This report, compiled by a Dream Project alumna, highlights the challenges parents of Dream Project students face and the strategies they pursue to help their kids attain higher education despite their immigration status. This project was funded by Virginia Humanities from a grant from State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
INTRODUCTION
On August 13th, the Dream Project hosted a gathering for parents of Dream Project Scholars and Alumni — a group of 15 Latino parents whose children have benefited from our scholarships and programs. Through focus group discussions, we reconnected with the families we serve and listened to their personal stories as mothers and fathers of students with undocumented status who continue to face barriers to higher education.
The Dream Project was established, in part, by a group of parents in 2010 and, since then, it has connected with hundreds of others whose kids have or continue to receive our annual scholarships. No matter the language or financial obstacles many of these parents have faced as immigrants, they have taken a leading role in ensuring that their children gain admission to top universities, obtain scholarships that alleviate tuition costs, or earn other credentials that can set them up for success beyond a high school diploma. The participants in this focus group represent this diverse network of parents, and, as leaders and advocates for education access within their communities, they also bring invaluable experience we can learn from about how immigrant families navigate legal and institutional barriers to get their children into college.
This report summarizes the input we received from them by outlining first the shared challenges they described — from limited access to financial aid to persistent misinformation that discouraged their children from going to college. Second are the strategies they pursued to overcome these barriers. And finally, we include some of their recommendations for key forms of support they would like to either continue or begin receiving from the Dream Project.
THE CHALLENGES FACED BY PARENTS
We asked parents to highlight the most significant barriers they faced when helping their children navigate the education system. Here are their responses:
CHALLENGE 1
The tuition implications of having an undocumented immigration status
Living with an undocumented status in the U.S. implies a number of unique obstacles for immigrants, but parents highlighted this constraint specifically because it prevented their children from paying in-state tuition rates at public universities. It wasn’t until 2014 that Virginia’s attorney general granted students covered under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program access to in-state tuition; and until 2020 that the state expanded the benefits to all students who met residency criteria. Parents said that, before those changes, their status translated to exorbitant tuition bills — nearly three times higher than that of other Virginia residents because their children had to register as out-of-state or international students. The cost limited the universities some students could ultimately opt to attend, despite being admitted to top schools in Virginia. “We cried a lot with my daughter because she had put so much effort into her academics,” a mother said. “But the costs were just too high.”
CHALLENGE 2
Emotional distress
Overwhelmingly, parents highlighted the emotional impacts that not being able to access education and other career opportunities had on their children. They found them to be easily disheartened from pursuing their goals — a form of emotional withdrawal that fomented more serious mental health issues for some. “He got depressed,” one mother said of her son. “We always told him there were options out there. Maybe in the future there’s a chance; but until now we haven’t convinced him.” Motivating them to continue, another parent said, is a constant battle. Separately, for some families, the fear of living with an undocumented status intensified when former President Donald Trump took office. A mother said the shift in the political climate rattled her daughter, who experienced bouts of anxiety despite being protected under DACA status. On a near-daily basis, she’d scan her neighborhood through her windows to avoid any encounters with police when leaving her house, and double-check all doors were locked upon her return.
CHALLENGE 3
Little access to useful financial information
Language barriers prevented parents from understanding the costs and scholarship alternatives around the American higher education system. As a result, they felt cut off from the ability to support their children. When asked about how they gain access to this information, at least five parents said they didn’t know anything about scholarships and rather deferred the responsibility of finding financial support entirely to their children. Information — even from organizations supportive of immigrants’ rights — continues to be primarily disseminated in English only, they said. While other parents who actively reached out to school counselors for more information said they found it helpful, others regretted doing so because it meant they had to be open about their undocumented status in hopes of receiving appropriate support. They were not hesitant to share their status for fear of deportation or that such details would be used against them. Rather, their concern stemmed from the fact that such disclosures tended to alienate counselors who were unfamiliar with immigration policies. Instead of investigating on behalf of parents and their students, unprepared counselors simply told them they were not able to pursue higher education, and gave up on providing any other relevant information that might have still been helpful to the students.
CHALLENGE 4
Discouragement from relatives & immigrant community
Surprisingly, much of the misinformation about whether students with undocumented status could attend university originated from close relatives and other members within their own community. Parents said some of their hopelessness about finding opportunities for them and their children in this country stemmed from relatives who discouraged them from seeking higher education. “They underestimate you because you don’t have papers or you don’t have enough money,” a couple said about their relatives in this country. “So they say it to your face: Your son is not going to be able to study; and the money — where are you going to get it from?” More than any conversations with ill-informed teachers or school counselors, it was these interactions with relatives that amplified the apprehension and anxiety parents felt about the American higher education system, since they were more inclined to blindly rely on their community for advice. “You come to this country without knowing anything and you believe everything they tell you,” a mother said. Parents described the disconnect that exists inside immigrant communities, between those who have been in the U.S. for decades or have already attained a green card or citizenship status, and others who have recently arrived. It was members of their own community who at times pedaled anti-immigrant narratives — for example, that undocumented immigrants do not pay any taxes — making parents feel alienated and despondent about their opportunities and right to seek a better future for their families in this country.
STRATEGIES THEY PURSUED TO OVERCOME BARRIERS
Nearly all the parents we spoke to had students who had completed their associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s degrees, despite the challenges mentioned above. We wanted to understand the role that parents played in this outcome. We asked participants for their perspective on which concrete, day-to-day actions and postures they took as parents most likely contributed to their children’s academic achievements. Here are the key factors they highlighted as “strategies” for their success:
STRATEGY 1
Parental involvement in schools
Many parents agreed that what mattered most in ensuring their children made it to college was their involvement in school events, informational sessions, and volunteer opportunities. The rationale behind this, they explained, was to learn about what was, for them, an unfamiliar education system, and what was expected of their children. “I knew what they were learning and supposed to know in each grade, so I had the confidence to ask the teachers if my child was doing the best they could,” said one parent. They agreed that another top reason for attending school activities, and particularly volunteer events, was to signal to their children their commitment in their education. Their involvement ranged from starting committees within their schools for Spanish-speaking parents to accompanying their children to Dream Project mentoring sessions. A parent said she personally dropped off her daughter at every mentoring session and waited outside, perusing a book, so that her child could see that, as parents, “we are here with you, we are supporting you.”
STRATEGY 2
Giving students the freedom to pursue the degree they wanted
Parents motivated their children by giving them the flexibility to study what they wanted. “I can’t force him to fulfill my own dreams,” one of them said. “I told my son, study what you want but you have to be the best at it.” Most parents said they did not try to influence their kids’ degree choices, even though — without the help of loans or financial aid available to undocumented students — they were footing some or most of the university tuition bills. Parents said that because of language barriers, they felt, at times, shut out from the college search process. But, they made up for it by constantly trying to motivate their children, which they saw as a major contributor to their academic success.
STRATEGY 3
Serving as pillars of emotional support for their children
Parents highlighted their roles as pillars of emotional support for their children, especially during times of uncertainty: When former President Donald Trump took office in 2017 or when the pandemic began three years later. Even though some students had legal protections such as DACA that parents did not, they relied on their parents’ emotional stability and optimism to overcome bouts of anxiety and depression stemming from their immigration status. “They cry, they get frustrated, and think about the possibility of losing DACA,” a mother said. “It’s a constant source of sadness.” Some parents described feeling similarly when they first arrived in this country. “I would see a police officer behind me and I would start trembling,” one of them said. “But later, I think with the passing of time, I’ve learned to overcome it and realized I have to live everyday without the fear that I will get pulled over. No, I have to live each day the best I can. And I know that for young people, it’s been difficult.” For the most part, parents did not say whether they themselves continue to occasionally feel such anxieties. They did not weigh in on the toll that their status imprints on their own emotional well-being. But, repeatedly, they cited examples of when they had to display optimism and strength — whether genuine or not — as a way to alleviate their children’s concerns.
STRATEGY 4
Seeking and relying on back-channel support from individuals as opposed to institutions
Parents also overwhelmingly agreed that instead of relying on guidance counselors or other forms of institutional support, they sought connections to particular individuals in the community and local nonprofits to access information about universities and scholarships. “Counselors were not the best option because they didn’t have a lot of information and, in the case of undocumented children, they were not prepared to help. So we, as parents, had to find help elsewhere.” They noted the importance of finding mentors or tutors outside the public school system, from local organizations such as the Dream Project or EduFuturo, that could offer one-on-one guidance to their children. At universities, instead of relying on the help of administration such as the office of financial services, parents tried to inquire about and track down specific faculty and staff members who were familiar with immigration policy and could advocate on behalf of their children inside those institutions. “We couldn’t pay a certain amount of the tuition bill the first year,” a mother recalled, “and the person we knew there called us and told us she would personally speak with the financial services office to obtain an extension. So this was available: support from individuals working inside the university. That kind of support has been very important.” Because counselors and administration officials were unreliable, parents resorted to informal channels of information that they said existed within their community, but was difficult to find.
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PARENTS
Our conversation with parents on August 13th served as the starting point of a more comprehensive profile of what the needs of students and immigrant families are, from the perspective of parents. We asked for their suggestions on what the Dream Project could do to address the challenges they described and work in conjunction with some of the strategies that they have already been pursuing to support the higher education attainment of their children. Here are their main suggestions:
1. Larger scholarship levels available to more students:
Parents said they are feeling the effects of rising inflation and some are still recovering from the economic downturn at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The opportunity to access larger scholarships, they said, would be the single most important form of support to their students.
2. Meetups for students & parents to connect with others attending the same university:
Parents said it would be helpful for the Dream Project to facilitate meetups or chat groups for scholars attending the same universities to connect with one another. Parents said that since the start of Covid, many of their kids had found themselves isolated and would benefit from hearing directly from others their age about resources and personal experiences navigating those same universities. A parallel group for parents only was also a suggestion.
3. Advice for parents on how to prepare their students for university life away from home:
Parents want to know more about what university life — particularly for students living on campus — is like. One mother raised a concern that the risk of depression may be high for undocumented students who move out-of-state, miles away from home for the first time after graduating high school. Beyond scholarship opportunities or academic resources, parents said they are interested in advice for how to ensure emotional stability in their children’s life as they grow more independent.
4. Professional development workshops for parents:
Parents commended the workshops that the Dream Project has hosted annually during the week of the Parents’ Summit. They noted the tech training workshops had been the most helpful and asked for these courses to continue in the following years, but, preferably, be conducted in-person rather than via Zoom.
1“Tuition Benefits for Immigrants,” National Conference of State Legislatures. Accessed October 17, 2022, https://www.ncsl.org/research/immigration/tuition-benefits-for-immigrants
