UCLA

This dissertation examines the recent establishment and institutionalization of undocumented student services in two university campuses in California and analyzes the ways in which these projects of institutionalization and the “undocumented student” figure fits within the rationalities of neoliberal multiculturalism. I explore how undocumented students (multicultural, racialized subjects who could, in an ongoing process, fashion and refashion themselves through the ethos of self-reliance and competition) came to be accepted at these universities and how undocumented immigrants were able to enter the public imaginary of the university’s projects for diversity and inclusion. I argue that neoliberal multiculturalism illuminates and explains how the ways narratives elevating the social value of undocumented students are congruent and simultaneously occur with the increasing privatization and expansion of the immigrant detention industrial complex, increasing criminalization of immigrants’ daily life activities, and record high number of immigrant deportations. Furthermore, this dissertation asserts that neoliberal multicultural rationalities shape advocacy efforts designed to support undocumented students in higher education. These rationalities inform the scope of values, principles and practices behind the forms of student advocacy that could be possible and intelligible in a university context. I argue that neoliberal multicultural rationalities underlie the dominant frame shaping undocumented student advocacy that replicate the undocumented student subject figure as one contingent on disciplined integration. This in turn limits discourses and frames in undocumented student advocacy. This dissertation follows an intrinsic and instrumental case study design. I conducted 30 interviews with institutional allies, current and former student organizers. I also analyzed written and digital records, including institutional public statements, institutionally affiliated research reports, university taskforce recommendations, university newspaper articles, strategic plan publications, newspaper articles, student- and university-created resource guides, course syllabi and student-led publications. Finally, I conducted 180 hours of participant observation at various student and university-sponsored events, including summits, student retreats, educator workshops, immigrant student conferences, undocumented student welcome receptions and university and student sponsored webinars. This dissertation contributes to scholarships in Critical Ethnic Studies and the emerging intellectual project called University Abolition Studies.