Imigrant Access to US Colleges

The American Dream is the concept that you can take your own initiative and forge your own way, as an autonomous individual, to a better life in this nation. Community colleges play a key role in the fulfillment of this dream. In a very real sense, the American Dream is a much stronger force in those who don’t yet live in America, and in those who’ve immigrated here. Those who have always lived in America already have access to the resources to go forth and create a more fruitful existence; for them, we might be more accurate in calling it the American Reality. Nowhere is the American Dream more alive than in those who have immigrated to the US. They’ve left their home, and oftentimes their family, in the very pursuit of this dream which we Americans esteem so highly. However, immigrants frequently come up against many obstacles to the fulfillment of this dream. For instance, there are millions of undocumented immigrants who are either denied enrollment to community colleges, or are forced to pay such high costs for tuition that it isn’t possible for them to enroll on their meager budget. For these people we might say that they came here in the pursuit of the American Dream, only to find the American Illusion.

Immigration is an issue which evokes some of the most passionate reactions from the peoples of the United States. The US has a rich history with immigration; our country was essentially established on a doctrine of open immigration. With an influx of immigration comes cheap labor, because there are suddenly more potential employees looking for work. According to basic laws of economics, when there is an increased supply of an item, and a static demand, the price one is willing to pay for that item will, naturally, decrease. With an increase of potential employees, and a static demand for those employees from employers, the value which the employers place on those they would employ drops according to these very laws. This is the primary reason why some US citizens have been opposed to new immigration going back hundreds of years. Those who oppose immigration typically do so because they claim that immigrants drive down wages and take American jobs.

But let us take a closer look at one single business which exists at a time and place in which there is an influx of immigration. Let’s say a factory. The factory owner, prior to the influx of immigration, was making a profit, probably a quite considerable profit, as is usually the case with those who control industry. Now, suddenly there is a huge supply of additional workers available to the factory owner. What generally occurs in this situation? Usually, the factory owner will see that these immigrants, who are hungry and unstable in a strange new world, will work for less than those who’ve been socialized into American society from birth. So he’ll decrease his wages for all, and if any employees complain he’ll tell them that they’re free to quit; that there are plenty of immigrants willing to work for his wage. Now, we could say that this sequence is due simply to the laws of economics; that it could be no other way; that it’s completely natural; that if it were any other way our economy would not function as it ought to function.

Alternatively, we could say that these laws are not necessarily naturally occurring, but that there is something else going on which causes the same result that these supposed laws would cause. Perhaps the cause is that the factory owner is a greedy scoundrel who is taking advantage of the immigrants and single-handedly driving down the wages in his factory with one end in mind, namely increasing his fortune to even greater heights. Whether or not human greed is natural is another question for another time. This represents two competing, motivating concepts which evoke much passion in the individuals who speak up in regards to immigration policy in the United States.

In 2008 the NCCCB (North Carolina Community College Board) implemented a policy prohibiting all undocumented immigrants from enrolling in any of the 58 community colleges in the state. This ban was implemented as a temporary solution while the board decided which policy should finally go into effect. They have, since, decided to allow undocumented immigrants to enroll, but only if they pay out-of-state tuition. This new decision will go into effect beginning with the Fall 2010 Semester, again allowing undocumented immigrants to attend school. However, they will be required to pay out-of-state tuition, which equates to around $7,700 per year for full time enrollment — as opposed to about $1,600 per year for in-state tuition. In addition to paying the out-of-state tuition costs, these students will be ineligible for any sort of financial aid.

Some hold the view that this new policy is at best a token gesture; that it will not result in many undocumented immigrants attending the colleges. This, they say, is due to the fact that out-of-state tuition is so expensive that many immigrants will simply be unable to afford the cost .e segment of the undocumented immigrant population most affected by these policy changes are those who moved to the US when they were children and have been socialized into the United States’ culture through our public school system. They had no choice in coming here or staying in their country of origin, as that decision was made by their parents. These students have learned to speak English fluently and share our American ideals of freedom and self-determination.

These students, by being blocked access to the community colleges, either through a specific ban, or through a monetary obstacle, lack access to the “American Dream.” Obstacles which keep immigrants from forging a path to a better life only serve to keep them marginalized on the fringes of society. As they have the same goals as the rest of us Americans, namely financial security and a better life, they will be increasingly forced to resort to deviant behavior as a means to achieve the very end for which we all strive. An example of this deviant behavior is an immigrant committing himself to a life of crime and vice, as a drug-dealer, as a means to achieve financial security, rather than going to school to become an accountant. Deviant behavior such as that cited above has been shown to have negative consequences on our society as a whole. We must ask ourselves a basic question here: Given the fact that these immigrants are here to stay, do we want them to become productive members of society by allowing them access to our colleges, or do we want them to degradate society by keeping them uneducated, and encouraging them to resort to deviant behavior?

Some, including US Congresswoman Sue Myrick, have been openly disgusted with this new policy which will again grant immigrants access to community colleges. She is quoted as saying: “This is a stupid policy… Our community colleges are supposed to educate and train American citizens to enter the work force. But North Carolina wants to educate and train illegal aliens so they can directly compete against American citizens for the same jobs? That is just plain wrong. There is no common sense anymore.”

North Carolina State Senator Richard Stevens also expressed similar concerns: “The key word is ‘illegal.’ It’s against the law, so you should reward someone for breaking the law? Absolutely not.” Senator Stevens has said that if the newly passed NCCCB policy allowing immigrants back in schools is not reversed before the next session of the Assembly, he, along with other legislators, will be pushing for a change in state law which would forbid undocumented immigrants from attending the state’s community colleges.

One question which always needs to be asked when we are dealing with “criminals”– when we are dealing with laws that have been broken–is whether or not those laws are just. If everybody always followed unjust laws merely because they were laws, women wouldn’t have the right to vote, and peoples of African descent wouldn’t even be considered people at all. In any case, whether this law is just or unjust, allowing a person belonging to our society–and undocumented immigrants do belong to our society–to attend college is in no sense a reward for their status as a “criminal.” If a person was sentenced to 5 years probation for selling marijuana, and then decided to enroll in a community college, we wouldn’t say that their attending college was a reward for their illegal activities distributing marijuana. We would simply say that it is a completely independent circumstance of that individual. Similarly, we can’t say that an immigrant having the ability to attend college is a reward for their alleged “criminal” status.

This immigration issue, which has presently manifested itself in the form of a debate over immigrant access to community colleges, is a much more far reaching problem than what we’ve discussed in this paper. Rather than making conflicting, isolated policy decisions at the level of each community college system, it is clear that the United States needs to establish an all-encompassing policy in regards to the issue of illegal immigration; a policy which will, once and for all, provide a clear path for immigrants to gain access to the various institutions which US citizens rely upon in pursuit of the American Dream. Without a clear path to such an end, immigrant populations will continue to live in the farce of the American Illusion.

http://americanillusion.org