A PERMANENT UNDERCLASS: A STUDY OF UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS’ ACCESS TO SOCIAL CAPITAL AND SUPPORTIVE POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Undocumented students enrolled in higher education institutions (HEIs) face systematic legal and financial barriers while pursuing continuing education degrees.  The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold.  The first is to identify sources of support utilized by undocumented students.  Paper I, of this two-paper dissertation, is a systematic review that determined that undocumented students only minimally trust university supports.  As a response, the second paper of this two-paper dissertation explored how universities utilize policy and practice to minimize the impact of restrictive or absent federal and state legislation. Restrictive state legislation includes laws that explicitly deny admission, state financial aid, or access to in-state rate tuition (ISRT) to undocumented students.  Absent legislation refers to states that have no defined laws regarding undocumented students and access to higher education. This paper discovered that undocumented students rely on known and community sources for information about higher education systems and procedures.  Due to the real fear of being deported, undocumented students rely on university sources only when necessary.  Paper II, a qualitative study, found that when an HEI has policy addressing undocumented students' needs, its’ main purpose is to operationalize federal legislation.  Practices often address how to disseminate information or identify trusted individuals for undocumented students.  When seen in its entirety, this dissertation highlights the need for HEIs to examine how they use policy and practice to meaningfully support undocumented students.  It also addresses the need to create policy even if university data shows minimal undocumented student enrollment.