Rob Smith: "Horatio Alger Lives in Brooklyn...but Check His Papers"

Topic(s)

Immigration

09/29/2011 Vera Institute of Justice

undocumented college students

Diana Gordon 13 Oct 3:57PM

My interest in this problem arose when a first-rate MA student told me he would not bother with getting a Ph.D. because he would not be able to get a job on completing it because he was undocumented. At the time he had a reasonably good job in a social service agency. Now the agencies with federal contracts are required to use e-Verify and I assume this very bright young man will be or is out of a job. Other students have told me they won't pursue advanced degrees for the same reason. What a waste!

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About This Podcast

In this podcast, part of the 2010-2011 Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series, Rob Smith discusses a 15-year ethnographic research project following more than 100 children of Mexican immigrants to the United States. Although he found that almost 40 percent of these individuals attended college and had other positive outcomes, undocumented children lose legal protections as they move into early adulthood and their opportunities become severely limited, prompting what Smith calls “profound and serious moral and ethical questions.”

Rob Smith is a professor of sociology at Baruch College and CUNY Graduate Center.