The City University's Creation To Provide Education For The Children Of Immigrant

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The City University’s Creation to Provide Education for the Children of Immigrant
Introduction
The increased population of immigrants and their children in the United States is stretching the countries resources across the social, political, and economic sectors through which the government attends to the needs of its citizens. Among the sectors whose challenges arise from the increasing immigrant population in the United States is the nation’s higher education sector. The country boasts of one of the most coveted educational systems around the world with outstanding achievements in fields such as science and technology as well as research and development. However, the accessibility of higher education to immigrants and their dependents poses a challenge to the educational system especially the institutions of higher learning. Immigrants and their children find it difficult to access the crucial higher education through which they can elevate themselves and become resourceful members of American society. The inaccessibility to higher education for the immigrant youth contradicts the nation’s principles of freedom, equality and liberty for all as it denies them the primary tenet of equal educational opportunities, which is among the key ingredient for living one’s dreams in the United States. Nevertheless, colleges and universities around the nation are putting up measures to increase the accessibility to higher education for the immigrant youth who are locked out of their dreams of acquiring college or university education.
Background Information
The United States of America’s belief in the democratic principles and ideologies of liberty, freedom, and equality for all forms the basis for the nation’s envied success across various sectors. The nation’s democratic principles provide equal opportunity for all its citizens to achieve their dreams of prosperity and enhancing their lives through personal and community development. The perceived success of American society and the possibilities of changing one’s life by actualizing their dreams makes the nation a target for immigrants from all over the world. A nation that is characteristic of an immigrant background owing to the cultural diversity of its citizens is currently facing a challenge from the influx of immigrants and asylum-seeking individuals from different countries around the world. Providing higher education to the children of immigrant functions to help in the nation’s integration and integration of individual from the diverse cultural backgrounds characterizing the American community as a whole. A report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), for instance, highlights the positive impact of availing higher education for the immigrants as being an essential factor for the nation’s sustainable growth and development across the social, political, and economic sectors CITATION Nat15 \l 1033 (National Academy of Sciences). An overview of some of the statistics on immigrants in the United States provides a framework for analyzing the situation or the educational differences or lack thereof between the native-born citizens and the immigrants in the nation’s higher learning institutions.
Currently, the United States’ population consists of one immigrant and their children for every four people. Out of all the immigrants living in the country, 46% have acquired citizenship through naturalization with permanent legal residents accounting for 36% of the total CITATION AAC15 \l 1033 (AAC&U). A report by the Migration Policy Institute states that immigrants and second-generation Americans are full-time students in 20% of all colleges, which accounts for over two million enrollments in the United States’ colleges and institutions of higher learning CITATION AAC15 \l 1033 (AAC&U). The educational levels attained by the immigrants and their children also makes for some interesting revelations on their desire to enhance their lives through attaining the highest levels of education they can achieve. The Migration Policy Institute further suggests that almost 33% of foreign-born persons living in America are graduates or rather have attained a bachelor’s degree across various specialties, which compares favorably with the achievements of the native-born Americans on the same CITATION AAC15 \l 1033 (AAC&U). The institutional report further also purports that the same individuals have a higher possibility of furthering their studies beyond the graduate status to the doctoral or higher levels than the native-born American university graduates. The similarities and differences emerging from the institute’s study highlight the immigrant’s strong belief in embracing the educational opportunities available in the United States and maximizing their use to enhance their lives. Reiterating on the immigrant’s enthusiastic approach to education is the pattern of cumulative educational attainment from one generation of immigrants to the other CITATION HSI19 \l 1033 (Hsin). The first-generation immigrants attained higher levels of education than their parents, but those were surpassed by the second-generation immigrants who exceeded the former’s levels of education and even matched those of native-born Americans CITATION AAC15 \l 1033 (AAC&U). It is also the findings of the research conducted by the Migration Policy Institute that children of immigrant who attained higher education also exceed the performances of their predecessors to acquire degrees in various fields and secure top-paying jobs. It is an indication of the immigrant’s belief in self-enhancement upon getting the opportunity to acquire higher learning education in the United States.
The attainment of higher education by the immigrants has a wide range of benefits to both the individuals themselves and the nation as a whole. One of the primary benefits of increasing the accessibility to higher education for immigrants is the fact that they play a significant role in promoting national interaction and integration of the diverse American community. Higher education provides immigrant youth with effective communication and interpersonal skills through which they can bridge the language and understanding barrier between their predecessors and their native-born counterparts on the social, political, and economic issues CITATION HSI19 \l 1033 (Hsin). The education attained by the immigrants further serves to promote cultural diversity as it enables them to understand other cultures and share their understanding with other members of their societies for harmonious coexistence. Education increases the chances of the immigrant youth and their families to be naturalized as US citizens especially higher education qualifications. Higher education also plays a significant role in influencing the immigrant’s civic participation, which promotes the sustainable growth and development agenda of the governments in power CITATION Ter13 ...