Pathways to Mobility: Family and Education in the Lives of Latinx Youth

Leah C Schmalzbauer

In the context of US higher education, the collective advancement of low-income youth, especially youth of color, has been limited. Latinxs are faring the worst, with the lowest college graduation rates when compared to Blacks, whites and Asian Americans. Yet, while collective mobility stagnates a growing number of Latinx youth are finding their way into elite colleges and universities. In this paper, we draw from life history interviews and focus groups to explore the mobility pathways of low-income Latinx youth who have achieved admission into a highly selective college. We pay special attention to how Latinx youth are experiencing educational mobility as members of socially marginalized families and communities. Our findings highlight the importance of three overlapping networks-family networks, local school and community networks, and elite recruitment networksto students' ability to achieve mobility into education's upper echelons. We argue that place shapes both network access and the meaning educational mobility has in youths' lives.

Qualitative Sociology https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-022-09523-5 Pathways to Mobility: Family and Education in the Lives of Latinx Youth Leah Schmalzbauer1 · Manuel Rodriguez2 Accepted: 18 October 2022 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022 Abstract In the context of US higher education, the collective advancement of low-income youth, especially youth of color, has been limited. Latinxs are faring the worst, with the lowest college graduation rates when compared to Blacks, whites and Asian Americans. Yet, while collective mobility stagnates a growing number of Latinx youth are finding their way into elite colleges and universities. In this paper, we draw from life history interviews and focus groups to explore the mobility pathways of low-income Latinx youth who have achieved admission into a highly selective college. We pay special attention to how Latinx youth are experiencing educational mobility as members of socially marginalized families and communities. Our findings highlight the importance of three overlapping networks - family networks, local school and community networks, and elite recruitment networksto students’ ability to achieve mobility into education’s upper echelons. We argue that place shapes both network access and the meaning educational mobility has in youths’ lives. Keywords Immigrant second generation · Latina/o/x youth · Immigrant families · Educational mobility · Elite institutions of higher education · Immigrant bargain Leah Schmalzbauer Lschmalzbauer@amherst.edu Manuel Rodriguez Mrodri27@nd.edu 1 Amherst College, Morgan Hall, 01002-5000 Amherst, MA, USA 2 University of Notre Dame, 4060 Jenkins Nanovic, 46556 Notre Dame, IN, USA 13 Qualitative Sociology Introduction Second generation Latinxs are enrolling in colleges and universities at a rate surpassing US-born whites and Blacks, yet their completion rates continue to lag. Only 21% have a bachelors’ degree (Carnevale and Fasules 2017), suggesting that despite high educational ambitions, significant barriers to achievement remain. Countering these deficit-based statistics is a story of Latinx educational mobility that has received little scholarly attention; an increasing number of low-income Latinx youth are securing places in highly selective US colleges and universities (Pan and Reyes 2021; Reyes 2018; Schmalzbauer and Andrés 2019). What factors shape their educational mobility pathways? How are Latinx youth experiencing educational mobility in the context of their immigrant families and communities? In this paper, we draw from 60 life history interviews with Latinx youth, in-depth interviews with a subset of 10 of their parents, and two focus groups to explore the educational mobility pathways of high achieving Latinx youth. Our youth sample is comprised of low-income Latinxs who are the first in their families to attend college in the United States and who are set to graduate from a highly selective institution. We find that simultaneous support from three networks is necessary to secure this form of educational mobility. Strong family networks, led by immigrant parents, comprised the base for youths’ educational mobility, providing basic security and support and, for most, instilling high educational expectations and aspirations. Youth were also immersed in robust local school and/or community networks, in which cross-class actors identified their intellectual talents and gave them individually focused encouragement and mentorship that guided them on a path toward college. We found that aspiring youth then needed to simultaneously leverage the support and expectations of their immigrant families and that of teachers or other cross-class actors (see also Rendón 2019) in order to access elite college recruitment networks. For some, this mobility pathway was clear. For others, the navigation was tricky, and the stakes of each decision were high. Indeed, we found that in addition to variations in family and school support, where one grew up mattered, shaping youth’s ability to leverage their family and institutional networks to tap into elite recruitment networks. Specifically, youth who grew up in global cities (i.e. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc.), which are hubs for financial and educational capital, as well as immigration (Kasinitz et al. 2009; Sassen 2008), tended to have readier access to cross-class actors who could connect them with elite recruitment networks than did those who grew up in secondary cities, suburbs or remote areas. Joining the Conversation: Educational Mobility and the Second Generation The youth whose stories anchor this article expressed a strong belief in education as the key to social mobility. They are not alone. Research suggests this belief is hegemonic among immigrants (Dhingra 2020; Greder and Arellanes 2018; Louie 2012; 13 Qualitative Sociology Lopez 2020; Schmalzbauer 2014; Schmalzbauer and Andrés 2019; Vazquez 2011; Yashikawa 2011). The conflation of educational and social mobility is reasonable. Statistics show quite clearly that, in general, those with a college degree do better financially than those without, and that those with a degree from a highly selective institution do even better still (Chetty et al. 2017; Torpey 2018). It thus makes sense that educational attainment is commonly used as a predictor of the social mobility of second-generation immigrants (Kao et al. 2013; Zhou and Bankston 2016). Immigrant parents have shown a particular commitment to this ideology, instilling it in their children through narratives that link educational opportunity to narratives of immigrant sacrifice (Louie 2012). Smith (2006) has argued that the second generation is motivated by an “immigrant bargain,” in which immigrant parents expect their children to pay back the sacrifices implicit in immigration by achieving educational success. And indeed, our participants, like immigrant youth from other backgrounds, talked about this “bargain” as a driving motivation for their educational aspirations and success (Abrego 2019; Flores 2021; Louie 2012; Suarez-Orozco and SuarezOrozco 1995). While family provides a central motivation in the lives of immigrant youth, we do not intend to paint an overly romantic image of immigrant families. Family relationships, like all relationships, are imbued with power and differential interests and, as such, they may be messy. Often times immigrant family networks serve as both bedrocks of support and generators of tension and resentment. They can also act as forms of social control, especially when they include high expectations of reciprocity (Dominguez 2011; Dominguez and Watkins 2003; Menjívar 2000). These expectations of, and commitments to, reciprocity were common among our study participants. Still, the motivating aspect of the immigrant bargain seemed to persist even when familial relationships were fraught and resentments brewed. While we found that family support was present in all of our participants’ lives, it alone was not enough to spur their educational mobility. To be sure, research finds that the immigrant bargain only bears fruit when it’s paired with what Louie (2012) terms a “constellation of support” (see also Smith 2006; Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco 1995), that includes social actors outside of the family. Similarly, Rendón (2019) differentiates between the family networks that ensure social reproduction by fulfilling basic human needs and security, from the leveraging networks typically found on a local institutional level which enable social mobility. In particular, she argues that cross-class ties with those who can connect high achieving marginalized youth with educational information and opportunities are essential for educational and social mobility (see also Lee and Zhou 2015). For our participants, committed mentors were typically at the center of their extra-familial support networks (Gonzales 2016; Louie 2012; Smith 2008; Zambrana and Hurtado 2015), serving as the cross-class actors who helped youth get ahead. These teachers, counselors and community members identified potential in youth, and then went above and beyond to help them develop and achieve their educational goals. To be sure, in many interviews, our participants referred to their mentors as “life changing” or being “the reason I am here today.” In addition to strong constellations of supports of family, teachers and mentors, we argue that youth need access to elite college recruitment networks in order to secure a position in a highly selective school. Little is known about what factors shape this 13 Qualitative Sociology access. While there is a growing body of research focused on low-income and marginalized youth who attend elite schools, most of this research focuses on their incorporation once they have arrived. From these findings we know that elite educational environments can be difficult places to adapt to, especially for students, and especially students of color, who come from working-class backgrounds (Ahmed 2012; Aries 2013; Jack 2019; Lee 2016; Warikoo 2016). To be sure, achieving educational mobility does not preclude the emotional challenges of moving between what can be radically different contexts of home and school, and students’ accompanying need to develop strategies to navigate the new, and sometimes hostile, social terrain of elite higher education. But how they get there in the first place, remains understudied. Sociologist Anthony Jack (2019) provides clues to their pathways. He terms the students who attend preparatory high schools that inure them to an elite environment the “privileged poor.” He found they have an easier time incorporating into an elite environment than the “doubly disadvantaged” who come from public, under-funded high schools. We intuit from Jack’s research that those who are part of the privileged poor have an easier time finding their way into elite recruitment networks, than do those who are from the doubly disadvantaged. Indeed, research suggests that place shapes the security, opportunities, networks and information marginalized youth have access to, as well as the ways in which one experiences the transition away from home and into and through college and beyond (Flores 2021; Gonzales and Burciaga 2018; Martinez and Salazar2018; Bickham Mendez and Schmalzbauer 2018). Bruhn and Gonzales (forthcoming), for example, argue that “local geographies” are critical determinants of the security and support migrant youth need to help them navigate their lives. Where one grows up is especially important for undocumented or DACAmented youth, who have to learn how to maneuver between different, and potentially contradictory, local and federal policy contexts. Place also impacts the ways in which youth think about family and home as they move through their teenage years, and construct their plans and aspirations for the future (Schmalzbauer 2014). We argue that where one grew up also determines who has the readiest access to the recruitment networks of elite colleges. Many highly selective schools have recently come to prioritize the recruitment of high-achieving low-income youth of color (Benson and Lee 2020; Jack 2019; Warikoo 2016). Their recruitment efforts often include partnering with privately-funded “pipeline programs” that support high-performing youths’ access to selective schools (Jack 2019). These programs are typically located in major cities, where networks of highly educated professionals (Sassen 2008) and progressive educational policies tend to be concentrated (Kasinitz et al. 2009). As an example, we reason that high performing youth in New York City or Los Angeles would be more likely to be connected to elite recruitment networks than would high performing youth in small towns or suburbs in the mid or mountain west. This falls in line with Hoxby and Avery (2012) who argue that while most US high school students who would qualify for full tuition-grants from highly selective schools do not apply, those who do apply tend to be from major urban areas. Rural youth, to the contrary, tend to apply to local state schools. Where one grows up also determines how far one would have to travel to attend a highly selective school, which can affect the experience of educational mobility. 13 Qualitative Sociology According to Mattern and Wyatt (2009), only 14% of American youth travel more than 500 miles to attend college, and only 4% travel more than 1000 miles. In comparison, Latinx youth travel an average of only 39 miles. Thus, for most Latinx youth, attending a highly selective school requires moving far away from home, which comes with its own challenges connected to one’s position within the family system (Schmalzbauer and Andrés 2019). But some students have to travel further than others, geographically and culturally. We find that those students who have to travel the furthest also tend to face the most limited opportunities to return “home” after graduation and fulfill their educational and professional ambitions. While there is a small, but growing, literature looking at the experiences of secondgeneration Latinx youth who are attending highly selective schools (Pan and Reyes 2021; Reyes 2018; Schmalzbauer and Andrés 2019; Smith 2008), we still know little about how they find their way into the highest strata of US colleges and universities. Inspired by Hoxby and Avery, whose important research revealed that low-income youth do not apply broadly to elite schools, we focus on low-income Latinxs who do apply. We hone in on the key institutions, places and relationships that leverage their success. Methodology This article is part of a larger research project exploring the pathways to and meanings of educational mobility in the lives of low-income Latinx youth. The narratives that frame this article come from life history interviews, focus groups and interviews with parents that Schmalzbauer conducted between 2015 and 2021. We have edited the excerpts for length and, when necessary, for readability. The 60 youth who comprise the core interview sample occupy intersecting social positions. They all identify as low-income, which means they were eligible for federal Pell Grants or full financial assistance from need-blind institutions. They are also the first in their families set to graduate from college in the United States. The youth participants represent a mix of immigration statuses. They are US citizens, permanent residents, undocumented and DACAmented (with temporary protection through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). They are members of mixed status and US citizen families, as well as families whose members have changed statuses over time. Participants identify as women, men, and non-binary, and they represent a range of Latinx backgrounds from diverse US geographic locations. Pseudonym Legal Status or Place of Birth Citizen Citizen Citizen Citizen Born in Ecuador Born in Colombia Ethnic Identity Luna Lisa Gloria Sony Emily Laura Gender Identity Woman Woman Woman Non-binary Woman Woman Ben Man Born in Colombia Colombian Mexican Mexican Mexican Puerto Rican Ecuadorian Colombian Home in the United States Chicago, IL Maryland Chicago, IL Holyoke, MA North Bergen, NJ Deerfield Beach, FL Palm Beach, FL 13 Qualitative Sociology Pseudonym Ana Gender Identity Woman Legal Status or Place of Birth Citizen Brenda Amanda Woman Woman Citizen Citizen Carlos Tito Maria Ernesto Eli Samantha Silvia Jaime Man Man Woman Man Woman Woman Woman Man Fiona Ricardo Francia Isabela Julia Cecilia Rebeca Cesar Kevin Woman Man Woman Woman Woman Woman Woman Man Man Born in Honduras Born in Peru Born in Colombia Born in Colombia Citizen Citizen Citizen Born in Dominican Republic Citizen Citizen Citizen Citizen Born in Mexico Born in El Salvador Citizen Born in Mexico Born in Mexico Miguel Ivan Man Man Citizen Citizen Alberto Omar Rosa Layla Man Man Man Woman Sandra Dianis Heidi Woman Woman Woman Born in Guatemala Born in Mexico Citizen Born in Dominican Republic Citizen Citizen Citizen Angelica Woman Citizen Beatriz Naomi Woman Woman Nora Woman Teresa Llaria Lucy Woman Woman Woman Born in Brazil Born in Dominican Republic Born in Dominican Republic Citizen Citizen Citizen Franchesca Woman Citizen 13 Ethnic Identity Cuban and Puerto Rican Mexican Salvadoran and Colombian Honduran Peruvian Colombian Colombian Ecuadorian Mexican Dominican Dominican Mexican Mexican Dominican Mexican Mexican Salvadoran Mexican/ Belgian Mexican Mexican Dominican Puerto Rican and Honduran Guatemalan Mexican Mexican Dominican Ecuadorian Dominican Mexican Mexican & Guatemalan Brazilian Dominican Home in the United States Fort Worth, TX Wyoming New York City, NY Northampton, MA Bradenton, FL Rhode Island South Carolina New York City, NY New York City, NY Hackensack, NJ Galloway, NJ Bronx, NY Waukegan, IL Bronx, NY Santa Ana, CA San Diego, CA Virginia Taos, NM Los Angeles, CA Oklahoma City, OK New York City, NY Carlisle, PA Houston, TX Evanston, IL Englewood, CA Queens, NY Newark, NJ Boston, MA New Brunswick, NJ Santa Ana, CA Melrose, MA Lowell, MA Dominican New York City, NY Mexican Dominican Salvadoran Black American Dominican Chicago, IL Mission Hill, MA Taylorsville, NC Annapolis, MD & West Palm, FL Qualitative Sociology Pseudonym Noel Paola Antonio David Gender Identity Man Woman Man Man Legal Status or Place of Birth Citizen Citizen Born in Mexico Citizen Camila Jon Gaby Ramon Kimberly Edith Bridget Violeta Fidel Zaida Leisy Woman Man Woman Man Woman Woman Woman Non-binary Man Woman Woman Leo Man Citizen Citizen Citizen Citizen Born in Panama Born in Venezuela Born in Colombia Citizen Citizen Citizen Born in Dominican Republic Citizen Ethnic Identity Mexican Mexican Mexican Dominican & Honduran Mexican Dominican Nicaraguan Dominican Panamanian Venezuelan Colombian Nicaraguan Dominican & Cuban Honduran and Cuban Dominican Home in the United States San Angelo, TX Santa Barbara, CA New Jersey Village of Pelham, NY San Diego, CA Washington, DC Highland, CA Kissimmee, FL Panama Doral, FL Palm Harbor, FL Miami, FL New York City, NY Miami, FL Rahway, NJ Mexican Edinburg, TX While Schmalzbauer sought to talk to students who identified as low-income, Latinx and first-generation college students, she left other parameters of the sample open so as to be able to explore additional factors that might prove to be important. For example, upon noticing that “place” was emerging across the interviews as shaping youths’ educational pathways, Schmalzbauer and Rodriguez, who was her research assistant at the time, conducted two focus groups. The first constituted five students who grew up in global cities with robust immigrant communities - New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and Boston. The second included five students who grew up in smaller cities, towns and rural areas – Oklahoma City, Wyoming, southern New Jersey, rural North Carolina, and west Texas. Schmalzbauer also completed “family constellation interviews” (see Dreby 2010) for which she completed life history interviews with at least one parent and sibling of ten participants. She selected these families for geographic diversity and for siblings who were on different educational trajectories. Eight families lived in or adjacent to major cities and/or immigration hubs, and two of the families were located in remote areas. Seven of the families included siblings who were on similar educational trajectories, while three of the families included siblings who were on diverging tracks in which one sibling was not expected to graduate from a four-year college. For this article we draw only from the interviews with parents. This research prioritizes depth of meaning within an intergenerational and intragenerational family framework. Most of the formal interviews lasted between two and four hours and Schmalzbauer had multiple interactions with participants. A life history approach allowed us to analyze educational mobility from the perspectives of the participants and thus to gain an understanding of how they defined and understood their own and, in the case of the parents, their children’s educational mobility. It also enabled us to pinpoint key relationships, institutions, places and experiences 13 Qualitative Sociology that shaped youths’ mobility trajectories throughout the life course, and to put these into a larger social-historical context. This study was based at Amherst College, a highly ranked liberal arts college, that is one of only six US institutions of higher education that provides need-blind aid to all who are selected for admission, including those who are undocumented. Institutions with need-blind policies are committed to admitting students independent of their ability to pay tuition, and ensuring they graduate debt-free except for additional expenses students agree to take on. The small, student-centered community of Amherst, where Schmalzbauer is a faculty member and Rodriguez is a recent graduate, allowed us to develop strong relationships of trust with research participants and their families. It also allowed Schmalzbauer to incorporate collaborative, participative methods throughout the study, from the development of the project through to the interpretation of the data. Indeed, the project was born from a conversation Schmalzbauer had with a low-income Latinx student at Amherst College who wondered why no one was writing about “them” – marginalized Latinxs who were succeeding in education. He became Schmalzbauer’s first research assistant. After this conversation, Schmalzbauer organized exploratory focus groups with other low-income, Latinx, first-generation college students at Amherst to see if they shared interest in such a project. The focus groups revealed great enthusiasm. From the project’s inception, Schmalzbauer worked with a rotating team of research assistants, the majority of whom were low-income, Latinx, and first-generation college students. Most, though not all, were social science and humanities majors who had some training in research methods. Still, Schmalzbauer did qualitative methods and ethics training with all of them. For five years, the research team met weekly to discuss the research and share insights. The involvement of students, who were stakeholders in the community under study, distinguishes the project. Student collaborators worked with Schmalzbauer to develop the literature review, recruit participants, run focus groups, identify and analyze themes, and code and analyze data. The team coded all the data using Dedoose software. Our coding was inductive. We first coded for themes we identified in the literature, then expanded the coding to include new themes that emerged. We then did a second round of coding using the expanded code book. Rodriguez, a low-income Latinx student from a mixed legal status family, now a doctoral student in sociology, was the leader of this student team for two years. Overall, the community-based nature of this project provided a space for a coproduction of knowledge between Schmalzbauer and low-income, Latinx, first-generation students at Amherst. Of course, situating this research in Schmalzbauer’s job site also presented risks and complications. Schmalzbauer has been critically aware since this project’s beginning that her position as a faculty member doing research with students, if not regulated, could put unintended pressure on Latinx students. As such, the research team put protections in place. For example, student research assistants recruited all interview participants. Also, while several participants had taken a class with Schmalzbauer, she never conducted interviews with a student enrolled in a class with her or who intended to take a class with her in the future (though there were a couple of exceptions in terms of the latter). The majority of participants were third- or fourthyear students when the interviews took place. This also meant that by the time their 13 Qualitative Sociology interviews were transcribed and analyzed, they had already graduated. This research has approval by the Institutional Review Board of Amherst College. All names are pseudonyms and we have changed any directly identifying information. Family Support and the Immigrant Bargain Antonio was only four years old when he left rural Oaxaca with his young mother and uncle. Their destination was a small Mexican enclave in southern New Jersey where his grandparents had settled a few years earlier. Antonio’s memories of his early childhood are transnationally scattered. He remembers the dusty roads in his southern Mexican village, and the warm feeling of being surrounded by family. His memories of leaving his village, though, are vague, as are those of his border crossing and initial settlement in the United States. The only clear recollection he has from that time is the unwavering faith he had in his mom; he knew that as long as they were together, he would be okay. In the United States, Antonio’s mom was “always, always, always working…” Antonio paid close attention to her work ethic and determination and, as he grew older, he began to digest her consejos – words of advice and wisdom - as inspiration: “To be successful,” she would tell him, he “would have to work harder than everyone else,” and “be better than exceptional.” He “would have to be perfect.” She also told him that education was the only ticket she could offer him out of a life of poverty and insecurity. We didn’t have that much money, but when it came to education my mom… held nothing back. She was like, if I have to work these hours for you to be able to do the projects that you need to do, I’ll give it to you…I didn’t have that many clothes or toys...but when it came to education...she was open to whatever I needed. When Antonio learned he was undocumented, he finally understood why his mom’s tone was always so serious when she delivered her advice, and why she had set the bar so high. Antonio’s membership in an undocumented, working class family shaped his goals and ideas of success. He was still quite young when he set the goal of repaying his family by being exceptional in all that he did. The immigrant bargain became his emotional fuel; it was the elixir for his dreams and the drive that led him to pursue an elite education. Alberto was born in Guatemala. Like Antonio, he came to the United States undocumented when he was only a toddler, with his mother. They settled in Houston where they had family and there was a large Guatemalan community. Alberto spoke emotionally about the risks his mother took and the suffering she endured leaving Guatemala and coming to the United States so she could secure a better life for him. A junior when Schmalzbauer first interviewed him, he credited his mom for his educational drive and opportunities. “I think it (her immigration story) really pushed me to try to do my best…to please her because I knew how much she had sacrificed… My mom tried to get me into really good schools so I could have a good education…” 13 Qualitative Sociology Indeed, they were both committed to the idea that Alberto’s educational success was the only way they could achieve a better life. Parents partnered their belief in education as the key to mobility with rules to ensure their children stayed serious and focused. Iván’s story serves as an example. He grew up in the Bronx. His mom is Honduran and his dad Puerto Rican. While he wanted to spend his afternoons playing sports with his friends, his mother did not allow it until he could assure her that his homework was done and done well. “She’d always ask me… ‘did you finish your homework? … You can’t go outside until you finish your homework.’… She was always lurking there. If I got anything below a 90 she’d be disappointed.” Miguel shared a similar story. He grew up in a multigenerational Dominican household in New York City. As he described it, “My mom was really…strict about certain things, so that helped me to focus a lot on school. I loved video games … but my mom prohibited me from playing video games during the weekdays. I couldn’t touch them…I had to study.” Miguel remembers internalizing that education was the key not only to his own success but to his family’s betterment. A central part of parents’ commitment to and sacrifice for their children’s education was making sure their children did not have to work outside of the home while they were in high school. Only seven of the sixty youth Schmalzbauer interviewed had jobs during that time. Several said that they wanted to work, but their parents wouldn’t allow it, and the few who did work had to coerce their parents into letting them do so. Simply put, parents wanted their children’s priority to be school. Most families could have used the extra income, but not letting their children work was part of their immigrant bargain. Paola’s parents, both Mexican, worked extra shifts so she could focus solely on school. According to Paola, “School was always the most important. My mom used to say…the only thing you have to do is school. We’re working our asses off so that you can go to school.…” Beatriz heard a similar narrative. She migrated from Brazil with her parents and brother when she was in elementary school. After over-staying their tourist visa, they became undocumented and life was a constant struggle. Beatriz wanted to work in order to ease her family’s financial stress, but her parents would not allow it. My mom would always say… ‘I don’t want you to work, I just want you to study. I don’t want you cleaning houses like we’re cleaning houses. I want something better for you. I want you to excel in school’…And I always wanted to prove to my parents that...cleaning houses and doing all these humiliating jobs was going to be worth it...I was going to make them proud. Both Paola and Beatriz used their parents’ sacrifice as fuel for their educational ambitions. Parents validated their children’s interpretations of their messaging. In interviews, they talked about their own need to work when they were children. Indeed, most said they couldn’t remember a time in their childhoods when they weren’t engaged in work, some caring for children, others vending goods on the streets or working in 13 Qualitative Sociology the fields. As such, college was not an option. They wanted a different path for their children. Miguel’s mom, Elaine, went to high school in the United States after migrating from the Dominican Republic as a teen. She wanted to go to college, but her formal education came to a halt after high school graduation. She had no option but to get a full-time job. There was no safety net for her to fall back on and her family was counting on her to pitch in. She found work as a waitress at a university club in New York City, a job she has now held for over twenty years. It was there, waiting on wealthy alums of prestigious schools, that she committed to laying a path for her children to achieve a similar status. As such, she made sure they attended the best public schools available while keeping an eye out for scholarship opportunities for private programs. And she set strict rules so that school always came first. I am very strict. (I told my kids) you don’t have to help me out with the house… I want you to do...your homework. Your (job is to be) a good student and I take care of everything else. I don’t care if I have no sleep... But you have to do well in school. Elaine finds a lot of pleasure in now being able to share with the customers she serves that her son graduated from Amherst and her daughter from Brown. Pablo and Aurelia, Omar’s parents, both migrated from Guanajuato, Mexico to California. Pablo came first, enduring a brutal border crossing, followed by sleeping in his car for three months while he worked in the fields of southern California. Neither Pablo or Aurelia had the opportunity to study beyond primary school, something they both resent. As such, they vowed to do whatever they could so that their children wouldn’t have the same limitations. In their minds, that meant making sure school was always their children’s top priority. When I interviewed them in the summer of 2018, Aurelia told me, We always told our kids that education was the most important thing. We never let them work. We worked so they could focus on school. Well, sometimes they would work a bit with my husband during vacations, but never during school. They always wanted to work, to help. But we only let them do a little bit… enough so they know how hard it is and how little it is paid. This helps them understand what opportunities they have… Indeed, Pablo and Aurelia parented strategically, only allowing their children to work once in a while in order to teach them about the brutal reality of hard physical labor, and to nurture their belief that an education was the way to a better future. While themes of family sacrifice and support are threaded throughout the life histories Schmalzbauer collected, we also found examples of resentment and frustration on the part of youth. Indeed, sacrifice and high expectations within immigrant families can yield pressure, which can cause stress. Yet even in those cases where resentment or stress brewed, youth remained committed to the immigrant bargain. Ben, for example, came to the United States with his mom on a tourist visa during the Colombian civil war. While he understands and appreciates his mom’s desire 13 Qualitative Sociology to provide him security and opportunity, he resents her decision to migrate without documentation. Still, he wants to honor her sacrifice. I’ve really resented my mom for putting us in this situation...I love my mom and the sacrifices she made, but I don’t trust her judgment…Like around DACA... That’s when...my resentment was really building…Still...I want to come out of this (college) with a financially stable position where I can support my mom and insulate her from any other troubles...because of the...sacrifices she’s made to help me get here. Ben’s relationship with his mom is complicated, but that doesn’t take away from his appreciation for her sacrifice and commitment to her well-being. Youth mentioned other resentments, most having to do with parents’ inability to help them with schoolwork or navigate the education system. Our place-based focus groups revealed this to be most common for those who lived in remote areas that were ill-equipped to support immigrant youth and their families. Brenda, for example, grew up in the rural mountain west. Her’s was one of the few immigrant families in the area. No teachers or staff at her school spoke Spanish, which made it difficult for her parents to engage with her education. I kind of had resentment towards my parents for not being involved in school, and helping me when I needed it. I remember having a lot of friends saying, ‘oh I had my mom look over my essay and she helped me write it up.’ And I’d be like ‘she did what?’ It was just hard for them (my parents) to be involved. The same was true for Noel and Kevin, who similarly remember being frustrated that their parents could not support them, even though they understood why. Noel grew up in new immigrant destinations, in Colorado and west Texas. Kevin, born in Mexico, spent most of his childhood in Oklahoma. Their parents, while supporting their drive to be top students, were otherwise disengaged from their educations. Partly, this was due to communication and cultural barriers. It was also due to their unrelenting work schedules and low educational levels. I loved it (school)…but they were just never able to help me…I asked for first grade math help, and they couldn’t help me because their education is very minimal…So it’s that resentment...for not being able to...support me and not being involved. (Noel) I remember we had a school spelling bee and I won. I actually started crying because I realized my parents weren’t in the audience, and I was mad…But they had to work. They had kids to take care of and they had responsibilities… And it’s this sense of remorse, or just being mad, but also understanding it’s not their fault… (Kevin) While Noel and Kevin both understood the reasons why their parents couldn’t be involved in their school work and activities, that didn’t alleviate their frustration and 13 Qualitative Sociology sadness about this reality. But resentment did not mean they were less committed to using their educations to up-lift their parents. Independent of where youth grew up, tensions commonly arose when they started talking about moving away from home to attend college. The parents Schmalzbauer interviewed told her that letting their children leave home was one of the most difficult sacrifices they had to make. Youth, in turn, talked about the emotional repercussions of their decision. Layla grew up with a single mom in New York City. Her story mirrors what Schmalzbauer heard in many interviews. When Layla was applying to colleges outside of New York, her mom would say, “Oh my God that’s so far away.” She would then pause, and say, “…but if that’s what you want to do then you can do it.” While making the decision to move far from home to attend school was difficult for most participants, it was especially difficult for those who had never known anyone to do so. Lucy, for example, grew up in the rural south. She was raised by her mother and grandmother both of whom were born in the United States. Her dad was deported to El Salvador when she was quite young. The oldest child in a multigenerational household, she bears a lot of family responsibility and has strong emotional bonds with her mother and grandmother. During a focus group, Lucy shared that when she was applying to colleges her mom told her to aim high. But then when she was accepted into Amherst, her mom was overcome with conflicting emotions. When I told her…she went into the bedroom and closed her door, and she didn’t talk to me for the rest of the night. I thought she was mad at me. She came out the next morning and …. said, ‘I’m so proud of you, but this is so hard for me. You are my whole world...I don’t know what I’m going to do without you here, but I would never do anything to try and keep you here…’ No one in Lucy’s family had ever known someone to voluntarily move away from home. As she explained it, “This is not what people in our family do. This is not what people from our community do. It’s a lot of sadness…There’s this big fear that now that I’m gone, I won’t ever want to come back.” Lucy’s community is small, rural, and populated mostly with families who have been there for generations. Leaving was like breaking a deeply engrained social norm, a betrayal of sorts. Lucy’s experience resonated with Noel, who explained: Leaving Texas for college is not something people in my community do...To make this big migration to Amherst puts a lot of pressure on those of us from rural communities. To experience social mobility, you have to be prepared to leave your roots behind. While considering his post-high school plans, Noel had thought a lot about what it would take to move up the class ladder. He recognized that if he stayed in west Texas, his opportunities would be limited. As such, he was ambivalent about his loyalty to his community. Texas was home, and he loved it, but he also yearned for more than his town could offer him. Suzy, Noel’s mom, was also ambivalent. 13 Qualitative Sociology When he decided to apply to go to school far away, I couldn’t understand. ‘Why don’t you stay close to home,’ I asked? I didn’t understand why he would want to go to the other side of the world…He explained that Amherst was a school with a lot of prestige and it was really expensive, but if he got in he was promised a scholarship. I told him that if he got in, ‘Adelante.’ And when he got the letter of acceptance, I cried, because it’s so far away (crying). But I supported him. For me it was very difficult. But I told him if you want to go, you must go…It’s your future… All of the parents in this sample had left family behind themselves to come to the United States, and so they understood how hard the separation would be. Most, like Suzy, came to recognize that the opportunity formula hadn’t changed from when they first embarked on their immigrant journeys; social mobility required geographic mobility. There were others from remote areas who talked about the conflicting feelings of “wanting out,” and wanting to chase their dreams, yet feeling the emotional weight of their parents’ sadness mixed with their own love for and commitment to home. Brenda, for example, had known for a long time that she would have to leave her small town to have a better life. She described the emotional labor of explaining to her parents why leaving was the best decision. ...once I realized I could leave, I wanted to leave... And I told them… ‘I’m going to start the college application process, and I want you to know that the colleges I’m applying to are far away.’...My dad was really quiet, and he was like, ‘why do you want to go so far away?’ And I was like ‘because that’s where the opportunities are…’ After explaining my reasoning, they...recognized... they came to a whole new country and left their family members. Now…I have to make my own sacrifices to help them… No matter how difficult it was for students to leave home, ultimately what made the decision digestible was their commitment to family and community betterment. Everyone, even those with complicated family relationships, talked about educational mobility as a family pursuit, and one that they believed would lead to social mobility for all of them. As Brenda summarized, “I have watched my dad work himself to death…That’s my drive…I know education is our way out.” Teachers and Community Supports While family provided our participants critical support and motivation, our research reflects other sociological findings that family alone is not enough to enable educational mobility (Rendón 2019; Smith 2008). Instead, mobility depends on overlapping networks of support that include cross-class institutional actors who recognize students as high-performing, support the development of their educational capacities and help guide them toward college. 13 Qualitative Sociology Participants almost universally credited a teacher or teachers for giving them the confidence to aim for a highly selective school. Most described special, persistent, individualized attention and guidance from them. The couple of participants who did not feel supported by teachers, or who had negative experiences with school leaders, had other cross-class institutional or community actors in their lives who provided special backing and guidance. Fiona grew up in the Bronx. When her grandmother had a stroke, her family returned to Mexico for about a year. Fiona’s transition back to the U.S. was difficult. While she is a US citizen, her parents are undocumented, and the family was separated during their travels. While Fiona and her brother traveled with an aunt back to New York, her parents tried to cross without authorization and were detained for several months. Fiona told me that she was traumatized by the separation. Her first months back in the U.S. were, in her words, “awful”. Only a second grader, she explained that she was bullied by other students because of her dark skin and struggles with English. Still, she was an exceptionally strong student. Ultimately, it was a supportive teacher who turned school into a safe place for Fiona, and education into a family pursuit. Then I went to third grade, and I had a really good teacher. He was Mexican. And he was really nice to me…He was like, you’ve got to go to the library, you’ve got to be really proactive…. So, my mom would take us to the library, like all of the time. We literally knew the librarian. She (the librarian) would say, let’s read this book…and she’d give us tickets to the museum, or she’d give us tickets to, like, see a play, or stuff like that. With this teacher’s and the community librarian’s encouragement, Fiona and her brother pursued middle school with an enthusiasm and seriousness that followed them throughout high school. While in the vast majority of cases family support was strong and steady, there were a couple of cases in which parents were less than enthusiastic about their children’s educational pursuits. In these rare cases, teachers and mentors played an even more important role, especially in high school. Angelica’s story is an example. She grew up in Santa Ana, California in what she describes as a “very traditional” Guatemalan and Mexican family, in which patriarchy reined. Although she was a top student, her parents, both of whom only had primary school educations, were ambivalent about what she should do after high school. They agreed that she should go to college, but they did not want her to leave home. They expected her to continue helping with the cooking, cleaning and caring for her younger siblings. It was a teacher who inspired Angelica to pursue a highly selective college in spite of her parents’ reservations, promising that her parents would come around to the idea. He said, ‘what are your goals?’...No one had ever asked that... I didn’t have an answer for him...He had...my transcript in front of him and he’s like, ‘why aren’t you dreaming big? Why aren’t you thinking about college?’... I was like, ‘...I’m going to get my diploma and I’m going to get a job.’ He’s like ‘no, you 13 Qualitative Sociology are capable of more than that. You are a star. You need to dream bigger.’ He gave me hope... He stuck with me. With the support of this teacher, Angelica eventually persuaded her parents to allow her to leave home for school. Angelica’s case shows that youth can obtain high educational mobility without full parental enthusiasm as long as they have basic family support and a strong constellation of extra-familial support, typically anchored by a dedicated teacher. Teachers not only inspired confidence, they also provided hands-on support. This included giving students extra attention, and spending individualized time with them to develop their academic skills, and to shape them intellectually by exposing them to new ideas and ways of thinking. Iván credited his favorite high school teacher for nurturing his scholarly aptitude. While Iván grew up in the Bronx, he attended an elite preparatory school in Manhattan on a scholarship. It was a tough transition, and it took him a while to feel like he belonged and to gain the confidence to aim for a highly selective college. He was among many of the participants in this study who reflected on how important it was that this teacher was from a background similar to his own. This made the teacher relatable, a role model, and helped foster what Smith (2008) termed an “in-group identity”. I remember every day before track practice, I would go to his office…He was the first administrator in the school that knew what it was like to be growing up in the Bronx…So, I felt very comfortable with him…. I saw him as a role model… He had Mexican parents, and a working-class background. Him growing up in the Bronx and then going to Cornell and then doing these amazing things…That’s the trajectory that I wanted. Teachers, like Iván’s, who were from similar backgrounds to their Latinx students, nurtured the belief system that educational mobility was key to social mobility by sharing their own stories of success. Nora similarly spoke about the importance of having teachers in her high school that looked like her, understood her life and background, and who were living proof that upward mobility was possible through education. I feel like a lot of kids come into college go through this Black 101 process, or Latinx 101. . .There are self-esteem issues, because you never saw yourself represented….And, I didn’t have that. The cool kids looked like me. . .The smart kids looked like me. And I had teachers of color that went to really good schools, Columbia and University of Chicago and Colgate. So, we knew about these schools, because we had teachers who had gone to these schools and they were invested in us. These teachers also helped prepare students by letting them know that the transition into an elite white space would be difficult. They assured them that they would get through it and that they would be more resilient because of it. Nora and Iván both drew on this inspiration and wisdom as they made their way to and through Amherst. 13 Qualitative Sociology While supportive teachers and mentors were essential to youths’ educational mobility, the extent of that support varied depending on where one grew up and what kind of high school they attended (also see Jack 2019). Students who attained scholarships to preparatory high schools or who attended specialty public high schools with high college placement rates, enjoyed the most support on their pathway to Amherst. Students who lived in remote areas or students in large urban schools whose academic potential was overlooked, had to be uniquely creative and resilient to secure their pathways. For example, after Noel completed the last of the Advanced Placement math classes that were available in his remote Texas high school, his teacher, while encouraging, told him that if he wanted to continue, he would have to do it by himself. “She told me what chapters to study. And I just had to learn things like Taylor polynomials and … polar coordinates…on my own.” While Noel’s teachers were enthusiastic and supportive, they did not have the resources to guide him as they would have liked. Noel harnessed what he could from their support and did the rest on his own. He aced the course. There were others, also from remote areas, who faced hostility from school leaders. Importantly, in each case, another invested adult from the school or community was there to buffer the hostility and offer support. Kevin, for example, faced discrimination by administrators in his Oklahoma high school. “For my high school it was just me against the administration…. They would take the opportunity to tokenize me…but when I asked them to advocate for me… I remember the principal looking me dead in the eye and was like…you can advocate for yourself…” Ultimately Kevin found a supportive network and mentorship via his school dance troupe, which he credits for his academic success. Antonio also faced hostility in his southern New Jersey high school. “Even though it was overwhelmingly a minority school, their white students were the ones who they championed…. I mean I was there too, but I was an afterthought…” So, Antonio sought mentorship elsewhere. His distant cousin, who lived in the apartment above him, had graduated from the same high school years before and attended a highly selective school. He advised Antonio about what classes to take and he was the first to explain that there were private colleges that offered full funding for undocumented students. His support, combined with unwavering support from his mom and grandparents, helped Antonio survive and thrive in school despite a lack of encouragement from teachers and school leaders. Importantly, outliers like Kevin and Antonio confirm the importance of cross-class actors in aspiring youths’ lives. Youth’s life histories confirm that while families provided the base for educational mobility, additional support was necessary, generally from teachers or community members or in rare cases from extended kin or others outside the direct community. Most notably, educational mobility was supported by cross-class actors who gave striving youth persistent individualized attention, provided guidance and instilled the skills and confidence necessary for them to access higher education networks. 13 Qualitative Sociology Plugging into the Elite College Network All the participants in this study excelled in high school and by that time had their sights set on college. Yet most did not understand the different types of colleges and universities that existed, nor did they understand the ins and outs of financial aid. In interviews and focus groups youth said they had heard that Ivy League schools were best, and that private schools were prohibitively expensive. It is therefore logical that without access to elite college recruitment networks committed to assisting first generation college students navigate college admissions, most would have only applied to local public colleges. None would have employed a nuanced application strategy. This pattern maps onto Hoxby and Avery’s finding that most high performing students who would qualify for full tuition grants from highly selective schools do not apply because they do not know this support exists. Instead, they apply to public schools close to home and most go into debt to attend (see also Goldrick-Rab 2016). What differentiates the majority of our participants, is that beyond having family support, and teachers and mentors whose backing they could leverage to create a college pathway, they were connected with elite college networks. Most students were connected via extra-curricular college support programs or teachers or mentors. In the rare cases in which youth lacked this support, they learned about highly selective schools via mailings after being identified by their high standardized test scores. These latter students, all from remote areas, had the most tenuous paths to Amherst, further suggesting the key role of place in connecting youth to elite networks. Those with the clearest and most direct road to Amherst were part of private pipeline programs funded by progressive capital. One of the most well-known pipeline programs is Prep for Prep in New York City. Miguel was selected for Prep for Prep while he was attending a charter middle school, following a rigorous testing process. Once accepted, he participated in extracurricular tutoring and mentoring, including an academic summer “boot camp.” The program culminated in a full tuition grant to an elite preparatory high school. Not only did Prep for Prep put Miguel on a path to excel academically, it gave him the cultural capital and confidence to navigate the process by connecting him with multiple mentors and cross-class guides committed to his educational success. Most participants, however, did not enter a pipeline program in middle school, nor did they get scholarships to attend elite preparatory schools. Instead, most connected with extra-curricular programs in high school that helped them better understand and navigate the higher education landscape. Omar, for example, moved to Evanston, IL, from the Central Valley of California with his Mexican parents, Pablo and Aurelia who we introduced in the previous section, and two siblings when he was a teenager. Evanston, a first ring suburb of Chicago and home to Northwestern University, is the base for Evanston Scholars, a program that matches highly educated professionals in the community with high performing low-income students. Omar credits Evanston Scholars with his admission to Amherst. My sophomore year I had no idea what was happening. Other people were starting to talk about college...My parents had told me to study and work hard and get an education. Yah, I’ll go to college, but like where am I going to go? 13 Qualitative Sociology ... How do I apply? When do I apply? ... That was all just a blur…I applied (for Evanston Scholars) my sophomore year...This program assigns you a mentor… I described to him what kind of school I wanted... And he was like okay, this one, this one, this one… he helped me throughout the entire process…I don’t think I would be here if I hadn’t gotten a chance to be in that program... While Pablo and Aurelia had minimal formal education, their incredible work ethic prepared and inspired Omar to do well in school. Pablo and Aurelia always told him he had to go to college. Aurelia, who worked as a custodian at a highly selective university, could picture her children in a similar environment, and so she pushed them to do well and aim high. Omar responded, staying up late into the nights so he could have the kitchen to himself to study. But ultimately, it was his teachers and the mentors he met through Evanston Scholars that steered his ambition and extraordinary academic performance onto a path to an elite school. Sandra also got help from a pipeline program. She grew up in Newark, NJ, raised by a single mom from Colombia. Sandra’s mom did everything she could to nurture Sandra’s educational opportunity, taking a cleaning a job in the local Catholic church when Sandra was young so Sandra could go to elementary school there for free. But the free parochial education ended in middle school and Sandra had no option but to attend her local, under-resourced high school. Soon thereafter Sandra was identified as a promising student by one of her teachers and invited to join a program called LEEP - Law and Education Empowerment Project. LEEP helped Sandra improve her academic skills and navigate the college admissions landscape. It also introduced her to professional mentors, all of whom were successful attorneys. LEEP was a college-bound program that I started my 8th grade summer.…I really don’t think I would have been here at Amherst without them…They told me about Amherst, told me about schools like Amherst...They explained things a lot more than I would have gotten in my high school because there were so many kids. I would go after school two times a week, and then...We’d do debate and then Saturday was writing class… Sandra had long been supported by strong family and local school networks, but LEEP enabled her to see the world of elite education for the first time, and to realize it was within her reach. The exposure inspired her, for sure, but more importantly, LEEP provided her with the guidance to translate her family and community support into a concrete pathway to an elite school. Similarly for Alberto, it was a teacher’s suggestion that he apply for a summer enrichment program at Rice that initially plugged him into the elite college network. The first year ends and I have all A’s....and I don’t have anything planned for the summer...One of my teachers is like, ‘there’s this program at Rice that I think you would be interested in, it’s a weeklong thing.’ And I was like, ‘yah, I have nothing else to do.’ And my mom was thrilled. ‘Oh, you’re going to be at Rice University!’ 13 Qualitative Sociology Once the program at Rice ended, Alberto was invited to join Emerge, a pipeline program which exposed him to highly selective schools and assisted him throughout the application process. Emerge...took us on a tour after sophomore year to visit schools...So I visited Harvard, Brown, Brandeis, Tufts....these elite schools. And you know we’re talking to college counselors and college students... Emerge also taught Alberto, a DACA student, which schools provided need-blind aid independent of legal status. This knowledge, combined with him mom’s enthusiastic support, nurtured his pathway to Amherst. Ricardo was also connected to a pipeline program by one of his teachers. While Ricardo was good in school, and his parents stressed the importance of education, he was unsure of how college would fit into his life. He grew up in an industrial hub outside of Chicago. His parents, both immigrants from Mexico, worked in low-wage jobs and money was always tight. The youngest of four, Ricardo watched his siblings struggle in school, and his sister get pulled into a gang. He felt like he was needed at home, so he thought that if he did go to college, he would stay close by. As such, when a Chicago-based pipeline program hosted a recruitment event at his high school, Ricardo did not attend. The next day, upon hearing that Ricardo missed the event, one of his teachers dragged him into the high school’s college counselor’s office to get information about the program. Ricardo described his teacher’s persistence. My teacher introduces herself to the college counselor, and tells her I need an application. She (the counselor) was like, ‘Oh did he go to the Family Reunion Night last night? That’s the requirement, that’s where you get the application.’ This is when my teacher started lying for me (laughing). She was like, ‘Ricardo needs an application. He couldn’t go last night because his parents were both working a second shift. He needs an application right now or else this is going be the biggest mistake that you’ve ever made.’ The counselor gave Ricardo an application, which he successfully completed with his teacher’s support. Ricardo was accepted into the program, and was connected with a mentor who taught him about highly selective, need blind schools and helped him through the application process. Ricardo credits the program, and his persistent teacher, with changing his life. The most common pipeline program utilized by participants was QuestBridge, an extraordinarily competitive program that matches high-achieving students from lowincome backgrounds with the nation’s top schools, which commit to offering them scholarships. Angelica’s math teacher connected her with a former student who had gone to college via QuestBridge. Angelica applied to their College Prep Program, which took her to Stanford University the summer after her junior year. She told Schmalzbauer that visiting Stanford opened her eyes to a new world. “That was the first time I was on a college campus. We got lost…It was huge. It was beautiful.” The next year, Angelica applied to QuestBridge’s College Program and was matched with Amherst. 13 Qualitative Sociology Tito also was accepted to Amherst via QuestBridge. Born in Peru, Tito had never known anyone who went to college. But both of his parents were determined that he get a college education. The small town in central Florida where he lived was worlds away from Miami and the extra-curricular support programs for high achieving youth that could be accessed there. So even though his parents were enthusiastic about him going to college, he did not know how to get there. An excellent student with dreams of medical school, Tito figured he would apply to a state university. Just when he was about to embark on this plan, a guidance counselor who had just learned about QuestBridge and saw potential in him, invited him to a meeting to talk about his college plans. This changed everything. She called me into her office...and she was like, ‘well Tito...you had really good grades. I just wanted to check up on you and see where you’re thinking of going to college.’ And I said...I was going to apply to UF. And she’s like, well have you ever thought about going out of state? ... And then...she was like, ‘have you heard about QuestBridge?’...So I looked it up...and... I decided to apply... Tito did not have to persuade his parents about leaving home to go to school. They supported him doing whatever he needed to do to get ahead. Several students, though they had teachers or mentors who encouraged them toward college, did not have anyone in their network with specific knowledge of pipeline programs, or highly selective schools and need-blind admissions. These students, all who lived in remote areas, only learned about highly selective schools because they performed well on a college preparatory exam. Ben, for example, who is a DACA student, had his sights set on attending college but knew little about the options available. Like Tito, he was from a small town in Florida, and figured he would apply to a state university and hope to find a way to pay for it. He assumed that his DACA status would prohibit him from attending an expensive school, because he wouldn’t have access to financial aid. He had never heard about need blind admissions. But then, after doing really well on the ACT, he started getting mailings from top-ranked schools inviting him to apply. Ben explained that “Amherst reached out to me with the diversity open house. So, I applied. I just got mailings…based on AP scores and ACT scores. And then QuestBridge sent me a mailing…told me to apply.” ...Those mailings were really important...as a source of information… I especially started getting them after I took my ACT…I was getting like random schools...I really only read the ones of... the prestigious schools that I had heard about abstractly …(My) teachers didn’t have much of an idea, counselors, not much of an idea...Getting that high score on the ACT kind of made me realize that there might be more open doors … Despite family support, good grades and enthusiastic teachers, Ben was cut-off from cross-class actors who knew about elite recruitment networks. As such, his test scores were the only mechanism available as a point of access. He reflected on how grateful 13 Qualitative Sociology he was that he paid attention to what seemed at first to be random college mailings, mailings that in a harried moment he just might have thrown away. Indeed, as Ben’s story suggests, place shaped elite network access in critical ways. Those who grew up in global cities were the most likely to know teachers and mentors who were aware of elite college pipelines or recruitment networks. Some of those teachers and mentors had accessed the same pipelines or networks themselves. Students who grew up in remote areas were the least likely to get this guidance and thus had the most precarious journey through the college selection and application process. Indeed, a singular decision, like checking the right box on a college admissions’ test form, or not throwing away a mailing, was the reason some were able to access an elite recruitment network. But even in these cases, family and local community support systems were there to push them along. Discussion and Conclusion Family served as the critical base on which our participants’ schooling success was built. Beyond providing youth with their basic needs and security, parents instilled inspiration and expectations rooted in the immigrant bargain. While this was essential, though, it was not enough. Youth also needed to be recognized by cross-class actors in order to continue their ascent. Teachers played this role for the vast majority of participants. With generous, individualized attention, they motivated students, validating the messaging that youth received from their parents, that education was key to mobility. And they provided logistical and strategic guidance, sharing knowledge about college options and helping students navigate the path to get there. In many cases, teachers also informed students about pipeline programs. Youth who lacked teacher or local school support spoke about other individuals in their community networks who made up for the deficit, confirming the importance of cross-class actors. Participants who were connected by cross-class actors to elite pipeline programs talked about them as life changing. In some cases, these programs provided the opportunity for participants to attend private preparatory high schools in which they attained the academic, cultural and social capital which helped secure their spot at Amherst. More often, these programs connected youth with professional mentors who had attended highly selective schools. At the very least, access to pipeline programs meant students got basic information about schools that had need-blind admissions policies. We found that those with pipeline support were the most prepared for the college admissions process. We also found that most of those who had pipeline support were from big cities. It is therefore not surprising to us that the vast majority of high performing students who apply to highly selective schools grow up in major metropolitan areas (Hoxby and Avery 2012). Capital is concentrated in major cities, which attracts skilled professionals (Sassen 2008) who are often graduates of highly selective schools. These professionals are the mentors who guided many of our participants. Similarly, many of our city-based participants’ most supportive teachers were themselves graduates of highly selective schools. Finally, we found that youth who grew up in global cities were much more likely to have been exposed to other Latinxs who had left home to 13 Qualitative Sociology attend highly selective schools, than were those who grew up in secondary cities or more remote areas. This exposure broadened their perspectives, ultimately making it easier for them to leave home, and for their parents to let them leave. Youth from more remote areas, on the other hand, often did not learn about elite schools until they took their college placement tests or got high Advanced Placement scores and started receiving information in the mail. These youth talked about how grateful they were that they paid attention to these mailings. From them they learned about recruitment programs in which elite schools paid for low-income students to visit campus, thus plugging youth into the elite network. For these youth, the pathway to college lacked clear signposts, making the experience feel more uncertain and luck-based. There are clear policy implications of this research. Diversifying private, elite higher education cannot be the sole answer to educational inequality; indeed, it is only a small part. To be sure, public colleges and universities serve as mobility platforms for many more young people than do highly selective schools (Chetty et al. 2017). Yet public universities and community colleges typically do not have the high endowments that characterize private, elite institutions, and thus they are not able to offer the same kinds of need-blind aid or to put in place the same types of support structures. This is to say that the landscape of higher education is inherently unequal, and opportunities are place specific. I encourage private institutions to use whatever influence they have to support robust funding for public higher education, from community colleges to major research universities; funding that has taken a hit over the past decades. But they could do even more than express solidarity. It would be a radical, but prudent and sensical move, for progressive, wealthy, private institutions, who can only serve a minority of aspiring young people, to engage in public-private partnerships, dedicating part of their endowments to supporting public higher education. Perhaps they could focus on those institutions that are from the same state, region, or even city. This would help democratize opportunities for mobility. Institutions of higher education should also pay close attention to the intricate formula that supports educational mobility. The youth in this study all thrived academically in high school, had family support, and had the social capital to alert them to highly selective schools with need-blind policies. Only when family networks, local school networks, and elite recruitment networks converged, was entry into a highly selective college possible. In order to increase access to higher educational opportunities, admissions teams must recognize these three tiers as operating concurrently. While pipeline programs remain excellent ways to identify high-performing marginalized students, they tend to be centered in large urban areas, and thus should not be the central focus of recruitment. The life stories Schmalzbauer collected suggest that highly selective schools must cast a much wider net if they want to attract the best and brightest. Great efforts are underway at Amherst to broaden recruitment to include rural, suburban and geographically isolated places that have traditionally been off the radar of elite schools, and a lot of progress has been made. Yet more work is needed, not just at Amherst but at other schools who share their mission of increasing access, requiring a major shift of resources to these efforts. 13 Qualitative Sociology For now, getting to an elite institution from an off the radar geographic place remains difficult, a crap-shoot in some situations. For example, we were surprised and dismayed to learn about the centrality of testing for youth in these contexts. Whereas before this research we would have cheered the end of standardized admission exams because of the ways in which they benefit the most affluent – those who are able to invest the time and money into learning how to test well (Lemann 1999) – we are now ambivalent. Several participants in this study who are from remote areas told Schmalzbauer that they were only able to access elite recruitment networks because they performed well on these tests, and then started to get mailings from elite schools. This is to say, until highly selective schools are able to broaden their recruitment reach into remote and rural areas, college entrance exams remain the only way some students can access them. We would advise admissions teams to include this finding in their discussions about the pros and cons of test optional admissions. Ultimately, while we celebrate our participants’ educational mobility, we recognize that it is built on the exclusion of those who cannot secure the right kinds of social capital to move ahead. We therefore end with a call for research to further untangle the complexities of educational mobility into the elite echelon. We caution that until higher education is socially supported as a family and place-based endeavor, there is the risk of new inequalities developing and the current inequitable system being reproduced under the celebratory veil of diversity and inclusion. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the youth and parents who shared their life histories with us for this project. We would also like to thank Joanna Dreby for her feedback on an earlier draft of this article, and the anonymous reviewers from Qualitative Sociology for their helpful comments and suggestions. Funding This research was funded by a Russell Sage Foundation Presidential Grant G-2005-23985, the Amherst College Faculty Research Award Program, and the Gregory S. Call Student Intern Program at Amherst College. References Abrego, Leisy. 2019. Relational legal consciousness of U.S. citizenship: privilege, responsibility, guilt, and love in latinx mixed-status families. Law & Society Review 53 (3): 641–670. Ahmed, Sara. 2012. On being included: racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Aries, Elizabeth. 2013. Speaking of race and class: the student experience at an elite college. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Benson, Janel, and Elizabeth M. Lee. 2020. Geographies of campus inequality: mapping the experiences of first-generation students. New York: Oxford University Press. Bickham, and Mendez. 2018. Jennifer and Leah Schmalzbauer. Latino youth and struggles for inclusion in the 21st century. Ethnicities 18 (2): 165-177 Bruhn, Sarah and Roberto Gonzales. Forthcoming. Geographies of belonging: Migrant youth and relational, community and national opportunities for inclusion. Social Sciences. Carnevale, Anthony P., and Megan L. Fasules. 2017. Latinx education and economic progress: running faster but still behind. Washington D.C.: Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce. Chetty, Raj, John N. Friedman, and Emmanuel Saez, Nicholas Turner and Danny Yagan. 2017. Mobility report cards: The role of colleges in intergenerational mobility. NBER Working Paper No. 23618. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. 13 Qualitative Sociology Dhingra, Pawan. 2020. Hyper education: why good schools, good grades and good behavior are not enough. New York: New York University Press. Dreby, Joanna. 2010. Divided by borders: mexican migrants and their children. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Dominguez, Silvia. 2011. Getting ahead: social mobility, public housing and immigrant networks. New York: New York University Press. Dominguez, Silvia and Celeste Watkins. 2003. Creating networks for survival and mobility: examining social capital amongst low-income african american and latin american mothers. Social Problems 50 (1): 111–135. Flores, Andrea. 2021. The succeeders: how immigrant youth are transforming what it means to belong in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Goldrick-Rab, Sara. 2016. Paying the price: College costs, financial aid and the betrayal of the american dream. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Gonzales, Roberto. 2016. Lives in limbo: undocumented and coming of age in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Gonzales, Roberto and Edelina Burciaga. 2018. Segmented pathways of illegality: reconciling the coexistence of master and auxiliary statuses in the experiences of 1.5 generation undocumented young adults. Ethnicities 18 (2): 178–191. Greder, Kimberly and Jordan Arellanes. 2018. Investing in future generations: realities and goals of latino immigrant families. Diálogo 21 (1): 89–100. Hoxby, Caroline and Christopher Avery. 2012. The missing ‘one-offs’: The hidden supply of high-achieving, low income students. Working Paper 18586. Cambridge, MA. National Bureau of Economic Research. Jack, Anthony Abraham. 2019. The privileged poor: how Amherst colleges are failing disadvantaged students. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kao, Grace, Elizabeth Vaquero and Kimberly Goyette. 2013. Education and immigration. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Kasinitz Philip, John, and Mary Mollenkopf, Waters and Jennifer Holdaway. 2009. Inheriting the city: the children of immigrants come of age. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Lee, Elizabeth M. 2016. Class and campus life: managing and experiencing inequality at an elite college. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Lee, Jennifer, and Min Zhou. 2015. The asian american achievement paradox. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Lemann, Nicholas. 1999. The big test: the secret history of the american meritocracy. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Grioux. Lopez, Rick. 2020. Creating a place for Latinidad at an elite liberal arts college: Latinx student activism at Amherst College, 1970s through 1980s (and today). In Amherst in the world. Amherst, MA: Amherst College Press. Louie, Vivian. 2012. Keeping the immigrant bargain: the costs and rewards of success in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Martinez, Lisa M. and Maria Del Carmen Salazar. 2018. The bright lights: the development of oppositional consciousness among DACAmented latino youth. Ethnicities 18 (2): 242–259. Mattern, Krista and Jeff Wyatt. 2009. Student choice of college: how far do students go for an education? Journal of College Admission 203: 18–29. Menjívar, Cecilia. 2000. Fragmented ties: salvadoran immigrant networks in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Pan, Yung-Yi, and Diana and Daisy Verduzco Reyes. 2021. The norm among the exceptional? Experiences of latinx students in elite institutions. Sociological Inquiry 91 (1): 207–230. Rendón, Maria. 2019. Stagnant dreamers: how the inner-city shapes the integration of the second generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Reyes, Daisy Verduzco. 2018. Learning to be latinx: how colleges shape identity politics. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Sassen, Saskia. 2008. Two stops in today’s new global geographies: shaping novel labor supplies and employment regimes. American behavioral scientist 52: 457–496. Schmalzbauer, Leah. 2014. The last best place? Gender, family and migration in the new west. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Schmalzbauer, Leah and Alelí Andrés. 2019. Stratified lives: family, illegality and the rise of a new educational elite. Harvard educational review 89: 635–660. 13 Qualitative Sociology Smith, Robert. 2008. Horatio Algiers lives in Brooklyn: extra-family support, intra-family dynamics, and socially neutral operating identities in exceptional mobility of mexican immigrants. ANNALS of the American academy of political and social science 620: 270–290. Smith, Robert. 2006. Mexican New York: transnational lives of new immigrants. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Suarez-Orozco, Carola and Marcelo Suarez-Orozco. 1995. Transformations: Immigration, family life and achievement motivation among Latinx adolescents. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Torpey, Elka. 2018. Measuring the value of education. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Vazquez, Jessica. 2011. Mexican Americans across generations: immigrant families, racial realities. New York: New York University Press. Warikoo, Natasha. 2016. The diversity bargain: and other dilemmas of race, admissions, and meritocracy at Amherst universities. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Yoshikawa, Hirokazu. 2011. Immigrants raising citizens: Undocumented parents and their young children. New York: Russell Sage Foundation Zambrano, Ruth, and Sylvia Hurtado. 2015. The magic key: the educational journeys of Mexican Americans from k-12 to college and beyond. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Zhou, Min, and Carl L. Bankston III. 2016. The rise of the new second generation. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. Leah Schmalzbauer Leah Schmalzbauer is Brian and Karen Conway ’80, P’18 Presidential Teaching Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Amherst College. She is the author of Striving and Surviving: A Daily Life Analysis of Honduran Transnational Families (Routledge 2005), The Last Best Place? Gender, Family and Migration in the New West (Stanford University Press 2014), and co-author with Cecilia Menjívar and Leisy Abrego of Immigrant Families (Polity 2016). She is currently working on a book about Latinx youths’ experiences of educational mobility in the contexts of family and community. Manuel Rodriguez Manuel Rodriguez is a doctoral student in the Sociology department at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also a Gaia Fellow in Latino Studies. He received his BA in Latinx and Latin American Studies from Amherst College, where he wrote a senior honors thesis investigating how Mexican-American students at Amherst College navigated their religious and ethnic identities throughout their life cycles. His primary research interests are in the intersections of race & ethnicity, religion, politics, and immigration. 13

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS

Log In

Pathways to Mobility: Family and Education in the Lives of Latinx Youth

Pathways to Mobility: Family and Education in the Lives of Latinx Youth

Related Papers

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS