Opening college gates to immigrants

A college education has become a cornerstone of the American dream. Now more than ever, a four-year degree can lead to higher-paying jobs and an improved quality of life. Many immigrants, though, never realize that dream.

A recent report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy describes the barriers immigrants face in seeking to enroll in postsecondary education. It also offers solutions for helping more immigrants attain a college degree. "Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants" details the demographic and educational characteristics of the U.S. immigrant population.

According to the report, immigrants generally have lower levels of educational attainment than the U.S. population as a whole, and immigrants between ages 18 and 24 (the age range of traditional college students) are less likely to enroll in college than their native-born peers. Immigrant college students, who made up 12 percent of U.S. undergraduates in 2003-04, are more likely than the general undergraduate population to be nontraditional students and are more likely to enroll in community colleges and for-profit institutions. And immigrant students are less likely than the average undergraduate to earn a bachelor’s degree.

The report further found that educational attainment varies among immigrants based on their country of origin. Three-quarters of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean have never attended college, and almost half have not graduated from high school, while nearly half of immigrants from Africa and Asia hold bachelor’s degrees or higher.

Immigrants’ limited proficiency in English, lack of financial resources, and work and family responsibilities can prevent their enrolling and succeeding in college. The report cautions that an uneducated immigrant population has "major implications for the nation as a whole," not just for immigrants themselves. Increasing educational opportunities for immigrants, therefore, is crucial to America’s economic competitiveness.

To that end, the report calls for government at the federal, state and local level to develop policies to help immigrants gain access to higher education. For example, it supports passage of the DREAM Act, legislation that would increase college access for younger undocumented immigrant students, by providing a six-year path to legal status starting after high school graduation for individuals brought to the U.S. more than five years ago as children. (In 2005, the AFT executive council passed a resolution in support of this legislation, which currently is before Congress.)

The report also recommends that the federal government increase funding for ESL classes and specifically target immigrant students for its TRIO programs, which attempt to promote college access among low-income students who would be the first in their families to attend college.

The report notes that social mobility increasingly depends upon a four-year degree. Making college more accessible for immigrants, therefore, "is a necessity if the United States is to remain a land of opportunity for those who come here in search of a better life."

U.S. Losing ground on academic degrees

The United States may have the strongest system of higher education in the world, but low college-completion rates jeopardize that standing—and the nation’s economic well-being—according to Jobs for the Future and the Lumina Foundation for Education. The two groups are pushing a multiyear "Making Opportunity Affordable" campaign.

An analysis called "Hitting Home" presents striking data on where we’re headed. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), other highly competitive nations are improving both the quality of education they provide their youth, and their systems’ capacity to serve growing numbers. As a result, seven nations (Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Sweden) now lead the United States in degree attainment.

Even more striking, every developed nation except Germany and the United States shows greater degree-attainment levels among 25- to 34-year-olds than 45- to 54-year-olds. In the United States, the percentage of workers ages 25-34 who have a postsecondary degree is actually smaller than the percentage of baby boomers with such a degree.

This plays badly down the road, when boomers are out of the workforce. A National Center for Higher Education Management Systems report called "The Degree Gap" analyzes the disparities, and estimates that the United States will need to produce 15.6 million more people with bachelor’s and associate’s degrees by 2025, if it is to keep up with its best-performing peers. That means ramping up degree production by 37 percent.

But as the Making Opportunity Affordable campaign points out, increasing U.S. educational productivity will require policies that address K-12 quality, states’ investment in higher education, and inequities in resources directed at minority (African-American, Hispanic and Native American) student achievement.

Learn more at www.makingopportunityaffordable.org.