Examining How Latina/o College Students From Mixed-Status Families Navigate Higher Education

• In Event: Latinidad in Higher Education: An Exploration of the Experiences, Challenges, and Perspectives of Latinx and Afro-Latinx Students

Abstract

Previous research demonstrates the financial, socio-emotional, and developmental spillover effects undocumented parents’ legal status poses to their children. However, we know less about how US citizens with undocumented parents make sense of their parent’s legal precarity and deportability as they navigate higher education. Drawing on 25 interviews with Latina/o college students from mixed-status families, I find that US citizens navigate feelings of exclusion and immigration-related stressors in their college decision-making, once enrolled, and as they plan for the future. Attending a university around the heavy regulation of immigration enforcement intensifies these experiences. In this way, US citizens’ college experiences are intimately connected to their parents’ legal precarity. Implications for higher education institutional support are discussed in light of these findings.

Author

• Aleli Andres, University of California - San Diego