Educational opportunity is often presented as a central motivation for migration. Despite the challenges they face, immigrant families express high future ambitions, as evidenced by the increasing number of immigrant and first-generation students pursuing postsecondary degrees. Research has recently begun to explore these students’ experiences in college; however, less is known about how immigrant families collectively experience the changes that come with entering institutions of higher education.

 

My dissertation research explored how immigrant families navigate the transition from high school to postsecondary life. This project sought to understand how migration experiences (whether their own or those of family members) impacted students’ goals and transition experiences. Simultaneously, I explored how family caregiving relationships changed in response to the demands of higher education and the constraints of contemporary immigration policies. 

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For this project, I spent three years conducting an ethnographic study of three high schools in the San Fernando Valley, where I lived until the age of 18. In total, my dissertation project reflects hundreds of hours of virtual and on-site participant observation, over 100 interviews with students, their families, and their educators, and analysis of participants' personal statements and scholarship application essays. I also completed a collaborative photography project with students in their first and second years of college. A gallery of this work is forthcoming.  

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By prioritizing the experiences of extended kin-networks, I show how academic outcomes for college-goers are impacted not only by the policies that affect their access to education, but also by those that shape the experiences of their loved ones, including caregivers and younger relatives. My research thus highlights how families collectively engage in the pursuit of educational opportunity across national and institutional borders. 

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You can learn more about my dissertation research in this episode of the Have You Heard? podcast.