Attributes Associated with Postdoctoral Fellows and Views of Immigration: A Preliminary Analysis Using the General Social Survey

Abstract

While research on supporting undocumented immigrants and undocumented students within higher education has examined the opinions of students, faculty, and staff, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to postdoctoral fellows. This study used data from the 2014 General Social Survey (Smith et al., 2018) to examine whether respondents' attributes, including holding a possible postdoctoral position, predicted views of "illegal" immigration, and whether immigrants should have the same education as Americans. Findings suggest that a combination of respondents' attributes predicted these views. Results also suggest that the odds of being more supportive of undocumented immigrants were higher for minorities and for non-U.S. citizens. In addition, being a non-U.S. citizen and having a graduate degree each increased the odds that respondents would support immigrant education. This study contributes to the literature on understanding attitudes toward immigration by conducting a preliminary analysis on the views of an overlooked group within the academy: postdoctoral fellows.

How Postdocs Identifying as White U.S. Citizens Can Support Undocumented Students

“…This study builds on previous literature regarding attributes and experiences associated with greater support for undocumented students' higher education pursuits. Specifically, prior research has shown that being of a minoritized race/ethnicity, being a woman, and being a non-native English speaker (Garibay et al, 2016), as well as having higher levels of education (Berg, 2009;Kunovich, 2013) and being a non-U.S. Citizen (Jach & Gloeckner, 2020) are associated with greater support of undocumented students' pursuit of higher education and immigrant education, and this study examined how individuals who are White U.S. citizens make sense of their attitudes to support undocumented students' pursuit of higher education.…”

“…Higher levels of education have also been associated with more supportive views toward immigrants (Berg, 2009;Kunovich, 2013). Identifying as a non-U.S. citizen has also been found to be related to greater support for immigrant education (Jach & Gloeckner, 2020). While these factors certainly do not describe all postdocs, there are several connections between factors associated with greater support of undocumented students as well as immigrants and the demographics of postdocs.…”

“…With the number of postdocs in the United States on the rise, this highly trained group matters for future leadership inside and outside of higher education. Since previous research has shown that individuals of minoritized races/ethnicities and non-U.S. citizens exhibit greater support for undocumented students (Garibay et al, 2016;Jach & Gloeckner, 2020), this study conducted individual interviews with 10 postdocs who identified as White U.S. citizens. Findings indicated postdocs with a personal or professional connection to undocumented students exhibited greater levels of support toward undocumented students.…”