The Logic of Civic Possibility: Undocumented Students and the Struggle for a Higher Education

Abstract

The battle to be included in the “civic culture” in the United States, especially via access to higher education, raises a new logic of civic possibility for the engagement community. We all can look for opportunities to involve students in engagement activities—or to support them in their own political and civic action. The authors argue that the higher education policy should provide spaces, both physical and virtual, where legal status is not a prerequisite and where participation pushes for full consideration of these “Dreamers” as Americans—as students who should have the full civil rights needed to contribute to and shape the U.S democracy. If we are serious about wanting civic engagement to renew US democracy, then there are no better exemplars of this direction than these students whose very existence in our projects stretch and redefine our notions of active citizenship and belonging to our American community.