A Chance for Change

By Maria Siqueiros

Amidst all of the controversial topics in our society, immigration seems to be one of the major issues Americans talk about. Whether people agree or disagree, immigration affects everyone in this country. Immigration affecting colleges and universities across the country isn’t the first thing that comes to mind to most people; however, it truly does affect them. Although universities are mandated to give admissions to undocumented students, these students still face the problem of how they are supposed to pay for their education. Due to the students or their parents not having any documentation, they are not able to fill out and submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for aid from the government. Granting admission to a university without any financial assistance is as helpless for an undocumented student or a student who has Deferred Action of Childhood Arrival (DACA) status as denying admission; therefore, undocumented students who are granted admission to a university should be allowed to receive federal and state financial aid.

Giving everyone an opportunity to have the college experience is vital to colleges in the United States. In the article “Three Reasons College Still Matters” written by Daniel Delbanco, Delbanco talks about how college is changing in the United States. He states, “It is a pipe dream to imagine that every student can have the sort of experience…But it is a nightmare society that affords the chance to learn and grow only to the wealthy, brilliant, or lucky few” (Delbanco 110). It is a great dream to believe that every student can have the same experiences that the best and most expensive colleges can provide, but this is only available to few students who are very smart, are rich, or they are just lucky. For undocumented students, it is definitely a nightmare because they do not know if they will be given the chance to have the college experience. We need to give these students the opportunity to go to college because it matters to them whether they can get a college education or work in an in-service job, but if they are not given financial aid, these students will never have the chance to change their lives. These undocumented students are allowed/forced to attend domestic primary and secondary education, but then not given access to state and federal benefits due to their immigration status. Since they are forced to attend these schools, they should be given these benefits so they can attend college.

Undoubtedly, most people think that the undocumented population continues to increase every year; however, that is not the case. According to the article “US Undocumented Population Drops Below 11 Million in 2014, with Continued Declines in the Mexican Undocumented Population” written by Robert Warren, the undocumented immigrant population dropped to 10.9 million in the United States in 2014 (Warren 2). There are many graphs and charts from this article that shows the decrease in illegal immigration from Mexico (and other countries) from the year 2008 to 2014. These people have come to this country to have a better life for themselves and for their families. Many of the undocumented immigrants are students who are trying to further their education. They have an obligation to try to further their education beyond a high school diploma because they do not want to fall in the lifestyle of most undocumented immigrants, which is to hopelessly attempt to find a job in America’s work force that fulfills their needs and that does not require documentation.

If these undocumented immigrants are not able to further their education, they have to rely on in-person service work, since routine productions jobs have decreased immensely, instead of the better job. This in-service work, according to Robert B. Reich, author of “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” is slowly starting to decrease as well because the workers who had routine production jobs are transferring into these in-person service jobs. These in-person servers “are paid at or just slightly above the minimum wage and many work only part-time, with the result that their take-home pay is modest, to say the least” (Reich 522). Without the means to receive a college education with the assistance from the government, undocumented immigrants are working these in-service jobs and they are not able to provide for themselves and their family with minimum pay. Therefore, they deserve to be eligible for federal and state aid.

Due to the decrease in routine production jobs, the in-person service field has grown immensely and there are not enough jobs for everyone in it. Since the routine production workers have lost their jobs or are not able to find any jobs in that area, they all move to the in-person service field, thus threatening the jobs of the in-person servers. These workers have to “compete with high school graduates and dropouts who years before had moved easily into routine productions jobs but no longer can” (Reich 522). Because most of these undocumented immigrants are students who have just graduated high school, they are looking for jobs that will support them since they are not financially equipped to go to college where they would be able to get a degree and possibly move towards the symbolic analyst field. Not only does not helping aid these undocumented students hurt their chance for furthering their education, it hurts their chance of getting a good job that supports them.

Immigrant status can impact many things, one of the most important things it could impact for a young immigrant is acceptance into a college or university. When these undocumented students are looking to apply to universities, some do not know if they will be granted admission because of their immigration status. In an interview with Bill McKibben, Director for International Enrollment and Retention at Murray State University, he provided some insight on the admissions process at Murray State University. When asked about the admission requirements for undocumented students, he said, “If the student graduated from a high school in Kentucky and does not have a legal status…Domestic admissions processes the student’s application. By law, any university cannot deny student admission to university because of their immigration status” (McKibben). This situation might be different in other states, but this applies to undocumented students in Kentucky. It is mandated by the government that any university cannot deny admission to any student, undocumented or not, because of their immigration status. The school could face many consequences due to discriminating towards a particular student, which would not be good for the reputation of the school.

Furthermore, since undocumented students generally attend a domestic high school, these students will go through the domestic admissions process. McKibben says that “documented international students go through international admissions” and that the international admissions office only deals with documented international students (McKibben). He also said that if the student has no documentation of legal status, they still go through the domestic admissions process because they graduated from a high school in Kentucky and that proves that they have been here in the United States for a long period of time (McKibben). This gives hope to these undocumented students because they know they can not be denied admissions just because they are not legally here, but they still have other problems they have to worry about.

Even though undocumented students know they can be admitted into a university, they still face a bigger problem: how they are going to pay for it.  The most iconic form of trying to receive help from the government is filling out the FAFSA. The FAFSA form is required to be filled out by all students attending a school of higher education. To some, it seems to be a great idea for students who are trying to receive help from the government. To others, it is their worst nightmare. In the article “Forms of exclusion: Undocumented students navigating financial aid and inclusion in the United States,” Andrea Flores explores this topic in relation to students in Succeeder, a program that helps Latino youth in Nashville, Tennessee. She gives information about who can file this form and therefore receive federal and state aid. There are certain immigrants who are able to receive aid such as Refugees, T-visa recipients, and others. Then she gives the list of immigrants who are not eligible to receive aid, despite being forced to file the requisite forms, stating “…those exempted from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, those granted U visas (given to victims of crimes), those granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and those who lack any immigration authorization (Olivas 2009)” (Flores 544). Most of these undocumented students are the first in their family to go to college, so their parents are in the dark regarding the financial and state aid processes the student has to go through to receive help from the government. This is a nightmare to some since they are not eligible to receive the aid, so they struggle to find a means to pay for their education. These same people who are not eligible for federal or state aid still have to fill out the FAFSA in order to possibly receive scholarships from the university they got accepted to. Since they have to fill out these forms, they should be given aid from the state and the government.

For instance, private institutions are an example of how to handle this type of situation. In order to help these students, most private universities award merit-based scholarships instead of need-based scholarships. Flores says, “In admitting and aiding undocumented students, these private institutions are uniquely inclusive, given that few private institutions are afforded institutional support and the financial means to enable undocumented youths’ educational access” (Flores 545). These undocumented students want to have a better life. These students are going to be faced with many challenges in their life. Since they have been in school with their peers, documented or undocumented, they have felt inclusion in their educational careers; however, now that most undocumented students are looking towards attending college, this inclusion narrows significantly. This is a viable option for these students to receive scholarships, since they’re merit based and not need based. Public institutions need to provide more of these merit based scholarships to give an opportunity to the undocumented students to further their education.

Public institutions should look at how private institutions help widen the the opportunity for inclusion towards undocumented students. Private institutions usually have money set aside for certain groups of students and these scholarships “often do not require a FAFSA, freeing private schools to include undocumented students, whereas public schools cannot, because they usually determine all aid through the FAFSA” (Flores 545). By having these certain scholarships, it gives undocumented students a chance to receive scholarships that are based on merit instead of need. When public institutions limit their scholarships to only need-based, it only helps the group of students who are able to pay for school by reducing their tuition while it narrows the already small gap that undocumented students have to be eligible for many scholarships. If public institutions provide more merit-based scholarships instead of need-based scholarships, which require a submission of the FAFSA, it would enlarge the gap of opportunity for undocumented students to receive scholarships they need.

Besides scholarships, there are not many ways undocumented students receive financial help from anyone; however, corporations that provide funding are a viable option for these students. While most states do not fund undocumented students, some corporations do. At the Succeeders program, “Friendly Insurance…and other Succeeders sponsors funded the program’s status-blind scholarships. Each year the program awards $40,000 to $60,000 to about 40 students in varied amounts” (Flores 547). The students match with specific corporations that deal with what they are going to be studying in college. These types of scholarships help pay for the rest of an undocumented students’ education that state and financial aid do not provide.

Providing education to undocumented students helps build their morals and teaches them how to learn from themselves and others. In the essay “Encouraging Learning” written by Hsün Tzu, he describes how education and morality are connected. When one learns, “nothing is more profitable than to associate with those who are learned” (Tzu 550). This teaches people that they need to surround themselves with intellectual people, so they themselves can become intellectual. Education and morality are connected because people are always learning every day throughout their life up until they die. Since people are learning new things, they learn how to act right, they learn to hear what is right, and they learn to make their mind only think of what is right. If institutions, public and private, provide undocumented students the financial aid they deserve to be able to receive their education, they will learn more efficiently because they will be surrounded by others who are learning too and learn how to act morally throughout their lives.

With this in mind, both public and private institutions need to realize how vital inclusion is for undocumented students trying to further their education. Tackling the admissions process and figuring out how one is supposed to pay for school are just two major problems that undocumented students have to face when wanting to further their education. Undocumented students deserve to be given state and federal assistance to attend either a public or private institution. By giving financial aid to undocumented students, it “would be one fewer hurdle to college access and the civic inclusion they imagine it will bring” (Flores 552). If schools don’t realize how important it is to give support to all of its’ students, these undocumented students will always be excluded from their peers and will never feel a sense of normality in our society or in the college setting.

Works Cited

Delbanco, Andrew. “Three Reasons College Still Matters,” Contemporary and Classic Arguments, 2nd ed, edited by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014, pp. 109-114.

Flores, Andrea. “Forms of exclusion: Undocumented navigating financial aid and inclusion in the United States.” American Ethnologist, vol. 43, iss. 3, August 2016, pp. 540-554. EBSCOhost. 20 September 2016.

Reich, Robert B. “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer, and the Poor, Poorer,” Contemporary and Classic Arguments, 2nd ed, edited by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014, pp. 516-529.

Tzu, Hsün. “Encouraging Learning.” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers, 9th edition, Karen S. Henry, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1 April 2013, pp. 546-552.

Warren, Robert. “US Undocumented Population Drops Below 11 Million in 2014, with Continued Declines in the Mexican Undocumented Population.” Journal on Migration and Human Security, pp. 1-15.