Politically Excluded, Undocu-Engaged: The Perceived Effect of Hostile Immigration Policies on Undocumented Student Political Engagement

ABSTRACT

Prior research suggests that hostile immigration policies can motivate undocumented immigrants’ political engagement, but may also create unique risks that limit their willingness to participate. We examine how perceptions of the immigration policy context may help or hinder undocumented college students’ political engagement. Using data from an online survey of 1,277 undocumented college students attending California 4-year public universities, we conducted regression analyses to examine the extent to which perceived discrimination, social exclusion, and threat to the family due to current immigration policy affects three forms of political engagement: political voice, collective action, and individual action. We then examined potential factors that may facilitate engagement, including participation in campus and community-based organizations and legal protections. Results show that perceived discrimination and threat to family due to the immigration policy context are positively associated with all forms of political engagement, while social exclusion is negatively associated. Campus and community engagement weakly moderate these relationships. Comparisons across immigration status suggest that many of these relationships are unique to students who have legal protections like DACA. Ultimately, we argue that undocumented students’ political engagement is shaped by nuanced manifestations of a hostile immigration policy context.

KEYWORDS:

• Political engagement
• undocumented students
• immigration policy

Acknowledgments

Thanks the UC PromISE co-investigators Cecilia Ayón, Annie Ro, and Zulema Valdez. We also thank USEP project collaborators Karina Chavarria, Basia Ellis, Melissa J. Hagan, Julián Jefferies, Jannet Lara, Martha Morales Hernandez, Enrique Murillo Jr., Carly Offidani-Bertrand, Maria Oropeza Fujimoto, Victoria E. Rodriguez, Heidy Sarabia, Ana K. Soltero López, Mercedes Valadez, and Sharon Velarde Pierce.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ As the PIPES subscales are mean centered the coefficients can be interpreted as the average change in political engagement when the respective PIPES subscale increases by one unit. For example, a unit increase in the perceived discriminatory effects of immigration policy increases engagement in political voice by an average of 0.03 (M1), increases collective political action by an average of 0.03 (M4), and increases individual political action by an average of 0.01 (M7). All these coefficient estimates are statistically significant at the p ≤ 0.001 significance level.

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted with the support of funding from the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives (grant number: MRI-19-601090), CSU Channel Islands Vice President for Student Affairs, CSU Fresno Kremen School of Education & Human Development, CSU Los Angeles College of Education, CSU Sacramento Center on Race, Immigration, and Social Justice, and San Francisco State University College of Science and Engineering.