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Wikipedia page: Undocumented youth in the United States Editing existing page: ‘Identity Stereotypes of Undocumented Students’

On the current Wikipedia page, Undocumented youth in the United States, I will incorporate the section of Identity and Stereotypes of Undocumented Students after section five, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). I will discuss further the misinterpretations of identity towards undocumented students. There’s often an assumption that undocumented students are from Latin America, particularly Mexico and they are suppose to look a certain way. However, not all undocumented students have crossed the Mexico-US border illegally. There are multiple non-latino undocumented students in the United States. Through personal narratives, there’s various misconceptions about undocumented students, such as receiving free government support, lack of awareness of lived experiences as undocumented students. There are roughly a quarter of a million undocumented students pursuing higher education (Teranishi, Suarez-Orozco, & Suarez-Orozco, 2014). Even though, there has been progress with DACA to create college access to undocumented students, their future is still unclear. These students find themselves in a country where they are succeeding in a college education, however they still have to prove to a country who they consider their home to acknowledge their existence. Undocumented students often hide an important part of their identity due to the the distrust environment, along with fear of deportation that creates a high level of stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms (Gaytan, Carhill, & Suarez-Orozco, 2007; Teranishi et. al., 2014). Narratives are crucial for undocumented students, they help for individual and collective identities to shape and reinforce each other (DeAngelo, Schuster, & Stebleton, 2016). When students share their experiences through storytelling it represents others and creates a collective identity (DeAngelo, Schuster, & Stebleton, 2016). For instance, when undocumented students share their experiences, it reassures their identity and it helps other students who are in a similar situation to create a connection with their peers. On the other hand, there are stereotypes and several disadvantages and undocumented students face. There’s a perception of undocumented immigrants that all crossed the Mexico-US border illegally. However, not all undocumented students are Latinos, there’s different narratives of students who have entered the country legally but for some reason they fell out of their immigration status for a variety reasons (Chan, 2010). One example is a student name Kel who was born in Germany and was brought to the U.S. when he was five. His family came here illegally through an employment visa, but eighteen years later his family lost its legal status and faced deportation. The difference Kel has with Latino students that are undocumented is that individuals from the outside would never assume he’s undocumented. For instance, a light skinned, green-eyed individual would most likely not be perceived as undocumented (Chang, 2017). Through student’s narratives they’ve shown to experience assaults on their identity. Nevertheless, undocumented student are often faced with barriers to personal, academic, and professional advancement, these students still manage to show resilience through community. This can be supported by Yosso’s model of community cultural wealth (Chang, 2017). The model challenges common perception of power and capital, which places people of color as insufficient instead of recognizing the collective ‘wealth’ within cmmunities of color (Chang, 2017).

Chan, B. (2010). Not just a latino issue: Undocumented students in higher education. Journal of College Admission, 29-31.

Chang, A., Torrez, M. , Ferguson, K. , & Sagar, A. (2017). Figured worlds and american dreams: An exploration of agency and identity among latinx undocumented students. The Urban Review,.

DeAngelo, L., Schuster, M. , & Stebleton, M. (2016). California dreamers: Activism, identity, and empowerment among undocumented college students. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 9(3), 216-230.

Teranishi, R. T., Suárez-Orozco, C., & Suárez-Orozco, M. (2014). In the shadow of the ivory tower: Undoc- umented undergraduates and the liminal state of immigration reform: The UndocuScholars Project. Los Angeles, CA: University of California.