Traversing the Borderlands: A Qualitative Exploration of Student Experiences

Immigration has been an integral part of the United States since its founding; yet, considerable debate surrounds immigration. A deeper, more empathetic understanding of immigration experiences is crucial for social work practitioners. As such, creating opportunities for students to witness the journey immigrants take to come to the US is paramount. This paper was based on an experiential project with social work students traveling to California’s southern border. The students dropped off water in a desert area well known for border crossings and they helped fundraise, talked to day-laborers, and visited the border wall. Students were interviewed about their experiences during this trip. Three themes emerged: Things left behind, Walking in their shoes, and Emotional responses. Implications include the importance of experiential learning and the incorporation of human rights perspective into the classroom. Implications for social work education are discussed. Keywords: Immigration, border crossing, experiential learning, water dropping, undocumented immigrants Immigration is woven into the fabric of the United States. Over the past 200 years, immigration has been at times controversial and at times unnoticed. Today, we live in an era with considerable debate surrounding immigration. By 2022, nearly 14% of the United States population was foreign-born, which approached a historic high at the end of the 19th century (Shenasi-Azari, et al., 2024). Currently, more than 45 million immigrants live in United States, the largest groups of whom are of Mexican nationality; additionally, more than 24% are from other Latin American countries. In California, New Jersey, New York, and Florida, more than 20% of the population is foreign born; in every state, the share of foreign-born population has increased since 2010 (Shenasi-Azari, et al., 2024). The Trump campaign promise in 2016 to build a wall across the entire southern border of the US was used to galvanize many white supremacists and a new wave of vigilantes guarding the borders (Srikaniah & Sinnar, 2019). Rather than portraying these immigrants as experiencing extreme poverty, fleeing from violence, and as people seeking protection of basic human rights, they were purely portrayed as criminals (Guzman, 2016). These migrants’ plight in life, the circumstances they left behind, and their experiences of trauma during their journey to US have been villainized (Valera, 2020). Today, as a second Trump administration begins with increased efforts at deportation, a culture of fear has swept many migrant communities, even among those with legal documentation statuses. Migration is a topic that is vital to the profession of social work field because of the inherent vulnerabilities people experience during their journey, and long after their arrival in the new country (Tuomisto & Roche, 2018). A deeper, more empathetic understanding of immigration experiences, especially those groups that are most vulnerable such as undocumented immigrants, is crucial for social work practitioners. As such, creating opportunities for students to witness the journey immigrants take is vital. Ortiz et al. (2012) argued that social work education must address immigration. Social workers are also called to practice in culturally competent ways both by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and the National Association of Social Work (NASW). The CSWE competencies drive social work education. Competency two states that social workers should advocate for and engage in practices that advance human rights (CSWE, 2022). According the NASW Code of Ethics (2021), social workers are to “help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to…the vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty” (p. 1). Furthermore, an emphasis on social justice and change aimed at eliminating “discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice” (NASW, 2021, p. 1) is required. Calling social workers to social and political action, the NASW emphasizes equal access to resources, employment, services, and opportunities that individuals and families require to meet their basic human needs. Yet, immigration is a difficult concept to teach from a lens that brings out the realities of people impacted. One way to remedy this is by providing students with experiential learning opportunities. As one social work faculty from the University of Michigan reflected on taking students to the US Mexico border: “When we talk about policies as a classroom activity it's difficult to really get a handle on the reality of the effect of those policies on the ground…I go from the harshest aspects of the border to the responses of activists, social workers and community members who are trying to do something to make it better" (Puente, 2017, p 1). This paper was based on an experiential project done by California State University (CSU, 2020), Fresno. The trip involved volunteering for a local community activist and in partnership with Border Angels, an immigration agency doing water drops in the desert, meeting with day laborers, and visiting the border wall. Thirty-five social work students traveled to California’s southern border from the Central Valley where the university is located. Here, many of the families social workers interact with are impacted by immigration policies and border issues. According to Fresno State’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness, over 60% of the students at Fresno State (Fall 2024) are first generation, with many of the students having family members or someone they know being undocumented. Yet, many students have talked about how they don’t know the true experience of their family and friends, as there is little discussion about the experiences. Students emphasized the importance of having a deeper understanding of these issues given the conflicting messages received from their communities, media, and politicians.