Blocked Paths, Uncertain Futures: The Postsecondary Education and Labor Market Prospects of Undocumented Latino Youth

A ‘master status’ or the ‘final straw’? Assessing the role of immigration status in Latino undocumented youths’ pathways out of school

“…Previous research on undocumented youths' educational experiences focuses on how undocumented immigration status distinctly and severely limits access to, pursuit of, and success in higher education (Abrego 2006(Abrego , 2008Abrego and Gonzales 2010;Diaz-Strong et al 2011;Flores 2010;Greenman and Hall 2013;Perez 2012). Yet, these findings primarily draw on the experiences of high-achieving, undocumented college students.…”

“…Many undocumented youth remain unaware of supportive educational policies because they are not embedded in networks with school officials, community leaders, or other undocumented students (Enriquez 2011;Gonzales 2010;Silver 2012). Although in-state tuition policies increase undocumented students' college enrollment rates and decrease high school drop-out rates (Flores 2010;Greenman and Hall 2013), financial barriers still disrupt educational pathways by forcing individuals to sacrifice study time to work, enroll in less expensive community colleges instead of four-year universities, take time off when they cannot afford tuition, or stop out (Abrego and Gonzales 2010;Diaz-Strong et al 2011;Terriquez 2015). Additionally, undocumented students often experience institutional neglect when schools are not prepared to meet their specific needs, may have limited social and emotional support when they do not reveal their immigration status to others, or may face antiimmigrant sentiment; all these factors can discourage their persistence (Perez Huber and Malagon 2007;Perez et al 2009).…”

State and institutional policies on in-state resident tuition and financial aid for undocumented students: Examining constraints and opportunities

“…More concerning is the fact that many undocumented students have grown up in these communities and graduated from high school in these states (Morse & Birnbach, 2014;NCSL, 2014a, b;Nguyen & Serna, 2014). Given that nearly 65,000 undocumented students graduate from the country's high schools each year (Abrego & Gonzales, 2010;Berner, 2015;Dougherty, Nienhusser, & Vega, 2010), the plight of this population should certainly be of concern to the American society. While the majority of undocumented students are from Latin American countries, it is important to underscore that a large number also come from other parts of the world, such as Korea, the Philippines, China, and India (Abrego & Gonzales, 2010;Buenavista & Tran, 2010;Passel, 2005).…”

“…Given that nearly 65,000 undocumented students graduate from the country's high schools each year (Abrego & Gonzales, 2010;Berner, 2015;Dougherty, Nienhusser, & Vega, 2010), the plight of this population should certainly be of concern to the American society. While the majority of undocumented students are from Latin American countries, it is important to underscore that a large number also come from other parts of the world, such as Korea, the Philippines, China, and India (Abrego & Gonzales, 2010;Buenavista & Tran, 2010;Passel, 2005). Regardless of their origins, it is imperative that society finds a mechanism for including these children into the formal economy (Vargas, 2011).…”

Precarious Claims: The Promise and Failure of Workplace Protections in the United States

“…Migrant illegality represents a form of "legal violence" (Menjívar and Abrego 2012) against undocumented workers, even if the specific impacts may vary across age and institutional setting (Gleeson and Gonzales 2012;Abrego and Gonzales 2010), generation and family formation (Abrego 2014;Dreby 2010;Menjívar and Abrego 2009;Zatz and Rodriguez 2015), and the specifics of national origin and homeland politics (Coutin 2000;Golash-Boza 2015). 5 The immigration enforcement apparatus, working in conjunction with a broad network of law enforcement at the state and local levels, implements a racialized dragnet of detention and removal that targets Latinos disproportionately (Golash-Boza and Hondagneu-Sotelo 2013; Armenta 2015).…”