Immigration Policy in the Mid-Atlantic: A Strong Community Supports Latino/Hispanic Students and Families

• In Event: 35.023 - The Effects of Trump-Era Immigration Policies on Four School Districts Across the United States

Abstract

Objectives
In this paper, we focus on the case of Marshfield Public Schools (MPS), a K-12 district enrolling 5,700 students from heterogenous backgrounds. The 27% of students who identify as white in the public schools are underrepresented compared to the racial demographic of the town, whereas the 50% Hispanic population is overrepresented. Additionally, 31% of Long Branch residents are foreign born. MPS exists in the greater context of New Jersey, a WIDA state which recently passed a resolution condemning any action by President Trump to rescind DACA protections. Through research, we respond to the following question, “In what ways does the local context of reception shape the educational experiences of immigrant youth given current anti-immigrant discourses and policies at the federal level?

Theoretical frameworks
Relying on theories of immigrant acculturation, our research sets out to understand how the context of reception informs the immigrant experience. Contexts of reception have been described as the opportunity structure, degree of openness versus hostility, and acceptance in the local community (Schwartz et al., 2013). Features of contexts of reception have a large impact on the lives of immigrants and their children, for better or worse (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). This theoretical framework has lead us to focus on features of school contexts which inform the experience of immigrant students and their educators.

Data sources and methods
Methodologically, we draw on data from a survey administered during the spring of 2018 to all-staff, including administrators, teachers, guidance counselors and others, across the district with a 70% response rate. The survey measured school climate, the impact of immigration policies, response to policies, and resources needed by the educators. We focused on descriptive and inferential statistics to identify patterns in the data. We also performed a thematic analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) of qualitative data to provide more detail and illustrate the nuances of our quantitative findings. The qualitative data also helped us to highlight and better understand outliers (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998). Additionally, district information was collected from the Department of Education’s Common Core of Data.

Findings and Significance
Our findings explore prominent features of MPS’s context that seem to inform immigrant students’ experiences. Respondents reported the anxiety and fear their students have felt about their parents being deported. They have also reported cases where students have actually been separated from their parents due to deportation. The threat or reality of deportation affects students deeply, but there seems to be a disconnect as to what the schools can and should do in order to help the political situation. While cases are handled by a case-to-case basis, there seems to be a lack of widely known systems or resources to help educators support immigrant students and their families. As one respondent wrote, “Silence does not seem like the best approach.”

Author

• Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Rutgers University