Universidad Nacional Anónima de Mexico

[muckefuck]

Yes, I know, I should by a new radio so I don't wake up listening to NPR every weekday morning. It's on my list of Things To Do.

Today, they had a story on the plight of foreign-born children of illegal immigrants trying to go to college in this country. Since they can't apply for financial aid, even middling universities are completely out of reach for most of them. The focussed on one woman in particular with fantastic grades who would be able to write her own ticket if she were a US citizen.

What struck me about the story is that no one even raised the possibility of her returning to Mexico for her education. She's fluent in Spanish--the reporter even pointed out that she'd like to become a Spanish teacher. American-born students with those ambitions often spend at least a semester abroad. Students at UNAM (Latin America's largest unversity) pay a token fee of about $0.02 per semester.

Is she eligible for admission to a Mexican university? Frankly, I don't know. I could understand if the government of Mexico wasn't too happy about using local tax revenues to fund the education of a resident of another country. There are other potential obstacles as well: She'd have to live away from her family (which Hispanic students are often more loath to do than others--particularly in immigrant families where they may play a substantial role in providing support) and a place to live in Mexico City isn't free or necessarily very safe for a teenage woman. If she left the country, she might not be able to get back in. But I wish they'd at least raised the possibility in order to dismiss it.

Was it snobbishness that led to this omission and, if so, whose? The family's? The reporter's? I'm reminded of an online immigration debate between zompist and a nativist many years ago now. The nativist claimed that Latin Americans move here for the amenities of civilised life--like proper infrastructure and higher education. zompist pointed out that he might be surprised to find that there are highways and universities in Latin America as well.

Comments

[go-wade-in.livejournal.com]

i can't see any justification for the child of illegal immigrants who probably haven't paid any taxes to get a break from the government. if she wants help, she should ask for charity. there are children of families legally here who can't afford higher education--they're the ones who should get a break.

you are right--the news article didn't attempt to show whether or not she tried to get her higher education in Mexico. with her grades, she could probably get into the best universities there.

[gopower.livejournal.com]

A very apt point, and one I do not recall seeing anywhere else.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

What makes you think they haven't paid any taxes? True, if they're working illegally, it's unlikely they're paying income taxes, but education spending generally isn't funded from taxes on income. Most of it comes from property taxes, which all immigrants who are not squatters are paying (albeit mostly indirectly, as a percentage of rent). Some funding comes from sales taxes, which they can hardly avoid unless they're buying all their essentials under the table as well or growing all their own food and making all their own clothes.

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

And if they're working illegally using false IDs (as opposed to just being paid in cash under the table), they'll have income and payroll taxes withheld from their paychecks.

[zompist.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings here. I agree that education back in Mexico is a respectable option; and based on my (Peruvian) wife's experience with Spanish education here, I think the girl would get better training in Mexico than at most universities here. As well, prestigious private universities are hardly a human right; we know young Latinos who are studying at community colleges, which are not that expensive.

But then, we also know Latino kids who don't really see the point even in finishing high school. Education for Latinos could use more encouragement, not discouragement. Do we win a prize if we can keep children of illegals out of our precious universities?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Do we win a prize if we can keep illegals from coming here in order to send their children to our universities?

I have mixed feelings, too. In general, I'm deaf to the argument that being more humane to immigrants is a major factor in encouraging them to come here. I shook my head when the Illinois house recently disallowed granting driver's licenses to illegals, thereby forfeiting our (already shabby) ability to regulate them and forcing both decent and dangerous drivers alike to operate outside the law. And for what? What impoverished peasant is going to say, "Oh, I'd better not migrate to Chicago--they won't let me have a drivers license!"

But many illegal immigrants are motivated by the prospect of a better life for their children. Making it far easier to finance their children's higher education could well be an encouragement to migrate. I don't see this as bad for the USA, but it's tragic for countries that are already suffering from a serious brain drain. Do we need to give smart, ambitious Latin Americans more reason to give up on succeeding in their home countries?

We also know Caucasian and African-American kids who don't see the point of even finishing high school. I don't see the problems of encouraging educational attainment and immigration policy as intrinsically linked.

[zompist.livejournal.com]

Though this evidence is anecdotal, I at least know a lot of anecdotes... none of the people coming here from Latin America that I know of researched any aspect of immigration policy. Or anything at all, really. Indeed, my wife has tried to douse people's inflated expectations with cold water several times, usually to little avail.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

So, once here, what influences whether they stay or not? Would discovering that your can't possibly afford to send you children to college in the States play any part at all in a decision to move back home?

[zompist.livejournal.com]

Well, among people we know, the first few months are the key. Some can't find jobs, and end up leaving. Those that get long-term work setttle in, and the kids go to community colleges if they want to.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

a place to live in Mexico City isn't free or necessarily very safe for a teenage woman.

By association, this calls to mind Jessica Abel's comic La Perdida, about an American expat in Mexico City (early 20s rather than teenaged) who gets drawn into various complications. (It's still ongoing, with an issue coming out approximately once every blue moon, so it's hard to fully evaluate, but I think it's well done so far.)