Jack Doppelt
Dec. 22, 2011
[A version of this article was published as Education dream of immigrants more than an Act on Immigrant Connect]
A college education is often seen as the ticket -- to financial stability, to a job, to self-respect. Immigrants come to the U.S., seeking an education for themselves and their children. They work overtime to pay for it. That place in the American Dream has been memorialized in federal and state legislation that attempts to clear a way for those immigrants whose legal status effectively locks them out of classrooms, campuses and citizenship. A federal Dream Act has been pending in Congress for more than 10 years without passage; an Illinois version became law a few months ago. It created a privately-funded scholarship program for immigrants – documented and undocumented.
In a continuing unique collaboration with Chicago area’s ethnic news media and the Community Media Workshop through its Chicago is the World project, Immigrant Connect explored the many challenges immigrant communities face in attending and acclimating to college.
There are stories of —
- undocumented students “who turn to ROTC programs to fund their education; who reap tangible, financial rewards from confiding in professors and academic advisors; and who in the Korean community are emerging from the closet to access local resources;
- the arcane procedures of nostrification being harnessed in the Polish community;
- how a divide in the Lithuanian community affects students’ college experiences;
- how Indian students find the comforts of home in the confines of campuses;
- how opportunities for higher education among second generation Filipinos is creating a generation gap in the community;
- and how the ticket to education among African immigrants is becoming a visa to a pan-African sense of homeland.
Read the stories here —
Undocumented students: ROTC sees the opportunity and it is us – Kids who have illegal immigration status are turning to the ROTC to aid them in funding their education. It’s not foolproof and it’s not supported officially by the military, but it’s a path officers in JROTC programs aren’t overlooking.
For Chicago’s undocumented, opening up can pay off – As several Chicago-area college students are learning, sharing one’s immigration status with the right people can do more than support a political movement. For students looking for help paying for college, it yields personal, tangible results too.
A silent struggle: Undocumented Korean students strive to attend college – In Chicago’s Korean community, undocumented and visa-holding students face mounting obstacles to paying for college. They’ve used scholarships, help from their parents, and long hours of low-paying work to make the best of the situation, but often it goes unrecognized.
Transferring degrees, transferring lives – Nostrification is complicated; most people have never heard the word. It’s the process of recognizing a degree from a foreign university, and for Poles, language barriers, financial issues, and life’s tradeoffs often get in the way.
Navigating the divide for Lithuanian college students – There’s a divide among college-aged Lithuanians. Recent immigrants who left after Lithuania’s liberation see the world differently than Lithuanians who were born in America, and whose parents and grandparents left Lithuania after World War II. And it affects their college experiences.
Indian students find comforts of home in the confines of school – Even after Indian immigrants become acclimated to the new culture in America, they might not feel comfortable in a college classroom setting. This is why relations with professors and faculty are so important, can impact students positively or negatively, and are imperative to success in higher education.
Higher education a blessing and curse to Filipino community – Increasing opportunities for higher education among second generation Filipinos is creating a generation gap in the community.
Giving back by going back, with pan-African dimensions – For many African immigrants, education is their ticket to a dream of returning to their homeland and helping their communities. In the process, many are discovering an expanded notion of homeland, one with a pan-African cast to it.
The stories were released in December 2011 and January 2012.
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