The Higher Educational Trajectories of Undocumented Youth

• In Event: 1411 - Precarity, Achievement, and Attainment in Higher Education

Abstract

Undocumented immigrants’ access to higher education has increased over the past decade, allowing more undocumented students to enroll in U.S. colleges. However, we know little about the educational trajectories of enrolled undocumented students relative to their documented and U.S. citizen peers over time. In this paper, I use administrative data from a large, public university system to describe longitudinal variation in the educational achievement of students by legal status. Preliminary results suggest that undocumented students perform better than other students upon first enrolling in college. At community colleges, undocumented students maintain their advantage; while at four-year colleges, the advantage dissipates. Potential mechanisms include status-based dimensions of inequality, namely ethno-racial identity, as well as the institutional supports for undocumented students that differ between community and four-year colleges.

Author

• Anna Nicole Kreisberg, Brown University