Educational Excellence and the Economics of Immigration: Undocumented Latin American Youth and the Neoliberal Knowledge Economy

Abstract

This paper examines the ideological superstructure of the Seattle-based Youth Tutoring Program in the context of racial politics in urban design and education. Institutional restrictions to eligibility for public housing against undocumented immigrants prevent many Latinx youth from receiving adequate educational support. Such restrictions are ultimately enforced by the neoliberal ideal of a knowledge economy in which educational institutions serve to advance American dominance in the global economic framework. This ideal of a knowledge economy excludes undocumented immigrants, particularly those of Latin American descent, on the grounds of maintaining an economically self-sufficient American community in which educational and housing services are provided only to those who are presumed to have the potential to later significantly contribute to the American economy. Behind the economic-political justifications for this discrimination are racially exclusive definitions of community that play into frameworks of American exceptionalism and ideological constructions of exclusive national and local communities.