The academic success of undocumented Latino students: School programs,non-profit organizations,and social capital

Based on 29 in-depth interviews with undocumented Latino college students and graduates in Southern California, this study explores how academic high achievers obtain the information, resources, and emotional support they need to achieve college-student status. The study highlights the importance of the programs offered by schools and nonprofit organizations to compensate for undocumented Latino students’ lack of social capital and their parents’ lack of human capital. Forging a trusting relationship with teachers and/or counselors remains crucial for navigating the unique application process for undocumented students and for identifying private funding sources.     

From silence to stillness: decolonial feminist ontologies and the mattering of history in educational research

This paper explores undocumented adolescent Latina becomings that move beyond Western, white dominant cultural values and recognize egalitarian entanglements of difference. I begin by recognizing my positionality in this work that speaks to my own feminist theoretical entanglements of this project that draw upon new materialist and post-qualitative embodied, inspirited, affective becomings. In the second half of this paper, I resituate this project within a decolonizing framework that parallels discussions of feminist new materialist and post-qualitative work in an effort to begin thinking differently about educational research, schooling, and the impact of oppressive and colonizing practices on undocumented immigrant youth in this country. Finally, I do not offer this research project in the conventional qualitative structure, but am not claiming this research as post-qualitative either - as it lies somewhere in between - and resides in a liminal methodological space.     

Information seeking,technology use,and vulnerability among migrants at the United States–Mexico border

Through interviews with migrants and migrant aid-workers at a shelter in the border town of Nogales, Mexico, we examine how undocumented migrants are seeking, acquiring, understanding, and using information prior to, and during, migration across the United States–Mexico border. Our study examines migrants' perceptions of humanitarian service and the use of so-called “border disturbance technologies” by activists to help prevent the death of migrants in the desert, finding that migrants appreciate water-caching efforts but generally distrust technologies they feel could subject them to surveillance by border agents. Exploratory in nature and based on a small sample, our findings are not necessarily representative of the broader population, but provide rich evidence of the prevalence of word-of-mouth information seeking and use of cell phones over other information technologies, and explore the ambivalent nature of information technology use in the vulnerable setting of life at the border. In particular, we find that mobile phones help migrants meet their communication needs, but also increase their exposure to crime and abuse.     

Gleaning hope in a vacillating DACA sociopolitical context: undocumented Latinx students’ systems of support and success in K-16 education

Abstract

In light of the lingering threat of recession of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), this paper examines the ways in which undocumented Latinx students glean hope in a vacillating DACA context to persist through college. A review of immigration policy particularly as it relates to K-12 and higher education is provided as a springboard to investigate the salience of student voice in policy considerations. Findings indicate the critical supports of familial capital as undocumented Latinx students navigate the complex anti-immigrant terrain. As the long-term legislative fate of undocumented students remains unknown, we provide recommendations for educators and policymakers.     

Discourses of Exclusion: Immigrant-Origin Youth Responses to Immigration Debates in an Election Year

Political discourse on immigration policy often provides a window into a society’s boundaries of inclusion and exclusion. Here, we seek to understand how those in liminal positions respond to political debates that raise issues of boundary maintenance. Drawing from Bakhtinian concepts of authoritative and internally persuasive discourses as well as Gramsci’s concept of common sense, we analyzed how a superdiverse sample of 26 immigrant-origin adolescents (from Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe) responded to video segments of presidential debates from the 2012 U.S. election. Youth’s responses to presidential video clips about undocumented immigration policies fell along a spectrum from inclusionary to exclusionary, with many voicing mixed responses to immigration policies. Half of the youth referenced their own family’s migration experience when discussing immigration policy, most frequently in empathetic ways; however, this did not preclude them from aligning with discourses of exclusion. The theme of fairness was prevalent in their responses, yet it emerged in distinct ways. This work highlights the need to interrogate common-sense discourses of exclusion.     

美国非法移民子女的教育政策研究——《梦想法案》的提出及困境分析

20世纪60年代以后,美国的移民政策开始宽松,非法移民的数量也随之增多,其子女的受教育问题自然成为社会关注的焦点。《民权法案》《普勒莱法案》保证了所有学生都可以接受平等的基础教育,而在高等教育问题上,非法移民学生的发展却遭遇了瓶颈。在此背景下,《梦想法案》2001年得以问世,到今天已经是第14个年头,但由于受到众多阻挠,该法案真正成为法律还有待时日,非法移民学生获得公平的高等教育权及其寻求合法权益之路仍然困难重重。