Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the Mediating Power of Place

• In Event: Institutional Navigations: Undocumented Students Traverse Terrains of Family, Work, and Geographies of Place

Abstract

Tens of thousands of undocumented immigrant youth graduate from high school each year. Due to their precarious circumstances they do so with uncertain futures (Abrego, 2006, 2008, 2011; Gonzales, 2010, 2011; Gonzales & Chavez, 2012; Greenman & Hall, 2013). Owing to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, first announced three years ago, many of these young people can now apply for work permits in order to find jobs that match their career interests and they have important opportunities to participate in mainstream adult life which have likely widened educational options for these young adult immigrants (Gonzales, Terriquez, and Ruszczyk, 2014). While DACA does not offer a pathway to legalization, it has moved large numbers of eligible young adults into mainstream life, thereby improving their social and economic well-being. As of March 31, 2015 more than 664,000 undocumented youth and young adults had obtained DACA status.

Nevertheless, many barriers to higher education remain. While DACA has widened access for hundreds of thousands of youth and young adults, its effectiveness has been mitigated by a range of factors ranging from human level variables to where in the country one lives. Local contexts, in particular, have shaped both opened and constrained access. As Congress has stalled in its efforts to pass an immigration bill, states, municipalities, and institutions have sought their own solutions to their immigration problems. For example, while at least twenty states offer undocumented immigrants and/or DACA beneficiaries the ability to pay tuition at public universities at in-state rates, the majority of states still do not. Moreover, only four states (Washington, California, New Mexico, and Texas) offer undocumented college students access to state aid. Given federal exclusions from financial aid, the inability to access tuition assistance is prohibitive. In addition, several states in the South, exclude undocumented immigrants from their public universities. Access to college, while critically important, is only one barrier DACAmented and undocumented students face. Given the high costs of college, many young people are choosing to pursue mid-level certificate granting occupations. However, many of these careers require professional licenses. Currently, only California and New York have passed legislation to allow undocumented immigrants eligibility for state licenses.

Through an examination of geographies of place, this paper explores the effects of local context on the post high school trajectories of DACA beneficiaries in Arizona, California, Illinois, New York, Georgia, and South Carolina. In doing so we draw data from the National UnDACAmented Research Project (NURP), the largest data effort collection of its kind. Shortly after the beginning of the DACA program NURP was launched in an effort to better understand how DACAmented young adults were experiencing their new status. We focus on 541 in-depth interviews with DACA eligible young adults.

Preliminary analyses support the notion that where one lives matters. While some young adult DACA beneficiaries are finding smoothed pathways to school and work opportunities others are experiencing constraints caused by local policies and practices. As a result, new layers of stratification are beginning to develop.

Author

• Roberto G. Gonzales, Harvard University