Cohorts and Class

The Migration Policy Institute issued a report in July with an analysis of the potential impact of the DREAM Act as currently written.

CHECK OUT THE FULL REPORT

Although the two white women who author the report are clearly favorable to passage of the current DREAM Act.  They lay out some damming numbers.  They slice up the Undocumented Youth Community into 4 cohorts which allows for class and educational attainment analysis of the DREAM Act's impact.

The first cohort is made up of the clearest beneficiaries of the current language of the DREAM Act.

These are undocumented young adults who already have at least an Associates degree, some have a Bachelors and a small portion of this cohort actually have post graduate degrees.  For this cohort the DREAM Act would mean instant legalization for all without the need for almost any action on their part.  I would argue that this group is the base for most of the current DREAM Act campus based organizing.  It is a cohort slightly larger than 100,000 undocumented young adults.  They make up less than 5 percent of the undocumented youth community that will be impacted by this legislation and according to the report less than 1/3 of them are low income. 

However for every other cohort this report analyzes they estimate more than half of each cohort would not be likely to gain legal status through the current language of the DREAM Act.

In fact for the last cohort, Young adults without a GED or High School Diploma, the possibility of legalization is glum.

This last cohort accounts for 24% of undocumented youth and a staggering 96 % are estimated to remain undocumented after the current DREAM Act passes.  Not surprisingly over 2/3's of this cohort is low-income.

We have heard a great deal from the first cohort, the ones who see a guarantee of legalization in the current language of the DREAM Act.  We have not on the other hand heard from the rest, the vast majority of undocumented youth.  We have not heard from those more likely to be faced with the choice of being on the run from Arpaio or Al-qaeda if the current DREAM Act passes.  

This blog will continue to lift their voices and this analysis.  My guess is they will demand more for their cohort from anything that calls itself a DREAM Act.  They will demand the kinds of guarantees the current DREAMers and their cohort see in the current DREAM Act - and they deserve nothing less.