Producing (im)Possible Peoples: Policy Discourse Analysis, In-state Resident Tuition, and Undocumented Students in American Higher Education

Abstract

This paper examines 12 states’ statutes that extend in-state resident tuition for undocumented students, illustrating their ambiguities and contradictions as they produce the subject in these on-going policy debates. This study asks and answers the question:  “How are students' identities produced in ISRT policy?” At stake in this question are the discursive opportunities made available for enabling and/or constraining higher education opportunity, particularly for undocumented students. Findings point to a contradictory set of identities simultaneously made possible and impossible for undocumented students pursuing American higher education.