Immigrant-Origin Students in Community College: Navigating Risk and Reward in Higher Education

This groundbreaking volume is the first to concentrate specifically on the experiences, challenges, and triumphs of immigrant-origin community college students. Drawing on data from the Research on Immigrants in Community College Study (RICC), chapters highlight the unique needs of these students, the role of classrooms and campus settings, out-of-class time spent on campus, the importance of relationships, expectations versus outcomes, and key recommendations for policy and practice. The text integrates an array of important topics, including developmental challenges, language learning, the undocumented student experience, microaggressions, counseling center use, and academic engagement. Above all, this book looks at what community colleges can do to better help this growing population of new Americans succeed.

Book Features:

• Holistic and resilience-based strategies of practice that build on the many strengths of new Americans in higher education.
• Federal, state, and local administrative policy recommendations to help this important and growing student population flourish.
• An in-depth study of more than 600 diverse immigrant-origin students attending three community colleges in New York City.
• Interdisciplinary, mixed-method research (survey, interviews, classroom observations) from a variety of viewpoints (students, faculty, administrators).

Carola Suárez-Orozco is professor of human development and psychology and co-director of the Institute for Immigration, Globalization, and Education at UCLA Graduate School of Education. Olivia Osei-Twumasi is an assistant adjunct professor of economics in the Department of Economics at UCLA.