“I Knew It Was Gonna Be Hard,but I Always Knew I Had Support From My Parents”: The Role of Family on Undocumented Students’ College Aspirations and Persistence

Abstract

Literature shows that undocumented students in the United States experience significant challenges to and through higher education. Only a few studies have uncovered the mechanisms that undocumented students use to persist in college; in particular, the role that family plays on their postsecondary success is understudied. In this qualitative study, I examine the role that family plays on undocumented students’ college aspirations and persistence. Findings from a sample of 16 undocumented students attending a four-year public university show that their families are the stimulus motivating them to pursue higher education, as well as the support system they can rely on to manage college barriers. However, the data also revealed that for a few participants, their families are a source of stress, resulting in additional challenges they must manage as they navigate higher education. I present these findings using participants’ vignettes and conclude with implications for higher education research and practice.

I’m just really grateful that my parents can help me be here at college. I’m here at [university name] because they’re helping me out, because they told me they really wanted to help me out to go to college, and so I feel although that situation happened [DACA rescission] ¹ I was always backed up by my parents to help me be here. So, I knew it was gonna be hard, but I always knew I had support from my parents at least financially and emotionally … . But it [DACA rescission] did kind of affect me because things are going to get rough but I don’t really like to be pessimistic, and so I like to be optimist so I thought things are gonna get better and we [DACA recipients] have to work for it … . So, I always kept my head high and thought I’m going to keep being positive because I just felt I had the support of my family. I feel that is the big reason why I was positive. (Ferny)

Approximately 450,000 undocumented students are enrolled in higher education across the United States (Feldblum et al., 2020). Ferny is part of this group of students, who continues to be affected by the lack of federal policies that grant them equal access to postsecondary educational opportunities. While about 98,000 undocumented students graduate from high school every year (Zong & Batalova, 2019), no more than 10% of them are able to pursue a postsecondary education upon their high school completion (Teranishi et al., 2015). The low enrollment rates of undocumented students in higher education are affected by systemic barriers at the federal, state, and local levels. Undocumented children have had equal access to public K-12 education since 1982 when in the Plyer vs. Doe case, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down the notion that the state of Texas could allow school districts to deny access to free public education to undocumented children (Olivas, 2020). However, this constitutional right does not extend to higher education contexts, resulting in state-level policies and practices that disproportionately affect the college access and success of undocumented students like Ferny (Nienhusser, 2018).

Most states charge out-of-state tuition fees to undocumented students who wish to enroll in higher education, and only 11 states (e.g., California, Texas) allow them to apply for state financial aid (University Leaders for Educational Access & Diversity, 2020). Some states only allow DACA recipients to qualify for in-state resident tuition (ISRT; e.g., Ohio, Massachusetts), which creates additional barriers since DACA is not permanent. Out-of-state tuition fees cost two to three times more than ISRT fees, and without access to federal nor state financial aid, most undocumented students in the United States are economically limited as they seek to enter higher education. Some states have more restrictive policy environments (e.g., Alabama, South Carolina) and even prohibit undocumented students to enroll in public higher education institutions altogether (Nienhusser, 2018).

Despite these significant college access barriers, some undocumented students like Ferny are able to enroll in higher education. Nonetheless, in college, they continue to encounter numerous challenges associated with their immigration status. Support available on college campuses is still limited and many times insufficient to promote their college persistence and success (Cisneros & Valdivia, 2020; Pérez Huber & Malagón, 2007; Salazar, 2020). It is also common for undocumented students to be subjected to nativist and racist microaggressions through their interactions with peers, faculty, and administrators on campus (Castrellón et al., 2017; Muñoz & Vigil, 2018). As a result of these harmful experiences, undocumented students often decide to keep their immigration statuses concealed (Muñoz, 2016), trusting only on those closest to them, such as their families.

Although research on undocumented students has grown for the past decade, few studies have directly examined the role that family plays on undocumented students’ higher education success (e.g., Gámez et al., 2017; P. A. Pérez & Rodríguez, 2011). Moreover, most of this literature focuses on college access, but not college persistence. Receiving support from family, whether that is financial or emotional, can facilitate the transition from high school to college (Diaz-Strong et al., 2011; Gámez et al., 2017; Jauregui & Slate, 2009). However, undocumented high school graduates from low-income households must often prioritize work so they can financially help their families, forgoing their college aspirations (Negrón-Gonzales, 2017).

This body of research implies that family plays an important role on undocumented students’ college access, but once they are in college, what role does family play on their persistence? To what extent do undocumented students rely on their families as they navigate college? And how do undocumented students make meaning of the role of their families on their college aspirations? In this study, I seek to answer these three research questions and illuminate the role that family plays on undocumented students’ college aspirations and persistence to inform higher education research and practice. I also aim to contribute to the limited body of scholarship that centers families as critical microsystems influencing the success of minoritized students in postsecondary settings (e.g., Cuevas, 2020a, 2020b). Understanding more about the role of family and its influence on college aspirations and persistence can result in innovative higher education practices that promote the postsecondary success of undocumented students.

Undocumented Students and Their Families

Limited studies directly explore the impact that family has on the access to postsecondary education among undocumented students and on their educational successes (e.g., Cuevas, 2019; Gámez et al., 2017; P. A. Pérez & Rodríguez, 2011). However, researchers have examined this phenomenon among larger immigrant populations or have indirectly learned more about the role that family plays on the educational experiences of undocumented students (e.g., Negrón-Gonzales, 2017; Stromquist, 2012). Stromquist (2012) found that parents of immigrant students do not often get involved in school matters because they have difficulties understanding the U.S. education system. This lack of involvement is especially common among parents with lower levels of formal education and families from low-income backgrounds, but differences based on immigration status (e.g., undocumented or mixed-status) have not yet been examined.

In a sample of 909 undocumented college students, Suárez-Orozco et al. (2015) found that 68% of participants were the first in their families to attend college and 61% were from low-income families that earned below $30,000 per year. These characteristics were associated with several challenges that students faced while trying to navigate college, such as experiencing financial stress and anxiety (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015). Negrón-Gonzales (2017) also found this to be true among undocumented community college students in the Central Valley of California. Despite having access to ISRT and state financial aid, participants talked about the pressure they felt to work and support their families financially.

Research shows that when families make financial sacrifices and can cover some college costs, undocumented students are more likely to attend college even if it is for a short period (Cuevas, 2020a; Diaz-Strong et al., 2011; Jauregui & Slate, 2009). Undocumented students attending community colleges often rely on financial support from their families to access higher education and achieve academically (Castro‐Salazar & Bagley, 2010). In contrast, Negrón-Gonzales (2017) found that as a result of work commitments and financial pressures, some undocumented students in California dropped out of school, reduced their college enrollment to part-time status, or did not do well academically, making them ineligible for financial aid available from the state.

Even though some immigrant families may not get involved in school in traditionally valued forms, such as attending school meetings or facilitating college tours, it does not mean that they do not support the educational pursuits of their children. Often, undocumented students receive emotional support from their parents, contributing to their transition to postsecondary education (Cuevas, 2020b; Diaz-Strong et al., 2011). Even when parents are physically separated from their children due to deportation or other circumstances, such as temporary work assignments, they still find modes to encourage and support their children’s education (P. A. Pérez & Rodríguez, 2011). Many parents realize that their limited educational achievements impact their professional and personal opportunities, so they encourage their undocumented children to obtain a higher education degree (Enriquez, 2011; W. Pérez et al., 2010).

Scholars have found that knowing the impact that a college degree can have on their families is one of the main sources of motivation among undocumented college students (Gámez et al., 2017; Jauregui & Slate, 2009; W. Pérez et al., 2010). Cervantes et al. (2015) found that when undocumented students thought about all the sacrifices their parents had made for them, such as leaving their homelands to provide them a better future, they felt encouraged to go to college. Similarly, W. Pérez et al. (2010) found that participants recalled their parents’ stories of hardship, and those anecdotes inspired them while in college.

The literature also shows that older siblings can serve as a support system for undocumented students as they navigate higher education (Enriquez, 2011; Gámez et al., 2017). Enriquez’s (2011) study showed that siblings who had not attended college encouraged their younger relatives to pursue higher education because they had fewer opportunities as undocumented immigrants without college degrees. Additionally, Gámez et al. (2017) study revealed that older siblings who had gone through college as undocumented students provided concrete guidance and strategies that helped their younger relatives navigate higher education challenges. This research indicates that whether older siblings have college degrees or not, they are still able to positively impact the educational experiences of undocumented students.

Conceptual Framework

In this study, I integrate Suárez-Orozco et al. (2011) ecological developmental model and Padilla’s (2009) expertise model of student success into one conceptual framework to examine the role of family on undocumented students’ college aspirations and persistence. Suárez-Orozco et al. (2011) theoretical model was developed to systematically and holistically analyze how growing up with an unauthorized status (e.g., being undocumented, being part of a mixed-status family) impacts the developmental outcomes, including educational achievements, of children and youth. The model consists of various nested structures (macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem, and microsystem) that form the entire ecological system surrounding and impacting an unauthorized immigrant (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2011). Padilla’s (2009) model was created to better understand how students succeed and overcome barriers in college from an asset-based lens rather than the dominant deficit-based perspective regarding student persistence. Padilla’s (2009) model emphasizes the experiential knowledge that each student possesses and the actions they take to surpass the college barriers they encounter. By integrating these two models into one conceptual framework called the ecological model of undocumented student persistence (EMUSP; Salazar, 2020), I am able to account for students’ families as critical microsystems influencing their educational outcomes; in this case, college persistence. Through this conceptual model, I can pay special attention to the knowledge undocumented students possess and the strategies they implement to manage college barriers, including those related to their families.

Methodological Approach

The data for this manuscript comes from a participatory action research (PAR) project I conducted on the college persistence of undocumented students attending Virginia Public University or VPU (pseudonym; see Salazar, 2020 for more details). PAR is a collaborative, transformative, and social justice-oriented research approach that requires the participation of communities impacted by the issue under investigation in all aspects of the research (Brown & Rodríguez, 2009; Hacker, 2013). For the project, I partnered with three undocumented college students (Pau, Paula, and Alejandro), who were protected by DACA. Together, my co-researchers and I spent two years actively working in all aspects of the project as a research collective (RC).

Data Collection

As an RC, we collected data at VPU from 16 unique participants during January and February 2019 through: (a) two 2-hour focus groups with a total of seven participants and (b) 60–90-minute semi-structured interviews with 15 participants. At both focus groups and individual interviews, participants were asked to complete demographic surveys, which helped the RC gain a better understanding of participants’ backgrounds. For the focus groups, we used Padilla’s (2009) “unfolding matrix” data collection instrument (p. 29) and asked questions related to the barriers that undocumented students encountered, the knowledge they had and developed to address college barriers, and the actions undocumented students took to navigate challenges.

All interviews were conducted in person at a location selected by participants, and audio-recorded with participants’ consent. The interviews were semi-structured, which allowed the RC to inquire about ideas that emerge during the conversation and replace pre-determined questions as needed (Mertens, 2015). Questions centered on participants’ experiences navigating higher education and their support systems. Following each interview, the RC member who met with the participant wrote an analytical memo to start making meaning of the data and to enhance the trustworthiness of the study through reflexivity (Mertens, 2015).

Sample

As an RC, we collected data from a total of 16 distinct participants; all who were DACA recipients at the time of the study. Half of the participants were from two countries: Honduras (n = 4) and Bolivia (n = 4). The rest of the students were from Mexico (n = 3), El Salvador (n = 2), Pakistan (n = 1), Peru (n = 1), and Argentina (n = 1). The participant who was from Argentina identified as multiethnic (Argentine and Peruvian). The average age of arrival to the United States was 5 years and 9 months, with the youngest participant arriving at 9 months old and the oldest at age 13. The average age of participants at the time of the study was 22 years old, with the youngest participant being 19 and the oldest being 27. Most participants used “he/him/his” pronouns (n = 9), and the rest used “she/her/hers” pronouns (n = 7). Many participants lived with their families (n = 11). The rest lived on their own in different areas of Virginia (n = 3), on-campus (n = 1), and in off-campus apartments intended for university students (n = 1).

Data Analysis

In PAR, the data analysis process can include coding techniques used in other methodologies, data triangulation, and reflections captured via memos and group dialogues (Herr & Anderson, 2015). Therefore, to analyze the data in this study, I used deductive and inductive coding techniques (Charmaz, 2014), data reduction procedures (Deterding & Waters, 2021), the constant comparative method (Charmaz, 2014), and data triangulation (Hastings, 2012; Merriam, 2001). The recordings were transcribed by an external provider and verified by myself. The RC coded the focus groups transcripts together, and I engaged in the coding of the individual interview transcripts alone. After I coded all transcripts line by line two times, and I had reduced the codes to categories related to the research questions (Deterding & Waters, 2021), I met with my co-researchers to discuss the concepts that were emerging from the data. Overall, during the data analysis process, my co-researchers primarily served as peer-debriefers providing their interpretations of the data, which also bolstered the trustworthiness of the study.

Presentation of Findings

The data revealed three themes related to the role of family on undocumented students’ college aspirations and persistence. I present each of the themes using participants’ vignettes, and overall illuminate the unique experiences of four participants. I chose four stories to illustrate the findings because they embraced the central themes and represented a unique aspect of the phenomenon under examination. Methodologically, PAR does not restrict researchers on the presentation of findings; it allows them to engage in diverse methods that best align with the aims of the investigation (Herr & Anderson, 2015). In this manuscript, I not only rely on participants’ vignettes to exemplify the three themes, but also use this storytelling approach to honor participants’ vulnerabilities as undocumented students, humanize their experiences, and amplify their voices in higher education research.

The Role of Family: Stimulus, Support System, and Stressor

In speaking with participants about the people that have facilitated their college aspirations and persistence, most, but not all of them, mentioned the significant role that their families play in their educational pathways. For many participants, their families are the stimulus motivating them to pursue higher education, as well as the support system they can rely on to manage the barriers they encounter in college. For a few participants, however, their families are a source of stress, resulting in additional challenges they manage as they navigate college.

Family as a Stimulus

The RC found that for most participants, their families serve as the stimulus or source of encouragement, to pursue higher education. Their families were an incentive that spurred them to go to college by providing emotional, and in some cases, financial support. Families also help participants to feel energized and persist during challenging moments. After speaking with Azeeza, Pau (RC member) noted: “Family is what really motivates her to push on.” However, Pau wondered if Azeeza’s motivation came from “duty or something else.” Azeeza identifies as a Pakistani Muslim woman and her faith and cultural heritage significantly influence the way she relates to others, including her family. This heritage is what Pau interpreted as “duty,” meaning that because of her religion and cultural background, Azeeza may feel obliged to be appreciative of her parents and respectful of their wishes. Pau’s note of “something else” is unclear but may relate to the explicit messages that Azeeza received from her parents about how education is very valuable, or the sacrifices that Azeeza has seen her parents make to provide her a better future. While Azeeza is not the only participant who is grateful and appreciative of her parents, she spoke about her family with a profound sense of respect and indebtedness that almost sounded spiritual, which leads the RC to perceive her relationship with her family as very special.

Azeeza’s parents are highly educated but work low-wage jobs in the United States due to their immigration status. They both have master’s degrees from Pakistan but decided to give up their professions to provide Azeeza with more opportunities in the United States, including education. She says:

My parents always told me education is the way to go. One thing that my dad would always say as I got older was, “You know, this isn’t Pakistan. This is America. We are outsiders, but the way you can be able to look at them in the eye and change things that they have is if you get to a certain level. You need to get your education. You need to obtain it, and not forget your past, and always strive for something better. “Cause you know, education’s the one thing no one can take away from you.”

Azeeza’s dad believes that education is the primary tool that can help his daughter transform from an “outsider”—immigrant to an insider in the United States. When she was in kindergarten, Azeeza finally realized what school was and used to tell her mother: “Mom, I’m in kindergarten right now and in these many years I’m gonna go to college.” As a young child, she kept coins in a peanut butter jar and when her mother questioned what she was doing, she would tell her: “Mom, this is for college. I heard it’s expensive on the news. I need to save up.” Azeeza recalls these early experiences with her parents very clearly, and the messages she received from them about the value of education encouraged her to excel academically.

As a kindergarten and first-grade student, Azeeza did very well in school. She recollects how enthusiastic her parents were about her achievements and the unique ways they demonstrated their support:

They [parents] always supported it [education], they always encouraged me. They never forced me in a field either. And they were always so proud of seeing me work hard in school. My dad found out I was doing very well in kindergarten and first grade; he was very happy with my results. Who does bad in first grade and kindergarten? But he went to Borders, back when there was a Borders bookstore, and he bought me a ginormous book called History of the World. It was like an 8-pound book and he was like, “I want you to read this and get lots of knowledge.” It was expensive, especially then. He was working a very low-paying job. But they always spent money on two things, no matter what: good food—we didn’t eat out, we ate mostly at home; and books and education. They said, “There’s nothing bigger than this.”

This experience was the start of a meaningful educational pathway. Azeeza learned that her parents were willing to invest financially in her education and that there was no price too high to pay because nothing was above academics.

Azeeza also recalls that her parents demonstrated their support toward her education when she became eligible to apply to DACA. Originally, Azeeza’s parents were hoping to adjust their status together as a family; she recalls, “They [parents] didn’t want me on DACA yet; they were hoping maybe, “she’d [Azeeza] get a green card before college.” But when Azeeza was a junior in high school, she begged her parents: “Please, just give me DACA, give me something.” So, they supported her decision to apply for the executive action even though they were hesitant about the negative consequences they could face by submitting an application that contained sensitive information about the entire family. With her parents’ support and DACA, Azeeza thought: “Okay. College is gonna be hard, but it’s not gonna be impossible.” Then, Azeeza decided to attend VPU because she could live at home without for paying room and board and also fulfill her responsibilities as the oldest child. Azeeza says:

Even though my parents try their best not to give me responsibilities … they really try to focus on my education, but you just can’t. When you see your parents struggling that hard, you can’t help but help them too. And I have a little sister so it’s like, my parents can’t do it alone without me.

Azeeza feels compelled to help her parents when she sees they are trying to support her education and financially sustain the family. She feels guilty that she cannot always reciprocate but tries to find ways to support them by taking care of her little sister or through other household chores.

The sacrifices that Azeeza’s parents have made throughout their time in the United States, including their lack of medical care, have inspired her to pursue a medical career. When Azeeza was in high school, her mother found a cyst on the back of her upper thigh that caused her such pain that she could barely walk. Azeeza remembers with frustration that her mother did not seek medical care despite living across from a very reputable hospital. Instead, her mother used a home remedy that involved using tortillas. Seeing her mother suffer in such a way not only influenced Azeeza’s academic pursuits, but also her passion for social justice and serving others. From the values that Azeeza’s parents instilled in her as a young girl to the disadvantages she observes that they experience, her family stimulates Azeeza’s dreams and aspirations.

Stimulus Rooted in Family Trauma

While less common among participants, facing negative experiences with family also serves as a stimulus for some undocumented students when they consider their academic and professional aspirations. Although adverse experiences with family may prompt participants to feel stressed, and in some cases, distance themselves from their relatives, such occurrences can also drive them to aspire for something better for themselves and push them to achieve their goals. Pau (RC member) uncovered this experience when she spoke with Louise. Pau noted that “her [Louise’s] trauma, on top of being undocumented has greatly impacted her outlook and awareness on her life.” Pau learned that Louise’s trauma is rooted in family experiences, yet, despite the challenges she has faced, “positivity is what Louise mainly attributes to her ability to persist, not just in college but also in life.”

Louise was adopted in the United States when she was 2.5 years old by a Latinx family, who were “toxic.” She comments:

I’ve been through some really traumatic stuff and I’m always like “If you’ve gone through that, you can do anything. You’re your own limitation. If you believe you can’t do it, then you’re not gonna do it “‘cause you don’t believe it.” I tell myself, “You got this. Everyone else who’s graduated college or gone to this profession I want to do or whatever, can do it, why can’t you?” I really encourage myself. I’m just like, “We’re gonna do it.” … My childhood sucked so much, but I think I’m the person who I am today because I had to go through that. It does suck to think back at it, but I wouldn’t take it back. Because who would I be without that? That doesn’t make my identity. That’s not who I am. But those experiences led me to be resilient. They led me to set my goals. They led me to who I am today. I just know I can do it. I know I can … .

Louise attributes her resilience to surviving childhood trauma. She believes that she can manage any challenges that may come up because she has already experienced suffering. Louise accepts her reality and keeps herself motivated through positive self-talk and goal setting. It also helps her to think about how others have gone through and overcome similar hardships.

Grounded in the negative experiences she had with her adoptive parents, Louise set the goal to go to college and become a therapist. She explains:

Professionally, I want to be able to help people … . I want to be a family and marriage therapist. Growing up, I didn’t have any positive relationships to look up to. Everything was negative. There was always arguing, fighting, cursing, hitting, aggression. It was terrible. I don’t have any positive models to look up to … . If I know I can help people have better families, I know I will feel good about myself. I’m helping people break all that negativity, aggression, abuse, violence, all that stuff that we don’t need to see in our lives. You shouldn’t grow up thinking that’s normal.

Louise wants to break the cycle of family violence and hopes to help others build better families through her profession. Instead of feeling discouraged by her childhood trauma, she feels motivated to change the living conditions of others. In addition to her career goals, Louise says, “I just want to make sure I am happy.” Money is not a focus, rather she wants to feel good about herself and her “contributions to the world.”

As a result of the “poor relationship” Louise has with her adoptive parents, she is no longer in contact with them and does not count on their support as a college student. However, she is still legally connected to them, which negatively affects her when she seeks financial resources because they report a high income on their taxes. Since Louise has a distant relationship with her adoptive parents, she lives on campus. She works in the Residence Life department as a Resident Assistant to cover her housing expenses. Even though Louise’s biological parents placed her for adoption when she was a little girl, she now has a close relationship with them. Louise says that her biological parents “motivate [her] to succeed,” and thinks that “[i]f it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be who I am today.” Both of Louise’s biological parents help her pay for college by splitting her tuition among the two of them every semester. They also support her emotionally by talking to her when she encounters barriers in college. Louise is “thankful” for their support, even though placing her for adoption led to experiences with trauma and pain.

Family as a Support System

Through my conversation with Nicolas, I learned that his parents have always served as a support system. Nicolas is the youngest of two children and both he and his older brother navigated college as undocumented students. Nicolas recalls how his family was “fairly well off” when they lived in Bolivia and knows that his parents started college but did not graduate. When his parents realized that it was going to be harder to provide their children with the education they wanted in Bolivia, they decided to immigrate to the United States. Unlike his older brother, Nicolas started college shortly after DACA recipients could pay ISRT at public colleges and universities in Virginia. Although Nicolas’ parents did not make a lot of money, they were able to pay tuition completely out-of-pocket. In college, Nicolas did not apply to any scholarship programs, and he never worried about how he was going to pay for his education. He says:

I honestly don’t know how my parents did it. My dad worked a job that he was getting paid $10 an hour, for the last 17 years. He just got laid off. My mom was working for a company that was paying her $2,500 … a month. And so, it wasn’t a lot of income that they were bringing in. But they paid for my brother’s education, for my education, to go to school. I always worked obviously, but I never had to pay for school … . I feel like a lot of the stress and a lot of the repercussions that other kids are feeling, I never had … . I think because my parents already knew they had to save money because of how their standard of living was in Bolivia … 

With the financial support of his parents, Nicolas was able to graduate in 4 years without taking a semester off or reducing his course load, and without financial concerns. He credits this achievement to his parents’ efforts and good financial habits and cannot relate to the pressure other undocumented students feel when they pay for their education.

Nicolas remembers that his family “came here with nothing” and how the four of them stayed with a family friend, whom he calls an aunt, in a one-bedroom apartment for months. When they were able to move to their own apartment, he also recalls how his family picked up a mattress and a Christmas tree from the trash. Since his brother was older and graduated from college when DACA had not yet been implemented, Nicolas remembers hearing conversations between his brother and his parents about their immigration status. When he was younger, he did not fully understand the limitations of their status, but he became more aware as he grew up. Nicolas describes his family as being “amazingly close” and says that his parents “know everything that’s going on” with him. Since Nicolas’s older brother had to navigate higher education without documentation before him, he was able to provide guidance and answer questions about the admissions process. Nicolas considers his family the “kind of support group” he needed to navigate higher education successfully, so he did not use any resources on campus as an undocumented student and barely spoke about his status with peers, professors, or administrators. He says that he was not ashamed of his status but preferred not to speak about it. It was not until after he graduated from college and participated in the focus group that he spoke with other undocumented students about his college experiences and immigration status.

When Nicolas experienced academic setbacks as a college student pursuing an Economics degree, he thought about his parents sacrifices and their early experiences in the United States to stay motivated and keep going. He recalls:

I started seeing that maybe it [going to college] was not as much about me as for my parents because that’s their goal. They were like, “We want to go to the United States and put our kids through college.” You know, and they did it. [O]ut of all their struggles and after leaving their family behind, their friends, life, everything. Hey, I wanted to make sure that we gave it [college] to them. You know? Because they deserve it and they deserve so much more. So, if I can just do a little bit to help make that goal happen, that’s what really drove me to it. Because … there are times where I want to study what I want to study. I don’t want to be taking this … chemistry course or biology course that doesn’t apply to me, you know? And the thing I was pushing now is to see them happy. And that’s also a goal for myself. I wanted to be sure that I can graduate, and I created this goal and I want to complete it. You know?

At times, Nicolas felt unmotivated with his course of study and his grades suffered:

I was doing poorly in school … . At times, I didn’t feel as committed. More like, “Oh, I can leave this off to the next day.” And that affected me a lot because my grades were slipping and then I was really nervous because my parents were paying for school. And it really hurt me to hurt them and all this stuff.

But for Nicolas, doing poorly in some of his classes meant hurting his parents and says that caused him to feel “depressed at certain moments.” To persist, Nicolas kept reminding himself of his parents’ sacrifices and strived to achieve the goal of graduation for them more than for himself. He would tell himself that completing his degree was the only way to make his parents’ “struggles” worth it. As a recent college graduate, one of Nicolas’ goals is “to make enough money … so that [his] parents don’t have to work again.” He aspires to buy them a house in Bolivia to pay them forward for all the support they provided him through college.

Family as a Stressor

When I met with Paola, ² I noticed that she struggles to reconcile how she feels about her parents, particularly her mother. It is not as natural for Paola to speak about her family with the same sense of devotion and appreciation as other participants. When Paola was 6 months old, her dad left Bolivia to come to the United States in search of better work opportunities. Shortly after, when Paola was a year old, her mom followed her dad. As an only child, Paola stayed in Bolivia with her grandmother, whom she calls “mom” because she raised her. Paola remembers that her mother came back to Bolivia when she was 6 years old and that it was “kind of awkward interacting with her, just because she wasn’t mom to me.” After a year, Paola remembers that her mother told her: “We’re going to go meet your dad.” Shortly after, they left Bolivia and entered the United States through the U.S.-Mexico border. She remembers:

There were times when there were a lot of dangerous parts [on the journey to the United States] … . As a child, obviously, I didn’t really understand … . Then we got here. Got to Texas. From Texas, we drove to Virginia where my dad was. I actually met my dad at McDonald’s, because that’s where we planned to meet up, I guess. I went to the bathroom with my mom, came out of the bathroom, and my dad was standing right there. I bumped into him. He kind of just looked at me and started crying. I didn’t know it was him, so I was just like, “Why is this man crying?” My mom comes out, and she’s like, “Oh, that’s your dad,” and my dad just kind of hugged me. I’ll always remember that moment, because me and my dad are super, super close now, but at that moment I didn’t know him. But the tears that I saw in his eyes … . He hadn’t seen his daughter since I was a baby, and I was 7 years old at the time, so I can imagine what that felt like.

Paola remembers these early interactions with her parents very vividly and can empathize with how her father felt when he first saw her after years of being separated. But she does not speak about her mom with the same sentiment. Instead, Paola expresses a sense of resentment toward her mother and does not seem to consider what she may have felt after 5 years of separation.

Not long after Paola and her mother arrived in the United States to reunite with her father, her parents separated. She remembers how their split “was probably one of the hardest things, just because I had just met them as mom and dad.” Paola grew up living with her mother but seeing her father almost every day. She is thankful that her mother never limited visitation. As a child, Paola wrestled with learning English, which made her dislike school at first, but as she grew up, she became very studious and interested in learning. Since middle school, she participated in a college-preparation program where she developed close mentoring relationships with several of her teachers. When Paola was in high school and submitting college applications, she felt very stressed because she believed that her parents were not helping her during the college admission process. She recalls:

My parents knew nothing about college. They always told me that I had to go and that there was no option, because that’s what they came to this country for, but they didn’t know the process of it. They didn’t know what to do with it. My junior year was probably one of the hardest times, just because trying to figure out a system that isn’t made for you is one of the hardest things possible. Even with DACA, there was so many paperwork, there were so many requirements. I was getting denied from schools not because of my grades, but because of my status and me not being able to provide proper paperwork. My mom babysat or cleaned houses. She didn’t have taxes forms [filed income taxes]. My dad worked in construction, but at the same time, my dad wasn’t willing to give me his tax information because he was like, “I'm not giving you that paperwork.” He didn’t comprehend what it meant, so I was like, “Well, I have no paperwork to prove to these schools that I need money.’

Paola felt frustrated when she encountered familial obstacles while applying to college. She not only had to navigate a system that was not inclusive of DACA recipients, but she also had to manage the challenges related to her parents’ socioeconomic background and immigration status. While Paola’s parents believed that college was important, they could not offer tangible support. Paola does not seem to understand that her parents work in a cash economy and that it is risky for them to provide her their tax forms and work information. In addition, Paola appears to believe that submitting her parents’ income tax return forms could have resulted in additional financial resources at the time of her college admissions, but financial support for undocumented students is scarce.

Nevertheless, Paola applied to 19 colleges and universities and was accepted to about 15. She applied to numerous scholarships and although she received some of them, she only had enough money to attend VPU. One of the scholarships she received from her high school paid for her first-year room and board at VPU, which offered an opportunity to move out of her mother’s house. Paola recalls: “The situation at my house wasn’t the best, so I knew I wanted to leave.” Yet, Paola’s mother did not support her decision. She comments:

For my first year I got to live on campus for both semesters. I took my classes and I did very well. I met a lot of new people and all that stuff, but … I feel like in the Latino community, it’s still not normal for someone to leave their house unless they’re getting married or for something like that … . When my dad found out that I got the scholarship, he was very, very happy. When I told my mom, she didn’t really take it seriously that I was actually going to leave. I don’t think she got it … . I didn’t have the best relationship with my mom, either, so she took that as, “Oh, you’re leaving me.” So, when I left for school, she kind of had resentment towards me, because she’d be like, “You left me and you’re my only child,” and all that kind of stuff.

From Paola’s perspective, her mother is a source of stress instead of support. Paola compares her parents’ reactions to the housing scholarship she received and believes that her mother judged her unfairly for living at school. Yet, Paola does not seem to connect that her mother also left her home and own mother (Paola’s grandmother) in Bolivia in search of better opportunities in the United States and does not reflect in such contradictions.

The difficult relationship Paola has with her mother has continued to deteriorate, and the good relationship she had with her father has also suffered, impacting her wellbeing. She says:

My family situation isn’t the best. Me and my mom don’t really get along, and me and my dad were somewhat close, but he kind of left for a little bit. It was my first time not seeing my dad. It’s not a long time. Two months, maybe, but it went from talking to him every single day, seeing him really frequently, to not seeing him, not speaking to him for two months or so. So that time was a really hard time for me. At the same time, there was a lot of things happening with his personal life and my mom’s personal life.

Since Paola grew up close to her dad, it was difficult for her to experience challenges in their relationship. While she rationalizes her parents’ actions and tries to understand where they are coming from, she still struggles with her family situation. When Paola did not get a housing scholarship for her second year at VPU, she decided to rent an apartment with college friends and work two to three jobs to pay for her expenses instead of returning home with her mother. Paola attributes her ability to be independent to her childhood experiences: “I didn’t grow up with parents. It wasn’t like I depended on my parents.” Paola started working at a young age and says: “My parents never really supported me after that [getting a job at age 16]. They don’t pay for rent. They don’t pay for anything.” For Paola, her parents are not a support system. On the contrary, when Paola speaks about them, particularly her mother, she feels aggravated.

Paola’s familial stress comes from the tense relationships she currently has with her parents, as well as plans for a future move. She knows that her parents want to return to Bolivia, and worries about the financial responsibilities she will have to assume for them. She notes:

My mom’s just like, “I’m going to go back to Bolivia. You’re going to have to send me help. You’re going to have to help me,” and I’m just like, “Yeah, I know.” My dad told me the same thing. He’s just like, “You’re going to have to help your mom.” He doesn’t want to leave immediately right now. My mom wants to leave more than my dad, but he does tell me, ‘Yeah, you’re going to have to send us money when you’re here.” So, I’m just like, okay, so I have to somehow graduate from college, get a job that’s going to support me, but also support at least a little bit, my parents, back home.

Paola is not surprised that her parents expect her to send money once they return to Bolivia. Her mother sends money to her grandmother, so she knows that one day she will have to do the same. But now that she is in college, both of her parents have been explicit about the “help” they will need from her once she graduates and they return to their country of origin. This obligation makes Paola feel pressured and worried about managing college without any financial support from her parents and obtaining a job with enough income to sustain them and herself. For now, Paola is trying to focus on her remaining years at VPU but feels unsure about what she will do in the future, both personally and professionally.

Reflective Discussion on the Role of Family

As an RC, we noted that many participants received messages from their parents about the value of education throughout their childhood, stimulating them to go to college and persist in higher education. For many participants, it is hard to imagine how their lives would have turned out without their parents’ encouragement and support to strive for higher education. Through both explicit and subtle conversations with their parents, undocumented students believed that going to college was worthy and felt empowered to transition to higher education upon their high school graduation. Despite encountering numerous challenges due to their immigration status, participants did not question their parents’ views and students’ desire to pursue a higher education did not decrease.

Thinking about the sacrifices that their parents made to provide them more educational and socioeconomic opportunities, such as leaving their loved ones behind, also inspires many undocumented students to do well academically and professionally. Students without documentation, such as Azeeza and Nicolas, recognize how their parents navigated significant hardships in both their home countries and the United States, so they want to make their families feel proud of their accomplishments. To an extent, their parents’ struggles are only valued if they can push through the challenges they face and achieve their educational and professional goals. But recognizing that their parents have made sacrifices to provide them a better future does not always mean that undocumented students feel indebted to their parents, as is the case of Paola.

Even among participants who had negative experiences with parents, such as Louise and Paola, their families still served as a source of motivation when they first transitioned to higher education and as a critical microsystem as they continue to navigate college. For Louise, family trauma inspired her to go on to college and pursue a career as a family therapist. Instead of feeling resentment toward her biological parents who placed her for adoption when she was a little girl, and anger toward her adoptive parents who raised her in a violent and toxic environment, Louise felt grateful for those experiences because they encouraged her to pursue a helping profession. Similarly, despite having a negative relationship with her mother, Paola felt inspired to persist in college through recollections of her parents’ migration journeys and of the sacrifices they made to provide her a more promising future in the United States. These family dynamics, both positive and negative, were also reflected in my co-researchers’ experiences, and as an RC, we noticed how family characteristics, such as socioeconomic status, shaped the ways this microsystem served as a source of support or stress.

Prior research on undocumented college students has not directly addressed students’ motivations to pursue and persist in higher education. Most literature has focused on undocumented student experiences while in college without emphasizing what prompted them to enroll in the first place. However, some studies have indirectly exposed details on the role that families play on the college pathways of students without documentation, showing that students know that the impact that a college degree can have on their families’ futures is a motivating factor in their educational pursuits (Enriquez, 2011; Jauregui & Slate, 2009; W. Pérez et al., 2010). The findings of this study expand this small body of literature by directly exposing how family plays a meaningful role on undocumented students’ college aspirations and persistence.

Research outside of higher education and on broader immigrant populations has also exposed some of the connections that exist between parental sacrifices and educational aspirations, indicating that immigrants who arrived in the United States as children have a dual frame of reference that allows them to remember their parents’ challenges and their motivations to immigrate. Consequently, these memories affect how immigrant youth form their aspirations in the United States (Menjívar et al., 2016; Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Yet, unlike undocumented students, immigrant youth who have documentation do not encounter the same socialization and educational challenges despite similarities on social class background, race and ethnicity, and gender among other social characteristics (Abrego, 2006; Gonzales & Chavez, 2012; Menjívar et al., 2016).

Finally, participants’ stories illuminate the tangible demonstrations of support that students without documentation receive from their families, such as financial help. In this study, the families of half of the participants (n = 8), including three of the four students featured in this manuscript (Azeeza, Louise, and Nicolas), were paying for their children’s tuition out-of-pocket even when their resources were scarce. While some of these students received small scholarships and worked, their parents served as the primary source of financial support in college. This finding in particular uncovers family dynamics that had not been addressed in-depth in prior research. Before this investigation, only a few studies suggested that when families make financial efforts to cover some of their children’s higher education costs, undocumented students are more likely to attend college even for a short period of time (Cuevas, 2019; Diaz-Strong et al., 2011; Jauregui & Slate, 2009). Yet, the extent of financial support provided by parents of undocumented students, as well as the influence that receiving this kind of help had on students’ motivations and college persistence, were unknown before this investigation.

Implications and Concluding Thoughts

This study revealed how family served as a critical microsystem and source for undocumented students to pursue and persist in higher education; this was visible even among participants who had negative experiences with their families. To expand on this work, future studies could use an intersectional framework and take into account the multiple social identities of students (e.g., social class, sexual orientation) to examine how and if there are differences on the role that family plays based on social location. Furthermore, interviewing parents in addition to students can offer alternative perspectives on these important higher education issues.

While findings point to the role of family as a support structure that undocumented students use in college, participants did not mention any connections between these external support systems and the institution. Colleges and universities should not ignore this vital relationship and create avenues to foster connections with students’ families if they ought to bolster student success. To accomplish this goal, community engagement offices and student affairs units can organize forums where families, campus administrators, and faculty gather to speak about issues impacting undocumented students, including immigration policies. These conversations can result in collective actions, such as educational summits and fundraising events, that promote the college persistence of undocumented students. These practical actions are easier to implement at commuter campuses, but at residential institutions, similar measures can be executed with the help of technology. Resource guides in various languages should also be available for families on university websites and contain information that could help them understand processes and identify campus resources available for undocumented students.

As undocumented students continue to experience challenges to and through higher education, colleges and universities should reframe how they conceptualize the role of their families and see them as critical partners with valuable knowledge and contributions to student persistence. Since undocumented students often rely on their families for emotional and financial support, higher education institutions should aim to build genuine and trusting partnerships with students’ families if they ought to assume the responsibility of promoting the retention and success of undocumented college students.