The Post-DACA Era: Organizational Claims at the Intersection of Immigration and Higher Education

• In Event: Latina/o Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Roundtable 5: Education, Institutions, and Social Mobility

Abstract

A report by the University of California Civil Rights Project at UCLA and UC Davis School of Law found that between the years 2016-2017 and 2022-2023, low-income undocumented student enrollment dropped by 50% in the University of California and California State University institutions (Kidder and Johnson 2024). In contrast, no decline in enrollment occurred for other low-income students at the same institutions (Kidder and Johnson 2024). This is a 50% enrollment drop, which raises concerns about educational opportunities for undocumented students and directs attention to organizational responses and advocacy for undocumented students. How do immigrant organizations make claims on behalf of undocumented students? I will analyze advocacy organizations at the intersection of immigration and higher education, key actors in the construction of political and moral claims on behalf of undocumented youth in a post-DACA era. Through the use of narratives in their publicly disseminated texts these organizations contribute to institutionalizing frames, these texts, therefore constitute strategic sites in which undocumented students are positioned, characterized, and mobilized within broader debates on immigration and education. This study employs qualitative content analysis to illustrate the ways in which national nonprofit organizations at the intersection of immigration and higher education make claims on behalf of undocumented students.

Author

• Diana Gandara, Brown University