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ScholarWorks > WMU > JCA > Vol. 11 (2026) > Iss. 2

 

Abstract

The U.S. is currently facing a shortage of health professionals from underrepresented backgrounds. One potential pathway to decrease this shortage is through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a policy that provides temporary relief from deportation for individuals who migrated to the U.S. before age 16. This study, using 15 life-history narrative interviews, investigates the experiences of Latinx young adults who were pursuing health professions education or working as health professionals. Nine of the participants were DACA recipients, while the remaining six were second-generation (i.e., children of immigrants). An iterative, inductive approach to data analysis was used to identify common patterns through the development of key themes that were analyzed through the lens of Gonzales’ theory of “master status”. For all study participants, aspirations to pursue health professions education (HPE) were rooted in their experiences growing up in a local, new immigrant community context and in the challenges their families faced attempting to access culturally and linguistically concordant healthcare. However, DACA recipients faced additional barriers due to their precarious legal status and the uncertainty of the DACA program. Specifically, affordability- and access-related barriers created difficulties in funding their education and prematurely pushed them out of the HPE pathway. These findings demonstrate how the DACA program offers young adults partial access to HPE because of how legal status operates as a “master status”. Participants’ legal status shapes what options they perceive to be viable in the HPE pathway given time to degree and funding challenges.

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