The Developmental Implications of Unauthorized Status

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/us...tudy-says.html

http://www.hepg.org/her/abstract/828

http://her.hepg.org/content/g23x2037...5/fulltext.pdf

Worth a read.

Top post Ali. That first article proves that Harvard is no joke indeed. Their research is absolutely on point when it comes to undocumented children and education. It seems like this article is mostly referring to children in the high school level. But I feel like a lot of it applies to college students as well. Here's a few things I picked up and relate to heavily:

Fortunately, I've always done well with academics right from high school through college. However, the next three have been very very tough to deal with as is the case with everyone on here. The last one in particular, ambiguous belonging, really stayed with me throughout college and affected my performance and behavior in college, not with academics, but socially. I was always frightened to speak in class because I felt I wasn't worth it and have always had a problem with stuttering. The idea that I'm the only one undocumented in a full house lecture room didn't help my confidence one bit. This is hard to deal with when you're in any program especially business school.

Again, I relate to this in every way possible. I'd really love to hear what others think about this and how this relates to you.

I can only relate in terms of economic stagnation and blocked mobility. My status, however, has not made feel inferior in classroom settings. Rather, it motivates me to compete and give it my all.

That article led me to this one: http://news.uchicago.edu/sites/all/f...ales%20ASR.pdf

In all honesty, as rational as I generally am, the conclusion made me tear up as I got closer and closer to the end. Go American Dream.

i'm thinking of giving many of those cited sources a read...

I got to learn to be Illegal; and stop being a that 16th year old adolescent that's just stuck in limbo.

I seriously dont know how some of you claim that you didnt know you were illegal until your late teens..I knew of my legal status since I was eight.

Yeah...if you have an SSN, have been told you're a citizen your whole life, and have no reason to suspect otherwise...that's how.

Same here. Even though I wasn't as familiar with immigration laws, I had a feeling that we were out of the ordinary from others because in the back of my mind, I knew we had "5 year" visa. To think of it, I was a bit nervous when we entered as well. Until sophomore year in high school, I had the time of my life acing every freakin exam. It was really really easy after going through strict education back home where they used to beat the shit out of us in school. Sophomore year is when I got into my shell after finding out there is no damn way I can get a license.

I knew I was in this country with a visa but I didn't expect the problems I would later have, Not being able to Drive was a downer for me specially at 16. Being undocumented also affect my time in school as well even more so after everyone around me were starting to do the things I wanted to do that and that i felt alienated because of the stupid documents, Yeah HS was hard for me I didn't talk to my counselor about going to college. The mean bitch even said I wasn't even going to graduate, honestly she wanted to kick my ass out of the fucking school. Eventually I overcame her and the other bullshit you get in HS and stayed on the path to attain my High School diploma and that only happened because I had found out about the Dream Act. I wasn't the greatest student, I didn't have the best teachers in school and certainly I lacked the support group but I stayed on track. Money is the only thing that prevents me from applying to college.


I'll remember this one forever. This happened to me once in school, My teacher had to leave early for something and all my peers were sent into different classrooms. I was sent with about 3 to 5 kids to a class, The first thing the fucking teacher said to me "You'll be deported sometime soon" I felt attacked. What the fuck was I suppose to do? I was the only brown kid in the class. Both classes were American history classes on top of that.

They later went on to discuss on what to do with 30 to 40 million "illegals" in the country.


I should have gone and talked to my counselor about college during my senior year,my first counselor was gone by then.