The educational incorporation of DACA recipients in multilayered immigration policy contexts

ABSTRACT

This analysis examines how multilayered policy contexts of reception shape the educational experiences in higher education of the recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA recipients fell into liminal legality between the documented and undocumented categories that exposed them to state-level interpretations of the program. Though recent scholarship debates the effects of immigration laws and policies within the national level on the lives of immigrants, we know little on how DACA recipients are faring in universities that follow state provisions. Building on this scholarship, this study shows that the development of a sense of belonging or exclusion for DACA recipients in college is contingent on the interaction of national and state laws at the local level. The analysis derives from 194 interviews with DACA students in public universities across six states in the United States. Findings show that immigration policies at the federal and state levels raise financial difficulties to the educational incorporation of these students. Furthermore, campus social environments can either help or further complicate DACA students’ experiences in college. The study demonstrates how multilayered policy contexts within a federal system can either promote or impede the inclusion and success of liminal legal students.

KEYWORDS:

• Undocumented migration
• DACA
• immigration policy
• belonging
• higher education
• immigrant incorporation

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Roberto Gonzales, the Principal Investigator of the National UnDACAmented Research Project (NURP) and the director of the Immigration Initiative at Harvard, for granting me access to the NURP database to produce this analysis. The NURP team has collected extraordinary data on DACA recipients, and to their efforts, I direct my sincere gratitude. I would also like to thank the DACA recipients who have participated in this project, and without whose testimonies this research would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.