A Call for New Frameworks to Capture Latinx Immigrant Young Adults’ Racialized Educational Experiences in the United States

Abstract

This article assesses the literature on immigrant assimilation frequently used to explain the educational experiences and trajectories of immigrant young adults in the United States. These analyses often under-theorize the central roles that racialization, racism, and discrimination based on race and ethnicity play in shaping Latinx immigrant youth and young adults’ well-being, opportunities, aspirations, and impact on their access to resources. First, we review a substantive framework within this line of inquiry that compares the experiences of immigrant young adults across cities and states in varying contexts of reception. Second, we examine empirical research that highlights the racist nature of immigration law, the disparate impact of racialized enforcement practices, and the emergence of a unique racialized subjectivity among Latinx immigrant young adults. We synthesize these works and suggest that studying the impact of immigration policies and enforcement practices on Latinx immigrant young adults requires explicitly accounting for the racialization of Latinx immigrants in the United States and the structural forms of racial violence they endure. Finally, we call for studies to both employ race-conscious frameworks and account for the type of critical care that exists in community-school partnerships that help mitigate the harmful effects of immigration policies and enforcement practices. This can equip researchers with tools to develop approaches to studying the increasingly diverse immigrant population in U.S. schools and society, while simultaneously fostering healing conversations.