The Politics of "Access": Undocumented Students and Enrollment in Toronto Schools

• Main Author: Villegas, Francisco Javier
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2014
• Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational sociology
• ISBN: 1321668732; 9781321668735

Bordering occurs beyond ports of entry. It operates in spaces where immigration status is examined in order to participate or access a public good. In Ontario, schools serve as borders and often exclude undocumented migrant on the basis of status. At the same time, community activists work to erode border-zones and redefine "membership." This project tracks and analyzes one such initiative. It historicizes constructions of membership in relation to the Toronto District School Board and its "Students Without Legal Immigration Status Policy." This policy, discursively known as a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy stipulates that the Board would protect students by barring employees from asking, reporting, or sharing information regarding a family's immigration-status. However, the policy remains to be fully implemented, the Board has constructed procedures that make enrolment more difficult, and undocumented students continue to experience exclusion. . Thus, this project addresses the gaps in implementation as well as differing understandings of what constitutes "access." The project combines Anti-racist theory, LatCrit, border rhetoricity, and concepts developed by Frantz Fanon, and Antonio Gramsci. This framework facilitates the examination of the construction of internal borders along hegemonic understandings of membership, how these processes are facilitated by the dehumanization of undocumented migrants, and the resistance practices of migrants and their allies. Data stems from interviews, experiential knowledge, and grey literature. Interviews were conducted with fourteen differently located social actors including TDSB administrators and grassroots organizers. Grey literature from the TDSB, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Coalition, and No One Is Illegal- Toronto was also examined. Key findings include the ways bureaucratic processes at the TDSB invisibilize undocumented migrants and the resultant hegemonic reproduction of bordering in spite of "access" policies. Additionally, this project highlights the strategies employed by community organizers to make Toronto a space of "non-compliance" to immigration authorities and how access to schooling is framed as a key component. Finally, different framings of "access" are examined. While Board practices equated access to the ability to enroll, local activists demanded broader understandings of this concept including recognition of the ways interrelated factors, including safety and access to other services affected schooling.