A group of university presidents and immigration rights activists said Wednesday that colleges should turn to immigration to pursue their diversity goals as they struggle with the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down affirmative action in school admissions.
The groups released new research showing that students from immigrant families account for nearly one-third of students on American campuses and drove 80% of colleges’ enrollment growth over the past two decades.
Students from immigrant families are also far more likely to be minorities. White students make up just 17% of the population, compared with 70% of students from U.S.-origin families.
That means colleges can use immigration markers as a way to bolster minority enrollment without explicitly looking at race, said the researchers from the American Immigration Council, the Migration Policy Institute and the Presidents’ Alliance for Higher Education and Immigration, which is a coalition of college and university leaders.
“In a new era of decision-making when race may no longer be considered directly as a factor for admission, universities and colleges will need to look more closely at their prospective students if they intend to maintain their commitment to serving diverse communities,” the Migration Policy Institute said.
“Institutions that take into account a broader understanding of assets and talents, such as resilience and intercultural competencies arising from immigrant experiences, and a wider range of factors, including overcoming adversity due to immigrant status, will be better positioned to identify and attract a diverse and talented student population.”
In its June ruling, the Supreme Court said giving an advantage to students based solely on race is unconstitutional, though the majority said schools could use other markers, such as an applicant’s adversity because of race.
Some advocates have seized on that idea, but immigration also could serve as a proxy for diversity, the researchers suggested.
“The lion’s share of the immigrant-origin student population is comprised of minorities,” they said.
Hispanics account for 44% of students from immigrant families, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders comprise 24%, and Black students represent 13%.
Viewed another way, of all White students, just 10% are immigrants or children of immigrants. Among Black students, it’s 28%, for Hispanics, it’s 68%, and among Asian Americans, it’s nearly 88%.
Steven A. Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, noted a problem with using immigration to diversify schools. By definition, it excludes American Indians and Black descendants of enslaved people.
“There has always been a conflict between immigration and affirmative actions, but this would be the ultimate turning that on its head and turning affirmative action almost against the group it was originally designed to help,” he said.
He said relying on immigration to fill existing seats and expand student bodies comes with costs. Among them are competition for spots at elite schools and financial aid packages.
“Of course, America is going to offer educational opportunities in college to children of immigrants,” he said. “But the question is, in doing that, what are the other implications? And they haven’t really thought much about that.”
The report looked at data from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey.
Researchers said colleges have become dependent on immigrant-origin students for enrollment growth. About 31% of all students are either immigrants or have a parent or parents who are immigrants.
The number is driven largely by California, with the nation’s largest postsecondary school system, where 54% of college students are from immigrant families. In New York, Florida and New Jersey, about 45% of students come from immigrant families. In six states, at least one-third of students come from those families.
“Given the growing campus presence and economic potential of immigrant-origin students, it is crucial to pay greater attention to this population,” the researchers said.
Delving deeper, they found that 56% of first-generation immigrant students — about 1.1 million people — aren’t citizens. Some are permanent residents, others are refugees or asylum seekers, and some are in the U.S. as illegal immigrants.
Some 6% of immigrant-origin students, or 408,000, were illegal immigrants in 2021.
That was down slightly from 2019, when 427,000 college students were in the country without permission. The researchers blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing legal uncertainty over DACA, the Obama-era program that gave illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children a tentative legal status.
DACA students account for about a third of the illegal immigrant student population.
Illegal immigrants face barriers to higher education, the researchers said. They are barred from federal financial assistance and in some states are blocked from in-state tuition or state financial aid.
The researchers said schools should help legal immigrants apply for citizenship and push to legalize those in the U.S. without authorization.
“Investing in increasing higher education access for all students, including those of immigrant origin, is essential for the future well-being of U.S. communities and the U.S. economy,” the Migration Policy Institute researchers said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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