A collaborative auto-ethnographic examination of Black immigrant women’s journeys to and in doctoral education

In mainstream discourse about immigrant students in the United States (U.S.), the experiences of Black immigrant women in higher education are often neglected. As two Black, immigrant women raised in the U.S. who are familiar with higher education, we have insight into this understudied population. In this qualitative, collaborative auto-ethnographic study that spans early childhood education to doctoral education, we ask the following research questions: 1) In each author’s experience, what aspects of U.S. society have made their educational attainment challenging? 2) What is the day-to-day life experience of a Black immigrant woman in higher education? and 3) In each woman’s experience, what events are linked to racism and inequality in educational access in the United States? While there were certainly differences in our individual trajectories, we found four major commonalities in our personal education histories: the prominence of migration, the impact of familial support, the role of gender, and layered racialization.