COVID on Campus: Assessing the Impact of the Pandemic on Undocumented College Students

Abstract

This article examines the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on undocumented college students. Deploying an ecological framework, we situate students’ experiences within their families, communities, and educational institutions. We draw on qualitative and quantitative survey responses from 1,067 undocumented students attending California 4-year universities. Qualitative findings show that immigration status exacerbated the negative economic effects of the pandemic, leading to severe financial strains that had cascading negative effects on undocumented students’ academics and health. Regression analyses confirm the strong association between students’ preexisting economic insecurity and negative effects of the pandemic. Legal vulnerability and family strains moderated this relationship, but campus environment had little effect.

Undocumented immigrants face unique risks for being disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their precarious economic situations (Hall et al., 2010) increase their potential for pandemic-related financial strain. They are overrepresented among essential workers and in industries shutdown by the pandemic (Gelatt, 2020; Passel & Cohn, 2015), cannot access unemployment benefits and may struggle to access other social safety nets (Garcia & Hellerstein, 2020), and have limited access to health care (KFF, 2020). Furthermore, federal relief funding excluded them from receiving stimulus payments and emergency college grant aid (Anguiano, 2020). Although the state of California provided one-time payments to undocumented adults (California Department of Social Services, 2021) and some colleges and universities awarded emergency grants (Sanchez, 2021; Zinshteyn, 2020), these efforts paled in comparison with their need. These realities form the backdrop to undocumented college students’ pandemic education.

At the onset of the pandemic, campuses shut down and shifted to remote learning, cutting students off from campus support and resources that facilitate educational success and well-being. As a structurally marginalized population, undocumented students already struggle to meet their academic potential (Kreisberg & Hsin, 2020), express financial need (Diaz-Strong et al., 2011), and experience mental health strains (Cadenas & Nienhusser, 2021). The pandemic brought new and increased stressors. For example, in a national survey of their undocumented college student scholarship recipients, The Dream.US (2020) found that 61% reported having less funds for rent and utilities, 76% felt more anxious about supporting family members financially, and 84% felt more anxious about the health and safety of family members. Deploying an ecological framework, we situate undocumented students’ experiences within their families, communities, and educational institutions to fully understand the scope of the pandemic’s impact.

We draw on survey responses of 1,067 undocumented undergraduate students in California to examine how they experienced the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We first address two qualitative research questions:

• Research Question 1: How did undocumented immigration status affect college students’ initial pandemic experiences?

• Research Question 2: How did the pandemic affect their finances, academics, and health?

Findings show that immigration status exacerbated the economic effects of the pandemic and financial strains drove cascading negative effects for students’ academics and health. Given the centrality of financial strains, we quantitatively examine two additional research questions:

• Research Question 3: To what extent is undocumented students’ prepandemic economic insecurity associated with negative academic, financial, and health impacts?

• Research Question 4: Do legal vulnerability, family strains, and campus environment moderate this relationship?

Regression analyses reveal a positive relationship between prepandemic economic insecurity and negative pandemic impacts with legal vulnerability and family strains consistently weakening the association.

Literature Review and Conceptual Framework

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected college students. They report extraordinary stress from campus closures: loss of income from on-campus jobs, technology gaps, limited study space at home, increased family obligations, and psychological distress (Black et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020). However, effects on education vary as a survey of 1,500 college students found that a quarter of respondents studied an additional 4 or more hours a week due to the pandemic, but another quarter lost 5 or more hours a week (Aucejo et al., 2020).

Students’ financial circumstances provide an important backdrop to the pandemic. Early analyses confirm that stay-at-home orders disproportionately harmed the financial stability of Latinx and immigrant households; while not all undocumented immigrants are Latinx, they compose three quarters of the undocumented population (Passel & Cohn, 2019). In April 2020, 61% of Latinxs reported a job or wage loss by a household member, compared with 38% of Whites (Parker et al., 2020). Undocumented men saw the steepest increase in job loss compared with U.S.-born and documented immigrant men, climbing from 4.5% prepandemic to 31.9% in spring 2020; this is explained by differences in job characteristics (Borjas & Cassidy, 2020). Furthermore, Latinx households may be less able to weather such financial strains; a 2016 study found that approximately 60% could not cover basic expenses for 3 months (Asante-Muhammad et al., 2016).

Preexisting economic insecurity appears to contribute to unequal pandemic experiences. A poll of California parents found that nearly 38% of low-income families lacked reliable internet and 50% did not have sufficient devices for distance learning (Education Trust, 2020). Aucejo et al. (2020) find that 13% of 1,500 surveyed college students have delayed graduation due to the pandemic, but students whose parents earned less than $80,000 were 55% more likely to do so than those with higher incomes. Among undocumented college students, parental job loss due to the pandemic was associated with higher rates of anxiety and depression (Goodman et al., 2020).

Building on these studies, we use an ecological approach that situates undocumented college students’ experiences within preexisting inequities that compromise their ability to respond to the pandemic. This framework recognizes that the contexts in which youth and young adults live shape their access to resources and impact their educational outcomes and well-being (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Suárez-Orozco et al. (2011) establish that the legal vulnerabilities and risks associated with undocumented status compromise the development of youth from undocumented families. They identify barriers in the macrosystem (e.g., public policies excluding undocumented immigrants, stigmatizing societal norms), exosystem (e.g., threat of deportation and poor work conditions that prevent access to developmental resources), microsystem (e.g., underresourced schools, family documentation status), and at the individual level (e.g., individual documentation status, concerns about deportation).

Applying an ecological framework to undocumented students’ experiences suggests that the economic impacts of the pandemic likely exacerbate preexisting financial insecurity. Undocumented immigrants who are unable to access a valid Social Security number have restricted employment options; this contributes to their concentration in low-wage work and increases the likelihood of low earnings (Hall et al., 2010). As a result, undocumented students tend to come from low-income families (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015). Although those with work authorization through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program may see economic gains, some remain in low-wage jobs and earn less than their documented peers (Amuedo-Dorantes & Antman, 2016; Enriquez, 2020). Individual and family financial precarity can compromise undocumented students’ access to and retention in higher education as they struggle to pay tuition and other expenses (Diaz-Strong et al., 2011; Enriquez, 2017; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015; Terriquez, 2015). Even when they have access to in-state tuition and financial aid, undocumented students must often balance work and academics and may choose to live with family and commute in order to save money (Nichols & Guzmán, 2017; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015). Thus, students who had higher levels of financial precarity prior to the pandemic may experience more severe negative impacts.

Undocumented status fosters legal vulnerabilities, which can compromise their ability to respond to stressors. Having work authorization and protection from deportation through DACA, or having a family member who has lawful status, could reduce individual or family level vulnerability (Enriquez, 2020; Gonzales et al., 2019). Although DACA recipients have more access to economic, socioemotional, and institutional resources, they also contend with the possibility that the program can be rescinded (Morales Hernandez & Enriquez, in press), which fostered emotional distress as they awaited news about whether the program would be terminated (Mallet & Garcia Bedolla, 2019). Fear of deportation and social stigma can compromise students’ willingness to disclose their immigration status, cutting them off from important sources of information and compromising relationships with faculty and advisors (Buenavista, 2018). Importantly, undocumented students can have varying perceptions of their legal vulnerability due to their own individual and contextual circumstances (Enriquez & Millán, 2021). Such variation in perceived legal vulnerability can foster different levels of immigration-related distractions, which have been shown to be associated with negative academic behavioral engagement (Chavarria et al., in press; Enriquez et al., 2019). Undocumented students also report higher rates of discrimination than their peers with permanent legal status or immigrant visas (Cadenas & Nienhusser, 2021) and substantial microaggressions (Muñoz & Vigil, 2018). Thus, students who had higher perceptions of legal vulnerability prepandemic may experience more severe negative impacts.

An ecological framework also calls attention to the fact that family-level strains structure individual student experiences. Students’ parents may be in precarious work situations—such as self-employment—or combatting chronic unemployment, which may increase the family’s economic precarity (Ayón & Becerra, 2013; Estrada, 2019). Young adults with undocumented parents must often contribute financially to the household due to collective low incomes (Abrego, 2018; Rodriguez, 2019). Latinx, immigrant, and low-income students often report family and work responsibilities that can strain their academics and mental health (Fuligni & Pedersen, 2002; Sy & Romero, 2008). Undocumented families also tend to live in multigenerational households with limited space and privacy (Hall et al., 2019); this can create challenges for students who need a quiet place to study or attend virtual classes. Thus, students who had higher levels of family strain prior to the pandemic may experience more severe negative impacts.

Finally, the campus environment may also moderate experiences of the pandemic as they provide material and social support, including academic support services, mental and physical health care, financial aid, and basic needs support. In California, universities have responded to student mobilization by developing undocumented student services and resource centers to address students’ unique legal vulnerabilities (Cisneros & Valdivia, 2020). They provide a myriad of services, from book lending programs and food pantries to academic advising and internship opportunities as well as mental health counseling and legal services (Cisneros & Rivarola, 2020). However, diverging institutional resources and practices may affect the extent to which campuses are able to develop such resources (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015); the University of California (UC) has invested more resources in undocumented student services than the California State University (CSU). Feelings of campus belonging also reflect students’ perceived social support and connectedness (Strayhorn, 2018). The use of resources and campus belonging are associated with higher academic performance, retention, and better mental health (Astin, 1984; Strayhorn, 2018; Tinto, 1993). Thus, students who had high levels of campus integration prior to the pandemic may have experienced more severe negative impacts as campuses shut down.

Data and Method

We draw data from a survey of undocumented undergraduate students attending California public universities. The survey was fielded from March to June 2020. We focus on a subsample of 1,067 who were administered questions about the pandemic. Starting March 30, respondents were asked two sets of COVID-related questions: (1) a quantitative rating of the extent to which the pandemic negatively affected six areas: academic performance, attention to academics, own financial stability, family financial stability, mental health, and physical health; and (2) two open-ended questions regarding how the pandemic affected them and their family, and how their immigrant origin affected these experiences. All project activities were approved by the UC Irvine Institutional Review Board.

Participants were recruited at all nine UC undergraduate campuses and nine CSU campuses selected for similar geographic location. Recruitment announcements were distributed mostly via email from undocumented student support services offices, faculty teaching large general education and ethnic studies courses, and departmental/office newsletters. Eligibility criteria included being over age 18, having at least one immigrant parent, and current enrollment as a CSU or UC undergraduate student. Respondents had to self-identify as being born outside of the United States and having no permanent legal status. The survey was administered online via Qualtrics with an estimated completion time of 25 to 35 minutes. Respondents received $10 electronic gift card compensation.

Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative responses ranged from a few words to multiple paragraphs; most responses were a few sentences. Each qualitative question was index coded for common themes (Deterding & Waters, 2018). Index codes for the question on how respondents had been affected by the pandemic aligned with the quantitative survey items: education, financial, mental health, physical health, and other effects; each was divided into subcodes for self and family. Index codes for the second question regarding how one’s immigrant origin had affected their pandemic experiences included immigration status, immigrant origin, race/ethnicity, and other. We focused on responses coded for the immigration status theme and applied analytic codes for three subthemes: exclusion from social support resources, legal status vulnerabilities, and employment constraints. Responses for all subthemes were reviewed to identify common patterns.

Quantitative Analysis

Informed by the qualitative analysis, multivariate regression analyses were conducted to test the main effects of preexisting economic insecurity on three outcome variables: negative academic, financial, and health impacts of the pandemic. The analyses proceeded in three steps. First, we descriptively examined the association between economic insecurity and the three outcomes. Second, we estimated a regression model of the association between economic insecuritywith each outcome, controlling for demographic factors. Third, we introduced legal vulnerability, family strains, and campus environment in a set of nested multiple regression models to assess if these factors moderate the relationship between economic insecurity and each COVID-19 outcome. Our quantitative analytical sample consists of 939 undocumented students after list-wise deletion of missing data.

Dependent Variables

We assess three outcome variables: the extent to which COVID-19 negatively affected a participant’s (1) academics, (2) financial stability, and (3) health. Respondents were asked, “To what extent have the following area been negatively affected by COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic” on six items: (a) academic performance, (b) attention to academics, (c) financial stability, (d) family financial stability, (e) mental health, and (f) physical health. They rated their experience on a 5-point scale ranging from not at all (0) to a great deal (4). We added each related pair and averaged them to generate the three main dependent variables. ¹ Table 1 summarizes the mean and standard deviation for each outcome variable.

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics (N = 939)

Variables	Percentage	M (SD)
Dependent variables
Academic
Respondent’s academic performance negatively affected “moderate” or more	71.67
Respondent’s attention to academics negatively affected “moderate” or more	82.53
Outcome 1: Negative academic impacts		2.60 (1.17)
Financial
Respondent’s financial stability negatively affected “moderate” or more	82.53
Family’s financial stability negatively affected “moderate” or more	82.75
Outcome 2: Negative financial impacts		2.56 (1.11)
Health
Respondent’s mental health negatively affected “moderate” or more	72.73
Respondent’s physical health negatively affected “moderate” or more	65.70
Outcome 3: Negative health impacts		2.27 (1.16)
Main independent variable
Worried about not having money to pay for things “sometimes” or more	81.58
Having difficulty paying your bills “sometimes” or more	62.94
Had to without the basic things that you need “sometimes” or more	43.87
Had to go without the materials needs for your studies “sometimes” or more	44.41
Uncentered respondent’s economic insecurity (range: 0–4)		1.85 (1.07)
Mean-centered respondent’s economic insecurity (range: −1.89 to 2.11)		−0.05 (1.07)
Moderating variables
Legal vulnerability
Immigration status
No legal status	25.77
DACA or TPS	74.23
Parental immigration status
No parents have lawful status	93.40
One or more parents have lawful status	6.60
Social exclusion		2.91 (0.89)
Discrimination		2.15 (0.78)
Threat to family		4.06 (0.92)
Family strains
Family economic insecurity		1.17 (1.08)
Family responsibilities		2.33 (0.85)
Household size		5.00 (1.85)
One or more parent is self-employed	30.35
One or more parent is unemployed	6.82
Campus environment
University system
CSU	41.85
UC	58.15
Feelings of belonging		3.68 (0.80)
Campus-wide resource use		4.12 (1.98)
Undocumented student service use		2.61 (1.94)
Demographic controls
Age
18–23	82.00
≥24	18.00
Race/ethnicity
Not Latina/o/x	8.52
Latina/o/x	91.48
Gender
Men	23.43
Women	76.57
Year in school
1st and 2nd	31.20
3rd	31.20
4th and higher	37.59
Hours worked
Not working	48.14
1–20 hours	31.1
≥21 hours	20.77
High school GPA
<2.5	5.96
2.5 to 3.0	7.14
3.0 to 3.5	22.04
>3.5	64.86

Note. DACA = Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; TPS = Temporary Protected Status; CSU = California State University; UC = University of California; GPA = grade point average.

Main Independent Variable

The main independent variable is a composite measure of respondent’s prepandemic economic insecurity as measured by four items. Respondents were asked, “How often have you experienced the following since starting school this year:” (1) “worried about not having enough to pay for things”; (2) “had difficulty paying your bills”; (3) “had to go without the basic things that you need”; and (4) “had to go without the materials needed for your studies (e.g., books, laptop, iclicker, art/lab supplies).” Responses were captured on a 5-point scale: almost never or never (0), once in a while, sometimes, a lot of the time, and almost always or always (4). We summed across all four items and averaged them to get a single score ² ; it was mean centered to avoid multicollinearity among predictors (Iacobucci et al., 2016). Table 1 summarizes the mean and standard deviation of the uncentered and mean-centered economic insecurity variable.

Moderating Variables

Three sets of moderating variables were examined: legal vulnerability, family strains, and campus environment. Legal vulnerability was assessed with five measures. Respondent’s immigration status was categorized as no legal status (coded as 0) or having DACA or Temporary Protected Status (TPS; coded as 1). Parental immigration status was categorized as no legal status (coded as 0) or having at least one parent with a lawful immigration status (coded as 1). Ayón’s (2017) three subscales of the Perceived Immigration Policy Effects Scale (PIPES) were included—social exclusion (five items, α = .829), discrimination (nine items, α = .874), and threat to family (three items, α = .815). Sample statements include the following: “Have you been treated unfairly at a restaurant or store because of current immigration policy?” (discrimination), “Do you feel that you have no liberty and need to stay home because of current immigration policy?” (exclusion), and “Do you worry about the impact immigration policies have on you or your family?” (threat to family). Response options include never, rarely, sometimes, often, and always. Higher scores on each scale indicate higher levels of exclusion, discrimination, and threat. Each scale was mean centered.

Family strain was assessed with five measures. Family economic insecurity is a composite measure of two items regarding the frequency respondents expect the following will happen in the next 3 months: “Your family will experience bad times such as poor housing or not having enough food,” and “Your family will have to do without the basic things that your family needs.” ³ Family responsibilities is a composite measure of five items regarding how often the respondent helps family members pay bills, supports child/elder care, manages a family member’s health, does household chores, and provides emotional support. ⁴ Household size is the number of people currently living in the respondent’s permanent home; it is a continuous measure ranging from 1 to 16 or more. Finally, respondents reported prepandemic employment status of up to two parents or guardians; response categories included works for wages or salary, self-employed, temporary/seasonal worker, unemployed and looking for work, not working (e.g., retired, stay-at-home parent, disabled), and other. We include dummy variables for parent is self-employed if one or more parent/guardians was reported as self-employed and parent is unemployed if one or more parents/guardians was reported as unemployed and looking for work.

Campus environment was assessed with four measures. University system accounts for the type of university attended with CSU (coded as 0) compared with UC (coded as 1). Feelings of belonging is a composite measure composed of four items. Respondents reported the extent to which they agreed with the following statements: “I feel a sense of belonging to this university,” “I see myself as part of the university community,” “I am enthusiastic about this university,” and “I can present my whole, authentic self on campus without worrying about repercussions.” Higher scores indicate more belonging. ⁵ Campus-wide resource use is a count of how many of eight resources respondents visited during the current academic year: academic counselor, academic support services, peer tutoring, career center, identity-based center, basic needs/food pantry, student health center, and mental health counseling center. Undocumented student service use is a count of how many of five ways they might have interacted with these services during the current academic year: visiting the office, speaking to a professional staff member, speaking to a student staff member, speaking with a campus partner at the program office, and speaking to an immigration lawyer provided by the program office. All three composite measures were mean centered.

Covariates

Our study also controls for covariates, including age (18–23 years or 24 years or older), race/ethnicity (Latina/o/x or not Latina/o/x), gender (women or men), year in school (1st and 2nd year, 3rd year, or 4th year or higher), hours worked (not working, 1–20 hours, or 21 or more), and high school grade point average (<2.5, between 2.5 and 3.0, between 3.0 and 3.5, and >3.5).

Table 1 provides descriptive statistics for the analytical sample. Over 76% of the sample respondents are women, 91% identify as Latina/o/x, 82% are between the ages 18 and 23 years, and 38% are in their fourth year or higher. Roughly 74% of the survey respondents have DACA or TPS, and the vast majority have only undocumented parents/guardians (94%).

Findings

Findings are organized into three sections. The first two address our qualitative research questions. The first establishes the saliency of undocumented immigration status in exacerbating the economic effects of the pandemic. The second traces how financial strains drove cascading negative effects for students’ academics and health. These results informed the quantitative analyses discussed last, wherein we examine the extent to which undocumented students’ prepandemic economic insecurity is associated with negative academic, financial, and health impacts and whether legal vulnerability, family strains, and campus environment moderate this relationship.

Financial Strain: How Immigration Status Exacerbated Vulnerability During the Pandemic

Undocumented individuals occupy a precarious legal status that puts them at risk for economic insecurity and financial strain. When asked how their own and their family members’ immigrant origin affected their experiences of the pandemic, respondents explained that their immigration status prevented them from getting the support that U.S. citizens did. For example, one student wrote, “It’s hard to realize that during a pandemic immigration status is still out as a barrier for receiving benefits that are needed for surviving this pandemic in these troubling times.” Students readily pointed to how their own and their family members’ undocumented status manifested as financial vulnerabilities that exacerbated the pandemic’s economic impacts.

The vast majority of respondents acknowledged that federal policies prevented undocumented immigrants, and their citizen family members, from accessing economic relief provided by the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. For example, one wrote, “My mom does not qualify for the stimulus check and I do not qualify for federal student aid like U.S. citizens do. It feels like we are just on our own trying to make ends meet.” Students noted the financial difficulties of being denied relief and one explicitly connected this to a pattern of structural inequality: “We won’t receive a stimulus check from the government because we’re undocumented. Marginalized people always lack resources from the American government.”

Students also expressed that undocumented status barred them and their parents from accessing other public benefits that could help them manage the pandemic’s impact. Experiencing and/or anticipating job loss, students observed that they and their family members were unable to access unemployment benefits: “Being [undocumented] immigrants means none of us are eligible for unemployment. This is something difficult to see as others in our same jobs are eligible and seeing them get unemployment checks is a reminder of our marginality.” Lack of unemployment benefits, compounded by the lack of federal economic relief, deepened the financial devastation experienced by undocumented students and families.

Students also noted that undocumented status increased the chances of being in workplace environments with higher risk of infection. Students were particularly concerned about their parents. One wrote,

My mom works at a warehouse . . . She feels that her company doesn’t take them seriously because of her and her coworkers’ immigrant status. She chose to stay home because she was afraid of how unsafe it was to continue working there during these times. The company did not follow safe social distancing and would not provide gloves or masks. On top of that they prohibited them from wearing their own masks. People were showing up with flu symptoms and people were not sent home.

In this case, the student’s mom made an anonymous complaint to the public health department, but others noted, “My parents . . . they are not able to say anything due to their immigration status.” Indeed, prior research suggests that undocumented immigrants who lack employment authorization may struggle to advocate for their rights (Gleeson, 2016), potentially endangering their health in noncompliant workplaces.

Alternatively, as businesses were forced to adjust their operations, undocumented immigrants in nonessential jobs faced heightened risk to their financial stability due to their lack of employment authorization. For example,

Since the pandemic, a lot of people got laid off and one of them was my stepdad, now they said they will only call back people that are citizens.

I think it has affected some members because they were laid off from work and due to their status, they can’t find a job so easily.

Thus, not possessing employment authorization may limit longer term ability to recover economically.

Students also connected undocumented status to a lack of health insurance. Although many had access to health insurance for themselves, they worried about their undocumented family members who did not. For example,

What my family fears the most is not having healthcare and they do not have enough money for treatment if someone in the family gets infected with the virus.

Our lack of financial aid has been due to our immigration status and fear of COVID is higher since my parents don’t have health insurance.

Another student did not trust that medical resources would be offered to undocumented communities: “It’s hard to think they will take in patients in the hospital due to their immigration status, they might take in citizens first.” Ultimately, the lack of insurance translated into anticipatory financial strain as students expected they would eventually confront the medical costs of the virus.

Only a handful of students pointed to nonfinancial legal vulnerabilities exacerbated by the pandemic. For instance, increased police presence as a result of state and local shelter-in-place mandates triggered fear of deportation threats. One student shared, “It’s terrifying to believe that even after being in a lock down ICE is allowed to go out and appear at people’s homes taking them away even when times are rough.” Additionally, pandemic-related office closures meant that immigration cases came to a grinding halt, worrying students:

If I am not able to renew my DACA then I will not be able to apply for jobs in my desired field post-graduation and will result in me moving back home. It will also be harder for me to apply to jobs without a work permit.

I was supposed to go to my immigration appointment but it was rescheduled due to COVID and now I am worried, and my dad has a current deportation order.

Suspended operations in immigration offices left students with many unanswered questions, creating an immense amount of uncertainty on top of pandemic strains.

The Immediate Consequences of COVID-19 for Undocumented College Students

Given the unequal economic impacts of the pandemic on the undocumented community, we find that undocumented students experienced the immediate consequences of COVID-19 primarily filtered through severe financial constraints. In this section, we provide a summary of the key ways in which undocumented college students experienced negative financial, academic, and health impacts of the pandemic. These qualitative descriptions provide insight into the experiences captured by our three dependent variables. We identify the cascading effects of both students’ and their family’s financial strains as they limited students’ ability to focus on their academics as well as compromised their health.

Financial Impacts

The immediate consequences of COVID-19 were primarily experienced as severe financial strain. Most students described financial struggles related to their own and family members’ loss of income. For example, one student wrote, “We live in uncertainty. My mom lost her job due to COVID-19, and my dad is not working as much as before. My internship has been stopped.” Another shared, “My mom and I were laid off since we both work at restaurants.” In several cases, family members’ job loss translated to increased financial pressure on students:

My mother’s work hours have been cut which has impacted my family because she stresses out which puts pressure on me to pick up extra hours to cover expenses. . . . I feel responsible for providing for my family when needed.

My father who is the sole provider has lost his job and I am forced to attend school part-time in order to help pay some of the bills.

Students poignantly identified the financial uncertainty that enveloped their lives as the fallout from COVID-induced closures.

Students also traced income loss to an inability to meet their basic needs. Take the following examples:

It has become much harder to pay rent and bills. My dad is the only one working right now and we are a family of 5 so it has been difficult.

I have also had to budget for food and other expenses since I currently do not have an income.

I have moved in with my sister who is also an undocumented student and we are struggling to pay for bills, groceries, and wi-fi.

Students described food insecurity, including having to cut back on a number of meals for the week or having to prioritize rent over food. They expressed deep concerns about their ability to cover expenses in the present time, and in the following months if the pandemic dragged on.

Academic Impacts

Students described academic challenges associated with attending college remotely. Most often they described feeling unmotivated and unable to focus on their work: “I have lost a lot of motivation in my education because I feel like I can’t concentrate and get my homework done.” In many cases, respondents linked these feelings to their financial strains: “I cannot concentrate in doing school work because of all the financial pressure.” These responses suggest that pandemic-induced financial strains cascade to impact students’ academics, particularly when students and their families were already in precarious financial situations.

In fact, students’ struggles to remain focused on their academics were exacerbated by their preexisting financial precarity. This manifested most clearly in their family’s overcrowded living situations, which contributed to academic disruptions. One student wrote,

I am living out of a suitcase because there is no space for me. I have to pause my Zoom lectures more than 10 times because someone at my house is talking, yelling, cooking, playing, screaming, etc. . . . Sometimes I watch my Zoom recordings at 1am because it is the only quiet hours I get at home.

Additionally, respondents lacked the financial means to obtain resources to support remote instruction:

We struggle with working on homework at home because we don’t have computers so we use phones. It’s hard to keep up with everything.

I also have limited access to a computer so I only have a short time to complete the work during this time.

Limited access to technology and reliable wi-fi disrupted remote instruction. Although some students were already living at home before the pandemic, campus resources were available to provide study space. One student wrote, “[I] relied on studying at school (staying in our 24/5 hour library for over 15 hrs a day.” Students who had previously depended on campus or public venues for study space and resources no longer had this option.

Finally, students described that living with their families often brought on additional responsibilities that interfered with their capacity to devote their full attention to their academics.

My siblings are always distracting and asking me for help in their academics. My mom also asks me to reply to all of her emails. All of my siblings’ teachers are emailing me asking [me] to help my siblings.

On top of school, I also have to care for my grandparents and my 4 younger cousins. It’s taken a toll on me for sure since I have to make sure the house runs as smooth as possible and make sure everyone is fed and is getting their needs met.

Such caretaking responsibilities were primarily reported by women, reflecting gendered inequities in students’ ability to focus on their own academics.

Health Impacts

Students described health impacts primarily related to their mental, not physical health. Descriptions often invoked feelings of “stress,” “anxiety,” and “depression.” Some generally attributed their emotional distress to the pandemic:

The pandemic has been hard on my mental health, some days I wake up with a burst of energy and other days I don’t want to leave my bed.

It’s mainly on the mental side. We are scared to step outside even for a grocery run due to the fact that in my city the number of infected people keeps growing each day. . . . [A] few days ago we were told that our apartment complex manager has been hospitalized. . . . It is very terrifying to not know if she has the virus or what her situation is because this is a person who we have constant contact with. We as well, are beyond stressed since one of our family members in NY has tested positive and his loved ones are as well testing positive.

The unknowns associated with COVID-19’s threat to students’ and their family members’ physical health created emotional distress.

However, more often students’ emotional distress stemmed from their economic situation. Job loss and decreased incomes created emotional distress related to figuring out how to close financial gaps:

I lost my job. My partner’s hours were cut in half. We are really budgeting and trying to save as much as we can. Not only is it causing some anxiety but also fear.

My parents are unemployed, my fiancé is exposed daily due to his job. I am more stressed out and find myself in a compromised sleeping schedule. I only have employment through May and will need to obtain a job. I feel more depressed and unmotivated.

For those who were able to maintain their employment, they often were in essential jobs that deepened their risk of exposure to the virus, thus intensifying emotional distress related to their own or family members’ health: “We are now feeling a lot more anxious about each other’s health. . . . Lately we have also felt like being an ‘essential’ worker just means your health is being put on the line unwillingly in this country.” Respondents often named these feelings of distress but also noted symptoms such as “find[ing] myself in a compromised sleeping schedule” or “overeating.”

Quantitative Results

Descriptive Results

The vast majority of respondents identified the pandemic as having a negative impact on their finances, academics, and health. Over 82% of the sample indicated that it negatively affected their financial stability moderately or more and 83% indicated the same for their family’s financial stability. With regard to academic impacts, 72% indicated that their academic performance was negatively affected moderately or more, and 83% indicated the same for their attention to academics. Respondent’s health was also negatively affected as over 72% indicated that their mental health was negatively affected moderately or more and over 66% indicated the same for their physical health.

Respondent’s prepandemic economic insecurity—our main independent variable—was also high. Over 82% of respondents indicated that they worried about not having enough money to pay for things “sometimes” or more, and 63% indicated the same when asked about difficulty paying bills. Approximately 44% indicated that they had to go without basic things “sometimes” or more, and an equivalent percentage indicated the same when asked about having to go without materials needed for their studies. Table 1 also summarizes the moderating variables utilized in this study.

Respondents who reported more severe impacts of the pandemic also reported higher rates of economic insecurity. Table 2 provides a descriptive analysis between respondent’s prepandemic economic insecurity and the three outcomes: negative academic, financial, and health impacts; the uncentered economic insecurity index values range from 0 to 4, with a higher value indicating higher economic insecurity. For all six individual outcomes, the mean of the economic insecurity index is higher for respondents who indicated being affected “moderately” or more by the pandemic, compared with those who said “a little” or “not at all.” For example, the mean of the economic insecurity index (2.036) is higher for respondents who indicated that academic performance was negatively affected moderately or more versus the mean (1.245) of respondents who indicated academic performance was negatively affected “a little,” or “not at all.

Table 2

Descriptive Summary of Economic Insecurity and Negative Academic, Financial, and Health Impacts of the Pandemic (N = 939)

Impacts	Economic Insecurity	Economic Insecurity (mean-centered)
	M (SD)	M (SD)
Academic impacts
Respondent’s academic performance negatively affected “moderate” or more	2.036 (1.05)	0.098 (1.07)
Respondent’s academic performance negatively affected “a little” or “not at all”	1.245 (0.89)	−0.412 (0.982)
Respondent’s attention to academics negatively affected “moderate” or more	1.990 (1.06)	0.026 (1.07)
Respondent’s attention to academics negatively affected “a little” or “not at all”	1.164 (0.841)	−0.392 (1.00)
Financial impacts
Respondent’s financial stability negatively affected “moderate” or more	2.029 (1.06)	0.141 (1.05)
Respondent’s financial stability negatively affected “a little” or “not at all”	1.364 (0.95)	−0.649 (0.83)
Family’s financial stability negatively affected “moderate” or more	2.050 (1.06)	0.096 (1.06)
Family’s financial stability negatively affected “a little” or “not at all”	1.459 (0.98)	−0.731 (0.84)
Health impact
Respondent’s mental health negatively affected “moderate” or more	1.992 (1.07)	0.134 (1.06)
Respondent’s mental health negatively affected “a little” or “not at all”	1.482 (0.98)	−0.530 (0.95)
Respondent’s physical health negatively affected “moderate” or more	1.920 (1.07)	0.156 (1.06)
Respondent’s physical health negatively affected “a little” or “not at all”	1.502 (1.00)	−0.412 (0.98)

Multivariate Regression Results

Although the descriptive results indicate that undocumented students’ prepandemic economic insecurity is related to the three main outcomes, multivariate regression analyses provide further evidence of the strength of this association. Informed by the literature and qualitative results, we also evaluate the moderating effects of legal vulnerability, family strains, and campus environment.

Academic impacts

Table 3 provides the ordinary least square regression results predicting negative academic impacts due to the pandemic. Model 1 (M1) demonstrates that net of demographic controls, respondent’s mean prepandemic economic insecurity is positively associated with negative academic impacts (M1: β = 0.31, p ≤ .001). Model 5 (M5) provides the full model with Models 2 to 4 (M2–M4), demonstrating restricted models to assess the moderating effect of legal vulnerability (M2), family strains (M3), and campus environment (M4; see Appendix A for a full set of results). Overall, M5 best fits the variation in negative academic impacts as measured by R² (0.20) and F-statistic, F(25, 913) = 9.07, p ≤ .001. Introducing legal vulnerability factors greatly weakens the main effects of economic insecurity on negative academic impacts (M1: β = 0.31, p ≤ .001 vs. M2: β = 0.16, p ≤ .001). Having one or more parents with lawful status is positively associated with more severe negative academic impacts (M1: β = 0.39, p ≤ .001; M5: β = 0.42, p ≤ .001), as is indicating higher levels of perceived discrimination due to the immigration policy context (M1: β = 0.28, p ≤ .001; M5: β = 0.27, p ≤ .001).

Table 3

Regression Results Predicting Negative Academic Impact of the Pandemic (N = 939)

Variable	Model 1:Base model with controls	Model 2:Legal vulnerability moderation model	Model 3:Family strains moderation model	Model 4:Campus environment moderation model	Model 5:Full model
Independent variable
Respondent’s economic insecurity	0.31**	0.16**	0.27**	0.29**	0.15*
Legal vulnerability
DACA/TPS (referent = no legal status)		0.16			0.15
One or more parents have lawful status (referent = no)		0.39*			0.42*
Social exclusion		0.12			0.11
Discrimination		0.28**			0.27**
Threat to family		0.07			0.07
Family strains
Family economic insecurity			0.02		−0.03
Family responsibilities			0.10*		0.04
Household size			0.04*		0.05*
One or more parent is self-employed (referent = no)			0.01		−0.02
One or more parent is unemployed (referent = no)			0.23		0.23
Campus environment
UC university system (referent = CSU)				0.18*	0.22*
Feelings of belonging				−0.14*	−0.07
Campus-wide resource use				0.00	0.00
Undocumented student service use				0.05*	0.03
Constant	2.38**	2.46**	2.20**	2.33*	2.12**
R 2	0.11	0.18	0.12	0.13	0.20
Adjusted R2	0.09	0.16	0.11	0.11	0.18
F-statistic	10.25**	12.29**	7.91**	9.09**	9.07**

Note. DACA = Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; TPS = Temporary Protected Status; UC = University of California; CSU = California State University.

*

p ≤ .05. ^**p ≤ .001.

Family strains (M3) and campus environment (M4) do not substantially moderate the association between respondent’s economic insecurity and negative academic impacts. Combined with legal vulnerability factors, however, both family strains and campus environment jointly weaken the relationship between respondent’s economic insecurity and negative academic impacts (M5). As observed in M5, respondent’s mean economic insecurity is still positively associated with negative academic impacts, but the strength of the relationship decreased in both effect size and statistical significance (M1: β = 0.31, p ≤ .001 vs. M5: β = 0.15, p ≤ .05). While family strains and campus environment variables do not moderate the main relationship of interest, household size and campus system are statistically associated (p ≤ .05) with negative academic impacts, net of demographic controls. Specifically, a one person increase in household size is associated with 0.05 increase in negative academic impacts and being in the UC system versus the CSU system is associated with a 0.22 increase in negative academic impacts.

Financial impacts

The left panel of Table 4 provides the ordinary least square regression results predicting negative financial impacts. M1 demonstrates that net of demographic controls, respondent’s mean prepandemic economic insecurity is positively associated with negative financial impacts due to the pandemic (β = 0.47, p ≤ .001). Family strains, and to a lesser extent, legal vulnerability, moderate the association between prepandemic economic insecurity and negative financial impacts. Specifically, introducing family strains reduces the coefficient of student’s mean economic insecurity to 0.35 (M3) compared with 0.47 (M1). M5, overall, best fits the observed variation of negative financial impacts as indicated by the R² (0.30) and F-statistics, F(25, 913) = 15.53, p ≤ .001 (see Appendix B for a full set of results). With regard to family strains, family economic insecurity (β = 0.13, p ≤ .001), family responsibilities (β = 0.09, p ≤ .05), and having one or more parent unemployed (β = 0.46, p ≤ .001) are all positively associated with increased negative financial impacts.

Table 4

Regression Results Predicting Negative Financial and Health Impacts of the Pandemic (N = 939)

Variable	Negative financial impacts					Negative health impacts
	Model 1: Base model with controls	Model 2: Legal vulnerability moderation model	Model 3: Family strains moderation model	Model 4: Campus environment moderation model	Model 5: Full model	Model 6: Base model with controls	Model 7: Legal vulnerability moderation model	Model 8: Family strains moderation model	Model 9: Campus environment moderation model	Model 10: Full model
Independent variable
Respondent’s economic insecurity	0.47**	0.39**	0.35**	0.46**	0.31**	0.38**	0.20**	0.31**	0.35**	0.17**
Legal vulnerability
DACA/TPS (referent =no legal status)		0.04			0.05		0.20*			0.22*
One or more parents have lawful status (referent = no)		0.13			0.16		0.15			0.19
Social exclusion		−0.06			−0.06		0.15*			0.14*
Discrimination		0.19**			0.13*		0.37**			0.35**
Threat to family		0.15**			0.13*		0.05			0.05
Family strains
Family economic insecurity			0.16**		0.13**			0.11*		0.04
Family responsibilities			0.12*		0.09*			0.04		−0.02
Household size			−0.02		−0.01			0.02		0.03
One or more parent is self-employed (referent = no)			0.10		0.09			−0.06		−0.09
One or more parent is unemployed (referent = no)			0.45**		0.46**			0.12		0.12
Campus environment
UC university system (referent = CSU)				0.23**	0.22*				0.24*	0.26**
Feelings of belonging				−0.01	0.01				−0.12*	−0.03
Campus-wide resource use				−0.01	−0.02				0.01	0.01
Undocumented student services use				0.05*	0.04*				0.05*	0.04*
Constant	2.35**	2.44**	2.41**	2.24**	2.31**	1.84**	1.95**	1.75**	1.76**	1.67**
R 2	0.23	0.25	0.27	0.24	0.30	0.15	0.25	0.16	0.18	0.27
Adjusted R2	0.22	0.24	0.25	0.23	0.28	0.14	0.23	0.15	0.16	0.25
F-statistic	24.72**	19.61**	21.02**	19.77**	15.53**	15.11**	18.76**	11.29**	13.29**	13.39**

Note. DACA = Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; TPS = Temporary Protected Status; UC = University of California; CSU = California State University.

*

p ≤ .05. ^**p ≤ .001.

Legal vulnerability weakly moderates the relationship between respondent’s prepandemic economic insecurity and negative financial impacts (M1: β = 0.47, p ≤ .001 vs. M2: β = 0.39, p ≤ .001). Specifically, higher levels of mean perceived discrimination (M5: β = 0.13, p ≤ .05) and mean threat to family (M5: β = 0.13, p ≤ .05) are both positively associated with increased negative financial impacts. Although campus environment factors do not moderate the main relationship of interest, university system and undocumented student support service use are both positively associated with increased negative financial impacts, net of demographic controls. Being in the UC university system versus the CSU university system increases negative financial impacts by 0.22 (p ≤ .05) and more use of undocumented student services prepandemic is associated with an increase in negative financial impacts by 0.04 (p ≤ .05).

Health impacts

The right panel of Table 4 provides the ordinary least square regression results predicting negative health impacts. M1 demonstrates that net of demographic controls, respondent’s mean prepandemic economic insecurity is positively associated with negative health impacts (M6: β = 0.38, p ≤ .001). Legal vulnerability, and to a weaker extent, family strains, moderate the association between prepandemic economic insecurity and negative health impacts. Including legal vulnerability factors reduces the coefficient of student’s mean economic insecurity to 0.20 (M7) compared with 0.38 (M6). Model 10, overall, best fits the observed variation of negative health impacts as indicated by the R² (0.27) and F-statistics, F(25, 913) = 13.39, p ≤ .001 (see Appendix B for a full set of results). With regard to legal vulnerability, having some liminal legal status, such as DACA or TPS, versus no legal status is associated with 0.22 (p ≤ .05) increase in negative health impacts (M10). Higher levels of mean perceived social isolation (M10: β = 0.14, p ≤ .05) and increased mean perceived discrimination (M10: β = 0.35, p ≤ .001) due to the immigration policy context are both positively associated with increased negative health impacts.

Including family strain factors reduces the coefficient of student’s mean economic insecurity to 0.31 (M7) compared with 0.38 (M6), indicating that these factors weakly moderate the association between student’s economic insecurity and negative health impacts. The full model, however, demonstrates that none of the factors are statistically significant once accounting for all the other moderators and demographic controls. Including the family strains variables in combination contribute to weakening the association between student’s economic insecurity and negative health impacts. Last, while campus environment factors do not significantly moderate the relationship between economic insecurity and negative health impacts, both university system and undocumented student support service use are positively associated with increased negative health impacts. Being in the UC university system versus the CSU system increases negative health impacts by 0.26 (p ≤ .001) and more use of undocumented student services prepandemic is associated with an increase in negative health impacts by 0.04 (p ≤ .05).

Discussion and Conclusion

Undocumented students are a uniquely marginalized student population that face structural barriers to college access, persistence, and completion due to economic insecurity, limited access to campus resources, and socioemotional exclusion (Enriquez et al., 2019; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015). Given the structural marginality of undocumented students, an economic and social shock such as the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to aggravate existing inequalities. To fully assess the impact of COVID-19 on undocumented college students, we used an ecological framework to not only situate undocumented students within social institutions—their family and college environments—but also within their communities by accounting for the perceived effect of existing immigration policy. By triangulating qualitative and quantitative data, we mapped the connections between legal vulnerability, preexisting economic insecurity and the negative impacts of the pandemic on undocumented college students’ academics, finances, and health. Qualitative findings showed that immigration status exacerbated the negative economic impact of the pandemic, leading to severe individual and family financial strains that had cascading negative effects on undocumented students’ academics and health. Quantitative findings focused on students’ own prepandemic economic insecurity to show that it was associated with worse academic, financial, and health impacts during the initial months of the pandemic.

Our findings reinforce initial studies documenting that marginalized students are more negatively affected by the pandemic (Aucejo et al., 2020; Black et al., 2020). Building on this work, our study examined a legally vulnerable population, and whether social institutions moderated these negative impacts. Students’ qualitative responses consistently centered the economic impact of the pandemic, pointing out how their own and family members’ undocumented status exposed them to deep financial strain and prevented them from accessing government financial support. The regression analyses provided important nuance to these portrayals as legal vulnerability and family strains consistently weakened the association between students’ own prepandemic economic insecurity and the negative academic, financial, and health impacts of the pandemic. In other words, prepandemic economic insecurity was not the sole factor aggravating student experiences during the pandemic, but other factors contributed to how severely students experienced initial negative impacts of the pandemic.

Legal vulnerability consistently moderated the association between students’ economic insecurity and our three main outcome variables, as demonstrated by substantially weakened main effects in the restricted and full models. Across all models, higher levels of mean perceived immigration-related discrimination before the pandemic was positively associated with more negative academic, financial, and health impacts during the initial months of the pandemic. In the qualitative responses, students discussed exploitative workplace environments that exacerbated the pandemic’s financial impact and anticipated discriminatory medical care. They also highlighted the institutional discrimination from being barred from receiving unemployment or federal aid due to their immigration status.

Legal vulnerabilities affected students’ experiences in other multifaceted ways. For example, the statistical results demonstrated that perceived threat to family was positively associated with increased negative financial impacts, while social exclusion was positively associated with increased negative health impacts. This may be because family separation is often linked to deep financial strain (Dreby, 2015), while social exclusion has health impacts (Gurrola & Ayón, 2018). Furthermore, the quantitative results showed that having DACA or TPS, versus no legal status, was associated with more negative health impacts. One possible reason for this finding is the uncertainty around the, then impending, Supreme Court decision on the DACA program’s legality, stressing beneficiaries who relied on employment authorization to provide for themselves and their families. These results highlight the multiple paths through which legal vulnerabilities operate to exacerbate pandemic inequities.

Family strain also moderated the association between student’s economic insecurity and negative academic, financial, and health outcomes, but compared with legal vulnerability, it was much weaker. Prepandemic family economic insecurity and parental unemployment were both associated with higher negative financial impacts of the pandemic. These results align with research demonstrating that undocumented students are likely to be from low-income households, cannot turn to their families for financial support, and are often expected to contribute financially (Abrego, 2018; Rodriguez, 2019). Although these factors were not associated with negative academic impacts, preexisting economic insecurity did manifest in students’ academics via their living situations. Our quantitative findings demonstrated that an increase in the size of the household was associated with an increase in negative academic impacts. Indeed, students qualitatively described overcrowded living situations that contributed to academic disruptions.

Campus environment factors either weakly or did not moderate the association between prepandemic economic insecurity and the three main outcomes. Despite expectations that educational institutions might ameliorate the negative impact of the pandemic for students, the sudden and severe shock of the pandemic seem to have prevented this. California universities shutdown in March, cutting students off from their usual campus support structures. Qualitative findings highlighted how campus resources such as study space and technology were no longer available, harming students’ academics. Thus, our findings suggest that the benefits of campus-wide resources, as they relate to student success, depend on a continuous rather than cumulative provision of services. The quantitative results also demonstrated that being a student in the UC system, versus the CSU, was positively associated with increased negative academic, financial, and health impacts. Differences may emerge because UC campuses host a much larger number of on-campus residential students and offer more support services, thus inflicting a greater burden on UC undocumented students who were forced to relocate to their permanent homes and cut off from campus support. Indeed, UC undocumented students report using more campus resources than their CSU peers (Enriquez et al., 2020). Additional research is needed to further examine what campus factors are driving such variation.

Limitations

Although our study makes several contributions, some limitations remain. First, our qualitative data is composed of short-answer responses, limiting our ability to fully describe the process through which the pandemic-harmed students. Second, we only have data from students in 4-year institutions. Undocumented students attending 2-year institutions are known to have different experiences due to the different resources and flexibility provided by these institutions (Hsin & Ortega, 2018; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015). Third, our sample is composed primarily of Latina/o/x-identified individuals and DACA recipients, so we may not adequately document the types and depth of legal vulnerabilities experienced by this heterogenous student population. Fourth, our study took place in California, which is a relatively inclusive policy context for undocumented immigrants; pandemic strains and legal vulnerabilities are likely more severe in less inclusionary policy contexts.

Implications for Policy and Practice

Given the central role that educational institutions play in the lives of college students, universities can—and should—play a greater role in buffering the effects of societal shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. With time and sufficient resources, universities were eventually able to help buffer the pandemic’s impact on students. For instance, the University of California responded to undocumented students’ ineligibility for federal relief funds by providing institutional emergency grants (Sanchez, 2021). This highlights the more expansive role that universities should play in ameliorating the effects of the structurally unequal set of factors faced by marginalized students.

Anticipating future shocks, campuses should establish holistic safety net practices that allow undocumented students to better manage disruptions, whether they be individual or collective emergencies. Administrators should explicitly consider financial and legal vulnerabilities when designing policies and practices to ensure that they will meet the needs of this marginalized student population. Given the economic insecurity associated with undocumented status, universities should provide need-based assistance and emergency grant aid. Cross-campus partnerships between financial aid, academic support services, mental health counseling, and undocumented student services could help mitigate the cascading effects of financial strain on students’ academics and mental health.