From Marginalization to Insider Research: Advancing the Right to Educational Mobility of U.S.-Educated Deportees in Mexico

This paper provides an analysis of the intersection between education and immigration policies within a transnational context and explores the extent to which U.S. immigration law has caused a forced return migration to Mexico of the U.S. DREAMer population. My analysis includes a discussion of the social conditions and lack of policies in Mexico to facilitate the educational reinsertion as well as how U.S. immigration law limits mobility of this subpopulation of the Mexican Diaspora that has been returning in record numbers to its country of origin (Passel et al. 2012). A normative analysis of U.S. immigration policy will be presented to understand the systematic legal exclusion and expulsion from the United States of individuals who had been integrated in the U.S. educational system and society (Gonzales 2011) and who are currently excluded from federal executive actions like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This paper reviews educational policies that impact returning DREAMers when they find themselves outside U.S. jurisdiction. The analysis will draw from ongoing collaborative work done with allies in academia, investigative journalism, and NGOs to develop an initial diagnosis of reinsertion policies and initiatives that are nonexistent in Mexico. This paper will explore the challenges faced by returning DREAMers to revalidate their U.S. degrees, to continue their education in Mexico, to access financial aid and scholarships, to use the education and knowledge they acquired abroad. Additionally, it will look at how U.S. immigration policies place mobility restrictions with re-entry bans (Kanstroom, 2012) which limit educational and labor opportunities for returned DREAMers. Regional initiatives such as "100,000 Strong" and other academic exchange programs in the Americas will be analyzed as part of a transnational ecosystem that fails to be inclusive of the returned DREAMer population. In advancing the dialogue on the role of public scholarship as a necessary component of organized action to propel social change, this paper will reflect on my own transformation from a deported DREAMer and research subject to that of an insider researcher (Voloder and Kirpitchenki, 2013), public advocate and media influencer who is driving educational policy changes in Mexico. I trace my trajectory starting with my "coming out" of the shadows of deportation in 2012 and documenting my life post-deportation and transition as a migration scholar in 2013. My personal narrative has become a public case study which illustrates failed policies in the US-Mexico region towards the returning DREAMer population (Truax 2013; Truax 2015). I will argue that academia has a social responsibility to the target populations it researches and that propelling research projects with participatory methodologies and other critical genres of qualitative work (Marshall and Rossman 2011: 20) is an important element in democratizing academia. In doing so, I will discuss how my role as an insider researcher in migration studies has created a bridge between research and advocacy, allowing me a platform to propel meaningful research projects and initiatives that empower migrants to become change agents in advancing a social justice agenda that advocates for our right to education and mobility.