Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants

Abstract

This report describes the demographic and educational characteristics of the U.S. immigrant population and discusses barriers faced by legal immigrants seeking to enroll in postsecondary education. The report focuses on older immigrants, who confront significant challenges in understanding and gaining access to the U.S. system of higher education because they did not attend American primary and secondary schools. It also examines the characteristics of and the barriers to persistence and completion faced by immigrant students who do enroll in college—a group that makes up twelve percent of the U.S. undergraduate population but has received relatively little attention in the public policy arena.