College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So a friend of mine linked to this article, about illegal immigrant kids who do well in school until they realize they won't be able to get financial aid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So a friend of mine linked to this article, about illegal immigrant kids who do well in school until they realize they won't be able to get financial aid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-01T15:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html\",\"name\":\"College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-01T15:23:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-01T15:23:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"So a friend of mine linked to this article, about illegal immigrant kids who do well in school until they realize they won't be able to get financial aid\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question","description":"So a friend of mine linked to this article, about illegal immigrant kids who do well in school until they realize they won't be able to get financial aid","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question","og_description":"So a friend of mine linked to this article, about illegal immigrant kids who do well in school until they realize they won't be able to get financial aid","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2013-09-01T15:23:00+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html","name":"College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-09-01T15:23:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-09-01T15:23:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"So a friend of mine linked to this article, about illegal immigrant kids who do well in school until they realize they won't be able to get financial aid","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":872,"date":"2013-09-01T15:23:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-01T15:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html"},"modified":"2013-09-01T15:23:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-01T15:23:00","slug":"college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/college-and-illegal-immigrants-an-honest-question.html","title":{"rendered":"College and Illegal Immigrants: an honest question"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So a friend of mine linked to this article<\/a>, about illegal immigrant kids who do well in school until they realize they won\u2019t be able to get financial aid to attend college,\u00a0or until they watch this happen to their older siblings or friends, and they drop out and give up.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Now, to be sure, I\u2019ve never quite understood whether this means that they then just join their dad in the day labor line outside the local Home Depot, or whether they join mom as an under-the-table nanny or maid, or whether they get the same kind of fake ID that\u2019ll get them a job where the employer doesn\u2019t use e-verify, or what exactly it is that they do.\u00a0 And when the papers\u00a0report on a student who, against all odds, perseveres and makes it through college, where exactly does the tuition money come from?\u00a0 More work on false IDs?\u00a0 No one seems to care.<\/p>\n

But in any case, what I\u00a0really don\u2019t understand is why these kids put themselves through all this hardship when they (at least the Mexicans, who are generally the ones featured in such reporting, and most of the others as well) could get a quality college education for the price of a ticket back home.\u00a0 Public universities in Mexico are free, at least for Mexican citizens!\u00a0 No financial aid necessary!\u00a0 (except for some family support, possibly, for living costs, I suppose.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Is it fear of striking out on their own?\u00a0 Join up with some other \u201cexpats\u201d\/\u201dreturnees\u201d\/whatever you want to label American-educated Mexicans.\u00a0 And, after all, that\u2019s the age when adventurous living abroad is highly-prized.<\/p>\n

Or is it fear of missing out on a future amnesty?\u00a0 Do these students stay in the U.S. based on an expectation that if they wait long enough, they\u2019ll be granted the legal right to work here, which they\u2019d lose if they returned back to Mexico?<\/p>\n

Or does the Mexican government impose further admission restrictions, such as the demand for a Mexican high school diploma and intentionally exclude these kids, whose parents they\u2019ve likewise been happy to push to the U.S.?<\/p>\n

Some time back, the Trib featured even more pityable cases, college graduates who couldn\u2019t put their degrees to use \u2014 like the Latino Studies student, and the International Business major, who surely would be well positioned for an ex-pat-like position in a Spanish-speaking country but instead sat in the U.S. and waited (and worked under the table?), with the reporter, at any rate, not reporting on any efforts to find work abroad.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m\u00a0only midly\u00a0sympathetic to the claim that \u201cthe US is the only country they know.\u201d Their own parents\u00a0were\u00a0perfectly willing to uproot themselves to a new country,\u00a0without knowing the language, without knowing anyone there.\u00a0 These young people know Spanish, have extended family in their home country, have a strong education and an advantage in English fluency.\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s harsh, and an amnesty, under the right conditions, might still be appropriate, but in the meantime, what a waste not to think of alternatives abroad!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"