73.013 - The Paradox of Pursuing the American Dream for Immigrant Students and Families

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

According to notions of American exceptionalism and the American Dream the United States is
the home of liberty, equality and opportunity; where individuals have unlimited opportunity for
educational, social, and economic advancement. As a “nation of immigrants” (e.g., Kennedy &
Kennedy, 1964) the US population is comprised of approximately 13% immigrants. Immigration
in the global era is marked by the fact that “the vast majority of immigrants are from the non-
European, non-English-speaking ‘developing world’” (Suarez-Orozco, 2001, p. 349). Immigrant
children and families in the US flee poverty, persecution and violence in hopes of a better life, in
pursuit of the American Dream.

Simultaneously, popular discourses allege: Immigrants come to the US to take welfare.
Immigrants take jobs from Americans. Immigrants are a drain on the economy. Immigrants bring
crime to communities. Immigrants do not want to learn English. These prevalent discourses
(American Civil Liberties Union, 2011) have fueled anti-immigrant sentiments as well as
legislation in states such as Arizona, Georgia and Alabama. Alabama serves as an exemplar:
“The State of Alabama finds that illegal immigration is causing economic hardship and
lawlessness in this state and that illegal immigration is encouraged when public agencies within
this state provide public benefits without verifying immigration status” (American Immigration
Lawyers Association, 2011). One policy requires public schools to determine the immigration
status of all students beginning in kindergarten.

Education research has significantly explored the multiplicity and complexity in the education of
immigrant students and families (see, e.g., Ngo, 2008; Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2008).
However, in the face of current US cultural politics (see, e.g., Associated Press, 2014) and
immigration reform debates, there exists a need to illuminate the paradox of pursuing the
American Dream for immigrant students and families, where education simultaneously promises
and forecloses prospects for improving opportunities, identities, and lives.
This presidential session significantly connects with the 2015 theme of the annual meeting of
AERA: “Toward Justice: Culture, Language, and Heritage in Education Research and Praxis.”
The papers will address questions such as: What is the role of education policies in the
unrealized potential of immigrant students? What are immigrant students’ experiences with race
and racialization? How do educational practices divest immigrant students of culture, language
and heritage?

This presidential session significantly connects with the 2015 theme of the annual meeting of
AERA: “Toward Justice: Culture, Language, and Heritage in Education Research and Praxis.”
The papers will address questions such as: What is the role of education policies in the
unrealized potential of immigrant students? What are immigrant students’ experiences with race
and racialization? How do educational practices divest immigrant students of culture, language
and heritage?

The papers spotlight five salient topics in the educational experiences of immigrant children and
families, including: (1) experiences of undocumented students pursuing higher education (i.e.,
DREAM and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Acts); (2) impact of the lumping
(racialization) of immigrant and other minority groups; (3) challenges of bilingual politics where
immigrant languages are viewed as deficits; (4) lack of attention to recent immigrant groups and
the preparation of culturally relevant teachers; and (5) roles of whiteness in the racialized
assimilation of immigrants students.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Bic H. Ngo, University of Minnesota

Papers

• Undocumented Immigrants Navigating Education and Citizenship - William Perez, Claremont University - Claremont Graduate University

• Joining the African Diaspora: African Immigrants and Refugees and the Politics of Becoming "Black" in North America - Awad Ibrahim, University of Ottawa

• Who Is in the Classroom Now? Teacher Preparation and the Education of Immigrant Children - A. Lin Goodwin, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Drawing Lines in the Sand: Immigrant-Origin Children and the Politics of Language - Guadalupe Valdes, Stanford University

• Racialization and the Process of Becoming "Americans" - Stacey J. Lee, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Discussant

• Carola Suarez-Orozco, University of California – Los Angeles