries: Immigrant Youth Negotiating National, State, and Small-Town Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez-Orozco, C., Yoshikawa, H., Teranishi, R. T., & Suárez-Orozco, M. (2011). Growing Up in the Shadows: The Developmental Implications of Unauthorized Status. Harvard Educational Review, 81(3), 438–472.Google Scholar
Terriquez, V. (2015). Dreams Delayed: Barriers to Degree Completion among Undocumented Community College Students. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41(8), 1302–1323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Wong, T. K., Richter, K. K., Rodriguez, I., & Wolgin, P. E. (2015). Results from a Nationwide Survey of DACA Recipients Illustrate the Program’s Impact. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from Center for American Progress website: www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2015/07/09/117054/results-from-a-nationwide-survey-of-daca-recipients-illustrate-the-programs-impact/.Google Scholar
Wong, T. K., Rosas, G. M., Reyna, A., Rodriguez, I., O’Shea, P., Jawetz, T., & Wolgin, P. E. (2016). New Study of DACA Beneficiaries Shows Positive Economic and Educational Outcomes. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from Center for American Progress website: www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2016/10/18/146290/new-study-of-daca-beneficiaries-shows-positive-economic-and-educational-outcomes/.Google Scholar
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×