“The Same But Different”: Undocumented Latino Students Confront Nativism and Racism

• In Event: Mexican-American Students and the Process of Social Action

Abstract

College-bound undocumented Latino students in California and Arizona exist within two, overlapping layers of subordination as their race and immigration status creates barriers for their dreams of achieving a college education. Through a Critical Race Theory lens with an emphasis on immigration laws and a mixed qualitative/quantitative methodology, the author examines how race and immigration status is interpreted by aspiring college-bound undocumented Latino students. Experiencing both forms of discrimination and opposing any forms of oppression, some of these undocumented students still find that discrimination due to their immigration status is worse and connects it to the role that immigration laws have on systemically denying them a college education.

Author

• Jaime Del Razo, Brown University