Estado del conocimiento sobre el derecho a la educación superior de los migrantes mexicanos en Estados Unidos de América

En este trabajo se presenta el estado del conocimiento del derecho a la educación superior en contextos migratorios, particularmente de los migrantes mexicanos y latinos en Estados Unidos de América. La revisión de la literatura permitió observar la producción científica articulada al movimiento de los soñadores en el marco dla DREAM Act (2000) y de la acción diferida para los llegados en la infancia (DACA, por sus siglas en inglés) de 2012. Con la información analizada se construyeron metacategorías y categorías emergentes, así como la recuperación de los hallazgos teórico-metodológicos tales como el análisis político del discurso, la narrativa contextual de lucha y resistencia, la Teoría Crítica de la Raza y Latcrit, la participación colectiva para la transformación social y los movimientos sociales como teoría sociológica de la organización y el empoderamiento migrante. A partir de la revisión de la literatura, se puede argumentar que hay producción científica como campo emergente e interés de los investigadores sobre todo norteamericanos. Es de llamar la atención que los aportes de la investigación tienen impacto en lo social, lo político, lo cultural y lo jurídico que posibilita la exigibilidad del derecho a la educación de los migrantes sin documentos.

The “American DREAM”: Understanding White Americans’ Support for the DREAM Act and Punitive Immigration Policies

The American public has overwhelmingly supported the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act since 2001. The support is widespread and cuts across race, ethnic, and party lines. Given the United States’ anti-immigrant/immigration sentiment in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, support for the DREAM Act is perplexing. To that end, political scientists, sociologists, and education scholars, among others, have pointed to the exceptional framing of the DREAM Act as the primary predictor of support. However, a significant portion of non-Hispanic white Americans who support the DREAM Act also support restrictive and often punitive immigration policies. What influences most white Americans to support DREAM Act legislation? And what leads a subset of these same individuals to simultaneously support restrictive immigration policies that hurt DREAMers and their families? I argue that predispositions explain these two contradictory policy preferences. Data from the 2012 American National Election Studies (ANES) and the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Studies (CCES) demonstrates that white Americans use racial resentment and egalitarianism as justifications to support both policies. However, the effects are conditioned on partisanship.

Discursive de/humanizing: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of television news representations of undocumented youth

This article addresses television news coverage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010, which would have created a path to legal residency for thousands of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Considering the role that news media play in socially constructing groups of people, through an analysis of English- and Spanish-language evening television news coverage of the DREAM Act of 2010, the author examined discursive practices used to represent undocumented youth in both dehumanizing and humanizing ways. The author discusses the implications of these types of discourses for education policy understanding by the public and education stakeholders.

Overcoming Fear

This chapter examines how the undocumented immigrant youth movement has evoked “coming out as undocumented and unafraid” to mobilize fearful constituents. It discusses the local and state-level legislative changes for which the movement as advocated, including the federal DREAM Act. It argues that while the DREAM Act never passed, the undocumented immigrant youth movement arguably led President Obama to sign the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order in June 2012, which deferred deportation for “Dreamers” who meet certain criteria on a two-year renewable basis. It further argues that the undocumented immigrant youth movement has successfully challenged cultural understandings by offering an alternative image to that of “illegal immigrants” sneaking across the border—that of educated and talented “DREAMers.”

Make Room in the Circle

During the 1990s and into the 2000s, three basic barriers prevented undocumented youth from achieving major milestones of independence—acquiring a driver’s license, submitting college applications, and working legally. The circumstances repeated again and again in the accounts of undocumented youth. Elioenai Santos recalled, “Living like that is a real problem. It’s a real blow to your self-esteem, because you always feel like you are somehow less. It’s awful to always feel like you’re inferior. You see your friends driving around, traveling to other countries, while I don’t have money to go to school.” Nor could they keep their families together, as everyone felt constantly threatened by separation. The result since the early 2000s has been a growing, powerful movement among undocumented youth to redefine “who belongs” as a citizen in the United States. This chapter explores how the Immigrant Youth Justice League, Freedom University, Cristina Jimenez and United We Dream, and other undocumented and undocuqueer youth immigrant activists have fought for DACA and the DREAM Act and against deportation and the border wall. They have fundamentally challenged all US citizens to reimagine who belongs within the circle of belonging.