Exploring How Latinx Students Connect Familial Histories of Immigration With Higher Education Aspirations

• In Event: Reimagining Pathways: Higher Education Enrollment Aspirations and Barriers Facing Minoritized, Agentic Populations

Abstract

I explore the relationship between immigration familial histories and higher education aspirations amongst children of Latinx immigrants. Current research establishes that immigrant descendants tend to adhere to education. However, such work typically examines the relationship between immigrant backgrounds and educational trajectories through outcomes. Instead I ask, how do students leverage their immigrant backgrounds as they construct college goals?

Drawing upon interviews with 30 first-generation-to-college, children of Latinx immigrants applying to college, I present three strategies students utilize to connect parental immigration with education: education as a byproduct, extension, or parallel of immigration. I expand how immigrant backgrounds manifest during educational aspiration building, offering a better understanding of how children of immigrants leverage their legacies to trailblaze a new educational pathway.

Author

• Leslie Patricia Luqueño, Stanford University