User:Cmwhite11/Education of immigrants in the United States

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Immigrants make up about 13% of the US population, about 42 million out of a total population of 318.9 million citizens in 2017. First and second generation immigrant children have become the fastest-growing segment of the United States population. Compared to the native-born population, young adults aged 15–34 are significantly over-represented in new immigrants. Children and immigrants ages 35–44 are in similar proportion to native-born Americans, but older people are under-represented in new immigrants.

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in 1982 in Plyler v. Doe that states cannot deny students an education on account of their immigration status, allowing students to gain access to the United States' public schooling system. This is important because it established the rights to a fair and equal education for undocumented citizens through the Equal Protection Clause. Further, the 1974 Supreme Court case Lau v. Nichols prohibited discrimination based on race or national origin and determined that school systems in the United States must provide English language instruction. By 1996, a federal piece of legislature called the Illegal Reforms and Immigration Responsibilities Act (IRIRA) was put in place to prevent the states from giving undocumented students access to benefits regarding postsecondary education. As a result, multiple states passed laws or acts in order to base tuition off of attendance, merit or need instead of residency or nationality. Examples of this occurrence are shown in legislation like the California Assembly Bill (AB) 540, or the California DREAM Act (2001). The California DREAM Act stemmed from a separate but similarly proposed legislation– the DREAM Act– and allowed students enrolled in California universities and educational programs to apply for state financial aid.

The DREAM ( (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act was a proposed act that would have conditionally given undocumented students permanent residency and financial aid – differing from DACA – which is a renewal process that risks the undocumented individual’s deportation if not fulfilled every two years. The “Dream” movement began gaining momentum in 2010 and the term was coined when referring to undocumented youth protected by DACA or "Dreamers" .The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) signed by President Obama in 2015 mandates English proficiency standards that hold state programs accountable for the performance of Englishllanguage (EL) programs. The most common forms of EL instruction are English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for students identified as low-English proficiency (LEP) learners.

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While laws have since been enacted to grant refugees and immigrants protected status, including President Obama’s 2012 implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the history out of which the current political climate has been carved is such that xenophobic reactions and harassment continue to be experienced by refugees and immigrants to the US. DACA was put in place to protect those who were undocumented and came to America as children, offering protection from deportation through education or a work permit that lasts about 2 years.

With every new wave of immigrants is generated nativist movements in response. On top of this, most of the refugees arriving to the US after 1990 have been those who are forced to flee without making preliminary plans for resettlement. This fact makes it all the more difficult for them to find a support network in their host country and increases the likelihood that they will be spend an indeterminate amount of time in refugee camps. Upon arrival they are isolated from community and must make the fresh start on their own.

Many immigrants in the United States suffer from structural poverty reinforced by the education system. They often settle in segregated, impoverished communities where the schools are too under-resourced to accommodate for English language learners, proven to be a significant risk factor for the educational outcomes of migrant populations. These communities oftentimes reflect redlining patterns found throughout the Jim Crow Era within the United States. Cultural differences in learning styles or thinking patterns lead to students being mislabeled as “learning disabled” or “slow,” resulting their stratification among peers such as grade repetition or exclusion from necessary college preparation. Further, the dominant use of high-stakes testing in United States to make educational decisions puts English language learners at a disadvantage. Furthermore, those who do not support immigration often state that immigrants in public schools have a negative effect on native born children in the system. This conclusion has been disproved by a study by Jennifer Hunt that shows that a minimal increase (1%) of natives in public schools increases the likelihood that native born children finish 12 years of school by .03%. Education also plays a major role in the healing immigrant children need, both socially and emotionally. Policy implications affecting immigrant students in education include the lacking emphasis on bilingual and multicultural education coupled with the movement of non-immigrants to private schools, increasing the lack of public school funding to support English language learning populations.

There are at least 22 states in the United States that currently offer in-state “tuition equity” to students who have graduated secondary education, regardless of their immigration status. The requirements of these laws or policies require residency in said state for a certain amount of time, and a high school diploma or GED. There are also states (though few) that offer scholarships and grants to students who meet criteria, regardless of immigration status.