Immigrant Student Identities in Literacy Spaces

The United States has a long history of marginalizing immigrant populations. Anti-immigration laws and ideologies have not only marginalized immigrant populations, but they have shaped the American educational system. Language policies, curricula, and standardized tests threaten the erasure of immigrant students’ languages, cultures, and identities while favoring and privileging white middle-class ways of learning. This is particularly true for immigrants of color. This backgrounder discusses immigrant identities in school spaces. Specifically, I provide an overview of how immigrant students’ identities are constructed in literacy classrooms through literacy practices.