Amplifying Black Undocumented Student Voices in Higher Education

This book centers a qualitative study exploring the experiences of 15 Black undocumented students and the author’s own experiences as a Black DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient, highlighting the invisibility and lack of belonging Black undocumented students face in the undocumented community and the United States at large.

Access and success within higher education for undocumented students cannot be achieved unless those implementing policies understand the full context of the community. Through both an interpretative phenomenological approach and biographical memoir, this volume makes meaning of the experiences of undocuBlack students, a group who do not often see themselves being represented in the immigrant narrative. It argues that without visibility, undocuBlack students are rarely the beneficiaries of advocacy and become targets of overcriminalization. The stories told here examine the intersection of race and identity in determining positioning within society, with the goal of contributing awareness and promoting more inclusive practices among higher education communities.

This text offers an important new perspective for faculty and administrators, policymakers, upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, as well as general readers with an interest in Black and immigrant narratives and the undocumented experience as an academic subject.

Felecia S. Russell is Director of the Higher Ed Immigration Portal at the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, as well as founder of her own online platform Embracing Undocumented. Dr. Russell identifies as a Jamaican-born, American-raised, Black woman.