Undocumented and in College: Students and Institutions in a Climate of National Hostility ed. by Terry-Ann Jones and Laura Nichols (review)

The issue of immigration in the United States has been brought to the forefront of national discourse yet again. At the time of this writing, reports of large groups of migrants caravanning to the US–Mexico border to seek asylum in the US have dominated the news headlines. While much of the present rhetoric has centered on restricting immigration, the continued unresolved issues with the US immigration system leaves many undocumented immigrants in a precarious position, including their children. These children (through no choice of their own) were brought to the US, grew up here, attended K–12 education, and upon legally arriving at adulthood find themselves without the privileges many of their peers take for granted, such as legally working, obtaining a driver's license, voting, and applying for federal financial aid (Gonzales, 2016).

Despite these challenges, undocumented students are still finding their way to US higher education institutions. Undocumented and in College: Students and Institutions in a Climate of National Hostility, edited by Terry-Ann Jones and Laura Nichols, expands upon a 2013 research initiative funded by the Ford Foundation and conducted by a team of researchers at Fairfield University, Santa Clara University, and Loyola University in Chicago. The initiative examined the experiences of undocumented college students as well as related institutional practices at all 28 of the US Jesuit universities. The research culminated in a white paper titled Immigrant Students National Position Paper, which included interviews with 25 undocumented students at 1 Jesuit university, interviews with 47 staff and faculty at 6 different universities spread throughout the US, and a survey administered to 200 staff members at all 28 institutions.

While this volume is focused specifically on undocumented college students at Jesuit universities, faculty, staff, and administrators from a broad range of institutions would also benefit from this important work. The authors present a comprehensive review of challenges undocumented college students experience and offer strategies for how institutional agents can marshal resources on campus to meet these students' needs, especially in the current political and societal climate surrounding immigration in the US. The editors and contributing authors of this book include college and university faculty, administrators in higher education, an immigration lawyer, and a graduate student.

The study of undocumented students in higher education represents an emerging line of research (e.g., Abrego, 2006; Diaz-Strong, Gómez, Luna-Duarte, & Meiners, 2011; Garcia & Tierney, 2011; Muñoz, 2016; Pérez, 2012) and there is still much to learn. The deficit is partly due to the difficulty researchers experience in identifying undocumented college students. The authors of this volume note that common participant recruitment strategies employed in research are often insufficient for identifying students who lack formal documentation (Abrego, 2006). Nevertheless, Undocumented and in College makes an important contribution to literature by offering a useful set of recommendations for researchers, policy makers, and practitioners.

In chapter 1, Jones offers a valuable introduction to various migration theories, which helps to frame conceptually the study of undocumented college students. While most theories focus on immigrants themselves and not their children, Jones argues that it is helpful to understand why parents chose to migrate with children despite the consequences of lacking legal status.

In chapter 2, Kurt Schlichting broadly analyzes the history of immigration to the US while also highlighting the role Jesuit colleges and universities have played in educating immigrants. The author does this by examining how shifts in immigrant demographics (including by number and by country of origin) have repeatedly created tensions concerning immigration within the US. One example the author cites is the arrival of large numbers of Catholic immigrants in the early-to-mid–1800s. Their arrival led the established Protestant immigrants, who held onto trauma and memories from the Protestant Reformation, to oppose Catholic immigrants and Catholicism more broadly in the...