Undocumented towards and in Graduate School: Considerations for Competencies, Culture, and Community Aspects of this Educational Arena
If you are one of the roughly 400,000 undocumented college students enrolled at the undergraduate level in the U.S (New American Economy, 2021), you may be thinking about graduate school as the next step in your academic trajectory. However, the thought of graduate school may also be tied to many lingering questions about the process of applying as well as the process of successfully navigating graduate school to obtain your desired degree: How and when do I begin my search? What should I do to become a competitive candidate in my field? What do I consider when choosing my school of choice? And after I have gotten admitted, how do I fund my studies and/or research? What can I expect to find during my graduate studies? Who can I expect to support and advise me?
Questions like these reflect a relatively common state of affairs for many prospective undergraduates who wish to pursue graduate school and thus engage in the process of “trying to figure it all out.” Within our historical and contemporary U.S landscape, however, unequal access to (financial, social, instrumental, structural, etc.) resources to address these and other considerations plays a key role in determining who becomes best positioned for a spot in their desired program (e.g., Rowan-Kenyon, 2007). It is from this context that available evidence continues to highlight how additional, exacerbated, and unique disparities faced by undocumented students (from k-12 to undergraduate; e.g., Gleeson & Gonzalez, 2012; Gonzalez et al., 2018) makes it incredibly difficult, not to mention burdening, for these students to engage in the process of “trying to figure it all out” towards and in graduate school in the same manner that their documented peers might go about doing. For undocumented students, their migratory status acts as a master status, one that “...shapes every aspect of their lives, determining how they are thought of and treated, placing them face-to-face with the limitations of the law, shaping their fates, channeling them in limited and limiting directions, and restricting their social mobility and life chances” (Gleeson & Gonzalez, 2012; p. 3).
In the face of unique sets of circumstances, undocumented students must deal with unique considerations when applying for graduate school as well as when it comes time to navigate it as a graduate student. Understanding these challenges is a critical step that can help us better prepare for them, offset their undesirable impact, and even find a way around them. Here, I discuss a non-exhaustive list of graduate-school related challenges and considerations that are organized based on three broad domains of higher education. Further discussions on these topics can be found across these selected readings (Freeman & Valdivia, 2021; Garcia, & Tierney, 2011; Gonzales et al., 2020; Gonzales & Chavez, 2012). Legal, academic, and social resources for undocumented students are also provided by organizations such as My Undocumented Life (myundocumentedlife.org), United We Dream (unitedwedream.org), and Immigrants Rising (immigrantsrising.org) among others.
(Part 1) Competencies
Preparatory experiences. This encompasses technical, conceptual, and methodological skills that may be needed/expected to be successful in a particular graduate program. In efforts to prepare for graduate school, undocumented students may face challenges in accessing undergraduate opportunities that will make them more competitive. Pursuing preparatory experiences through internships or research/teaching assistant opportunities, for example, may be particularly hard for undocumented students. There are various underlying reasons for this. One of them is the low socio-economic status that prevails among undocumented communities, which pushes undocumented students to compromise a significant portion of their undergraduate time to working purposes in order to support their families, themselves, and their education.
This necessity is also uniquely amplified given their lack of access to federal aid and loan options. Furthermore, although one can find statewide systems in place that offer paid preparatory experiences (e.g., in California through the Learning Aligned Employment Program), undocumented students without a work permit (usually afforded through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival [DACA] or some other form of Temporary Protected Status [TPS]) still remain at the margins of these opportunities. Without the ability to travel abroad and be able to come back to the U.S, undocumented individuals without DACA or some other TPS are unable to gain access to travel-abroad study programs as well.
Professional development in graduate school. This refers to dedicated spaces where graduate students can gain more substantive experience and networks for their respective fields. Academic conferences and conventions are some spaces that allow for professional development opportunities through formal presentations and networking events. These conferences and conventions can be held within the U.S, as well as abroad, and in both cases, resources inequalities and lack of familiarity with these opportunities may undermine undocumented students’ active participation within these spaces. International conferences also tend to have more weight when it comes to prestige and breadth of networking opportunities. But because undocumented students without DACA or some other TPS are unable to access Advance Parole–a special travel-abroad permit to travel abroad for humanitarian, educational, or occupational purposes, and be able to come back under a certain timeframe–these students may find themselves unable to pursue these opportunities.
While the international door is theoretically open for those with DACA and other forms of TPS for educational purposes, the process of applying for Advance Parole is confusing, highly bureaucratic, and requires ample time–at least nine months in some cases–for an application to get processed before one can travel. This current system can be highly incompatible with the shorter timeframe within which the submission and acceptance process to attend a conference abroad usually occurs, placing DACAmented students in a disadvantageous position. One way to circumvent the longer processing time for Advance Parole is to submit an expedited request or apply for Emergency Advance Parole, although each of these alternatives requires additional criteria/documentation that one may not be able to get their hands on every time they wish to apply for these alternatives. More information about these alternatives can be found here (for expedited request) and here (for Emergency Advance Parole). It is crucial that students seeking abroad travel for professional development purposes consult a legal advisor regarding their options with ample time.
(Part 2) CULTURE
Funding. This refers to the financial resources that are needed to support you, your professional development, as well as your projects throughout higher education. For many undocumented students, the funding world within this educational arena never ceases to be an obscure and moving target, in large part because funding options and experiences for these scholars are seldom the same as everyone else’s. From the get go, broad financial constraints for undocumented communities are prevalent due to a widespread lack of access to pivotal documentation for employment, financial stability, and social mobility, including (among other things) driver’s licenses (or government issued IDs), work permits, social-security numbers, and professional, commercial, and business licenses (check out this website to see your state policies). Indeed, these are likely contributing factors for undocumented communities’ disproportionate poverty rate, which one recent estimate suggests could be as high as 40%–three times that of the general U.S population (Gamblyn & Teague, 2017).
Transitioning to an undergraduate education with these constraints, many undocumented students, with and without DACA or other TPS status, then learn about their lack of federal financial-aid access. Depending on their state of residence, DACA or other TPS status, as well as lender, these scholars may also find themselves with (only) conditional or (worse) nonexistent eligibility for state financial-aid options, in-state tuition, and private loans. In some states, like Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina (at the time of this writing), certain public universities actively ban admissions of undocumented students (cf. www.higheredimmigrationportal.org; Freeman & Valdivia, 2021).
Transitioning to graduate school, it becomes important to get acquainted with various sources of funding that are available for personal and project support, including academic-work appointments at their institution–typically performing teaching, research, or some other role in exchange for tuition coverage and a stipend for living expenses–fellowships or scholarships–typically, financial support for a scholar to develop themselves and their work–grants–typically, financial support for a scholar’s project which may also include support for the scholar while they perform their project–as well as personal finances (e.g., savings, loans, etc).
Within this funding context, undocumented graduate students (UndocuGrads) without DACA or other TPS are often unable to receive funding packages that include academic-work appointments–something that is relatively normative for doctoral studies–or take formally paid opportunities within their institutions (Freeman & Valdivia, 2021). Less normative alternatives exist–for example, getting funded through honorariums or as an independent contractor (click on the link for a toolkit on how to get started)–but these are largely dependent on how willing the institution, graduate program, and levering agents within it–like faculty advisors–are willing to work with the students.
Scholarship/Fellowship funding options for undocuGrads, particularly for those without DACA or other TPS, are also limited, often with private organizations and donors as only options. Funding entities such as the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans and the Ford Foundation have historically stood as some of the few charity organizations where undocuGrads could apply for funding (with the Ford Foundation announcing its plans to wind down their fellowships program by 2024). Check out this website from United We Dream for up-to-date information on scholarships for undocumented students.
In terms of grant funding, undocuGrads, with and without DACA or TPS, are ineligible to apply for research, career development, training, and fellowship grants from major federal agencies that fund STEM education, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health (NIH). Aside from limiting the fundings resources available to fund one’s education, research, and competency-development once in graduate school, these circumstances can create additional hoops for Undocugrads to jump through even at the application stage of graduate school. For example, given undocuGrads’ ineligibility for NIH training grants, The University of Washington Neuroscience Graduate Program indicates to prospective DACAmented students that, in order to be considered for the program, they must find a faculty advisor in their program who is willing to commit financial support to them prior to applying, and to submit a letter of support from this advisor with their application. Conditions like these highlight the reality that successful entry, navigation, and completion of graduate-school education hinges dramatically on students’ ability to secure funding, and that undocuGrads within this system stand particularly vulnerable to multi-sourced funding challenges and disadvantages for their pathway towards advanced degrees.
Institutional Mentorship. An institutional (or academic) mentor refers to someone who has the cultural (e.g., social, intellectual, instrumental) capital within an institution/academic field (e.g., Hagler, 2018). In graduate school, institutional mentors serve as a critical interpersonal resource, providing key support and knowledge for (among other things):
Network development
Funding
Work-life balance & wellness
Career development, pathways, goals & prospects
Scholarly perspectives, conventions, and culture
For many underrepresented students who are unfamiliar with the explicit and implicit codes of academic navigation and the social resources to guide and support them through graduate school, substantive (i.e., becomes meaningful) and sustained (i.e., with consistency and commitment) institutional mentorship is imperative (e.g., Hagler, 2018). This certainly applies to the needs of undocumented students, while culturally attuned approaches (i.e., being informed by an ongoing understanding of the background and context of socio-structural factors affecting the student’s development) are also particularly crucial on the part of the mentor (Goosby, 2021; Sanchez et al., 2022).
For example, a prospective undocumented-student mentor acknowledging the marginalizing and oppressive systems that permeate undocumented students’ lives may build a better understanding of how these systems may chip away at one’s sense of entitlement for help and support from individuals outside one’s family or community circles; making the process of approaching potential mentors and trusting them with sensitive issues–such as discussing immigration issues–particularly fraught. With this understanding, a mentor may adopt a more empathic disposition and thus work to create an identity-safe space to facilitate a holistically impactful mentor-mentee relationship (Sanchez et al., 2019). Mentoring relationships that cultivate marginalized students’ self-competence, self-worth, and positive integration with academic and general contexts can also foster self-affirming attitudes about the validity of their needs being met and supported (Hagler, 2018).
Moreover, a mentor may recognize that some twists and turns that characterize the general and educational trajectory of undocumented students may be particularly contextualized (e.g., inability to take standardized tests or travel due to lack of proper documentation), while others particularly chronic (e.g., ongoing stress about socio-political climate and prospects of deportation; dealing with status-based discrimination such as unfair/unpaid wages). From the context of these volatile conditions, empirical studies have found that approaches and styles adopted by supportive mentors have been necessarily unorthodox, flexible, and holistic.
For example, Sanchez et al. (2022) found that strategies adopted by undocumented-student mentors (from high school to graduate school) have commonly mapped onto realms of instrumental support as well as emotional support, academic affirmation and advocacy as well as socio-cultural affirmation and advocacy (e.g., as an equally dignified citizen and human being), role modeling for educational as well as for advocacy purposes (e.g., behavioral/psychological blueprints for how to resist and address oppression), and even financial support in the absence of alternative resources (e.g., providing funds for a student to be able to afford continuing in school).
As well, Goosby (2021) found that impactful mentoring styles for undocumented students are characteristically intentional (i.e., with the conscious decision to provide needed support in light of the student’s condition), proactive (i.e., attuned to present and potential challenges in order to anticipate and pre-plan for them), and collaborative (i.e., inclusive of diverse and broader support networks). These mentoring styles also centralize the student’s communal and personal sources of resilience in the mentoring process, aiming to both leverage and work to cultivate aspects of community (e.g., family), aspirations (e.g., eager to learn), navigational awareness (e.g., adapting to various ecosystems), resistance (e.g., engaging in activism), persistence (e.g., persevering in the face of obstacles), and leadership (e.g., for peers, community).
If you are someone willing to mentor an undocumented student, it is important that you know that your mentoring role can be life changing for a mentee. From k-12 to graduate school, undocumented students often find themselves with scarce mentoring resources, serving as yet another educational barrier (Freeman & Valdivia, 2021). Broadly, you can increase your impact as an undocumented-student mentor and ally through advocacy, empathy, humility, vulnerability, inclusivity of others in your mentoring efforts, and openness for flexibility and broader roles.
By now, you might have noticed that this part of the post has been dedicated to discuss the components and barriers involved in supportive mentorship for undocumented students. I found this particularly needed to synthesize in order to raise more awareness about the need and ingredients of supportive undocumented-student mentorship in higher education. Nevertheless, undocumented students looking for mentorship-access opportunities, please check out these resources from Immigrants Rising, iMentor, and Undocuprofessionals. Undocumented students interested in learning about ways to identify and cultivate mentoring relationships in graduate school, please check out this dedicated post from My Undocumented Life. As well, please also feel free to reach out to me directly, at a.co@berkeley.edu.
(Part 3) COMMUNITY
Coming soon.
References
Freeman, R. E., & Valdivia, C. (2021). Education Equity for Undocumented Graduate Students and the Key Role of My Undocumented Life. Journal of College Access, 6(2), 80-93.
Hagler, M. (2018). Processes of natural mentoring that promote underrepresented students’ educational attainment: A theoretical model. American Journal of Community Psychology, 62, 150-162.
Gamblyn, M. D., & Teague, J. (2017). From Hunger to Hunger: Undocumented Immigrants Face Hunger on Both Sides of the Border. Bread for the World Institute.
Garcia, L. D., & Tierney, W. G. (2011). Undocumented immigrants in higher education: A preliminary analysis. Teachers College Record, 113, 2739-2776.
Gleeson, S., & Gonzales, R. G. (2012). When do papers matter? An institutional analysis of undocumented life in the United States. International Migration, 50, 1-19.
Gonzales, R. G., Brant, K., & Roth, B. (2020). DACAmented in the age of deportation: Navigating spaces of belonging and vulnerability in social and personal lives. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43, 60-79.
Gonzales, R. G., & Chavez, L. R. (2012). “Awakening to a nightmare” abjectivity and illegality in the lives of undocumented 1.5-generation Latino immigrants in the United States. Current Anthropology, 53, 255-281.
Gonzales, R. G., Ellis, B., Rendón-García, S. A., & Brant, K. (2018). (Un) authorized transitions: Illegality, DACA, and the life course. Research in Human Development, 15, 345-359.
Goosby, K. (2021). Development of an Unorthodox Support Model to Mentor Undocumented Immigrant Students. Journal of College Access, 6, 109-131.
New American Economy (2021). Undocumented students in higher education. Retrieved from https://research.newamericaneconomy.org/report/undocumented-students-in-higher-education/
Rowan-Kenyon, H. T. (2007). Predictors of delayed college enrollment and the impact of socioeconomic status. The Journal of Higher Education, 78, 188-214.
Sanchez, B., Clark-Ibañez, M., & Rojas-Flores, L. (2019). 8 best practices for mentoring DACA & undocumented youth. The Thrive Center for Human Development. Retrieved from www.thethrivecenter.org
Sánchez, B., Garcia‐Murillo, Y., Monjaras‐Gaytan, L. Y., Thursby, K., Ulerio, G., de Los Reyes, W., ... & Rivera, C. S. (2022). Everyday acts of resistance: Mexican, undocumented immigrant children and adolescents navigating oppression with mentor support. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 32, 398-416.
About the Author
Originally from La Paz, Bolivia, Alejandro Campero-Oliart (he/el) is a Social-Personality Psychology doctoral student and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the co-founder of the Research Experience Pathways in Psychology program, which provides underserved undergraduate students at his institution with research experience, graduate-school exposure, and faculty, graduate, and peer mentorship while they earn wages for their research work. He is a first-generation student of color, DACAmented immigrant, and hopeless optimistic thanks to the ongoing support from his family.
