Welcome, Not Welcome? Public Institutions' and Immigrant Students' Responses to Anti-Immigration Policies

• In Event: Perspectivas y Problemas en Educación: Storytelling Across the Americas

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes
This research addresses the limitations of current literature by providing a multi-layered analysis that incorporates, at a macro level, the historical implications of the current political context and, at a micro-level, the role institutions of higher education play in assimilating and reproducing anti-immigration discourses. First, I interrogate the institutional discourse constructed by universities in response to the anti-immigration policies established after the 2016 elections. More important, I assess the ways in which such rhetoric impacts the social and academic experiences of immigrant students. To do so, I pose the following questions:
RQ 1: What are the institutional discourses promoted by public universities in response to anti-immigration policies?
RQ 2: In what ways are immigrant students at the College of Education at the University of Florida affected by anti-immigration discourses?

Theoretical framework
In the combination of two analytic approaches to data analysis, I explore the “link between macro-level power inequities and micro-level interactional positioning” (Rymes, 2009, p. 122). I also try to break away from the “resistance to micro-level analysis of discourse” (Rymes, 2009, p. 122) by combining it with a macro approach, critical narrative analysis (CNA). Critical narratives emerge when narrative approaches and critical reflection research methodologies are combined (Souto-Manning, 2012). Thus, employing critical discourse analysis in conjunction with critical narrative analysis offers the possibility of addressing institutional and societal differences in power with regard to language, differences which have largely been overlooked in the analysis of everyday narratives.

Data sources
Because the Anti-Defamation League’s 2018 report shows that colleges in Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Virginia have been targeted most frequently by White supremacist groups, institutions from these states were selected to examine their responses to the current administration's anti-immigration rhetoric. Additionally, I utilize the narratives of immigrant students in the College of Education at the University of Florida to trace the ways in which the participants' educational experiences were affected by anti-immigration discourses.

Results/Significance
I suggest that the institutional discourses reproduced by institutions of higher education can be used to maintain racial/ethnic hierarchy by reinforcing the United States educational hegemony. This research adds to the literature on issues of education and immigration by identifying how oppressive discourses targeting immigrants and other minority groups are permeated at an institutional level. The analyses from this study suggest that colleges and universities tend to position themselves against anti-immigration policies so long as their interest converges with those of the students. The anti-immigration sentiment generated by President Trump’s anti-immigration discourse accentuated the vulnerability of immigrant students. This study assesses the role that institutions of higher education play in reproducing hegemonic discourses, such as anti-immigration rhetoric and policies. Finally, this study seeks to shed light on the experiences of international and immigrant students who are increasingly marginalized by the anti-immigration stance of President Trump’s administration.

Author

• Carolyn Silva, University of Florida