Legislating What Matters: How Policy Designs Shape Two New Immigrant Destinations Schools’ Responses to Immigrant Students

This comparative case study examines the policies of two new immigrant destinations in the United States and Canada that in the past 20 years experienced a rapid influx of immigrants. Using an integrated framework of policy design theory and the context of reception, this paper analyzes the framing of immigrant students in the state, district, and school-level policies. Interviews with immigrant students in these communities show how these policies shaped their schooling experiences and communicated important messages to them about their role in their new communities, thus shaping their political identities. The findings highlight the important interplay of these different policymakers in shaping the contexts of receptions students encountered. The paper concludes by discussing educators’ role in working to craft more equitable policies.

In decentralized school systems like the United States and Canada, schools are guided by policies emanating from several governing bodies, including the local school board/division, state/province, and federal government. These actors create, interpret, and shape educational policies, and consequently, the experiences of students and teachers working in schools. While both U.S. states and Canadian provinces have the constitutional authority to govern the schools within their purview (Vergari, 2010), local school districts (United States) or divisions (Canada) have long played an important role in the creation, implementation, and interpretation of educational policy (Galway et al., 2013;Hess, 2002;Jimenez-Silva et al., 2016). This multi-layered policymaking process shapes schools' practices and students' experiences. For immigrant students in particular these practices and experiences represent an important aspect of their context of reception. Contexts of receptions (COR) refer to the political, structural, and normative characteristics of immigrants' new communities that introduce them to their new societies and shape their opportunities for successful integration (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006;Stepick & Stepick, 2009).
Both the United States and Canada are traditional immigrant receiving nations with immigrants typically settling within large gateway communities such as New York City and Toronto. These cities' identities are shaped in part by the cities' construction of their identities as immigrant destinations (Anbinder, 2016;Anisef & Lanphier, 2003). This article considers immigrant COR's that are outside of these traditional gateway communities in what has been called new immigrant destinations (NIDs). NIDs are communities characterized by a recent influx of immigrants and often limited infrastructure to respond this rapid population growth (Hamann & Harklau, 2015;Massey, 2008;Winders & Smith, 2012). These community characteristics shape immigrants' COR as the communities have varying capacities to respond to their rapidly growing and changing population (Lowenhaupt & Reeves, 2015). Along with these characteristics, the arrival of immigrants often raises questions of community identity and who belongs in that community (Brezicha & Hopkins, 2016;Massey, 2008). The answer to those questions comes in part through the types of policies created by these communities. And though the COR research recognizes the importance of policies, it does not address the way policies are designed to address problems and communicate beliefs to various stakeholders.
Therefore, this research draws on the policy design framework as it explicitly considers the ways policies reveal how knowledge is socially constructed about various "target populations, power relationships, and institutions in the context from which they emerge" (Schneider & Ingram, 1997, p. 5). Moreover, the policy design framework recognizes that these policies teach "citizens through the messages, interpretations, and experiences that people have with public policy" about their role in our democracy (Schneider & Ingram, 1997, p. 5). Bringing these two frameworks together allows for the examination of how the policies in two NIDs communities in Canada and the United States framed immigrant students' COR and how these policies were ultimately experienced by the immigrant students 1 .
To do so, this article draws data from a comparative case study of two NID communities in Larton, Pennsylvania and Perth, Manitoba 2 . As the multiple layers of policy contours these CORs, policies may facilitate either connection or marginalization of immigrant students through the allocations of resources, structures, and supports (Dabach, 2011;LeTendre, 2000). In these ways, policies shape immigrant students' integration into their new communities and send messages to them about their new political communities and their roles therein (McDonnell, 2009;Santos & Menjivar, 2013;Schneider & Ingram, 1997). Taking from the policy design framework, this paper understands policy as the "mechanism through which values are authoritatively allocated for the society" (Schneider & Ingram, 1997, p. 2). This paper then examines policies broadly defined including reports, rules, regulations, meeting minutes and agendas as "policies are revealed through texts, practices, symbols, and discourses that define and deliver values including goods and services" (Schneider & Ingram, 1997, p. 2). These documents provide insight into the "official perspective" of the various governing bodies towards immigrant students (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007, pp.136-137). Therefore, at the state/provincial level, this article focuses on Pennsylvania's department of education and Manitoba's provincial ministry of education as these two bodies have oversight of 1 In this study, immigrant students included both first-and second-generation immigrant students, which means that the students are either immigrants themselves, or have at least one parent who is an immigrant (Ríos-Rojas & Stern, 2018;Suárez-Orozco et al., 2010). 2 These community names are pseudonyms as are all other names used in this manuscript. new schools? Answering these questions shows first how policies structures the schools' responses to their immigrant students by either facilitating or hindering their integration. This contexts matter, in particular, for NID school districts that by definition have limited recent experience with immigrant students and varying capacities to respond to their new student population (Lowenhaupt & Reeves, 2015). If state and provincial policies deleteriously frame immigrant students, it can further segregate NID communities and marginalize immigrant communities (Beck & Allexsaht-Snider, 2002;Gildersleeve & Hernandez, 2012;Rodriguez & Monreal, 2017). Second by drawing on student interviews, the data reveals how students experienced these policies. As these policies influence students' feelings of belonging in their school communities and, consequently, their political development (Brezicha, 2018;Brezicha & Hopkins, 2016). Given this relationship, understanding the policies' framing will provide educators the tools to address the potentially deficit views promulgated in policies and support the creation of more inclusive, equitable policies.

Conceptual Framework
This study's conceptual framework connects two complementary frameworks to understand how policies shaped students' experiences. First, the study utilizes the COR framework to consider how policies, economic structures, and ethnic networks, shape immigrants' ability to integrate into a new society (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006;Stepick & Stepick, 2009). The COR framework recognizes the importance of policies on immigrants' integration process as "it affects the probability of successful immigration and the framework of economic opportunities and legal options available to migrants once they arrive (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006, Chapter 4, Section 3, para 1). Although the COR framework recognizes the importance of policies in the immigrant experience, it does not delve into how policies are part of an inherently "purposeful and normative enterprise through which the elements of policy are arranged to serve particular values, purposes, and interests" (Schneider & Ingram, 1997, p. 3). The policy design framework then extends insights from the COR framework by examining both how policies are constructed and how the political messages embedded in these designs send signals about a group's place and role in society (Schneider & Ingram, 1997, p. 2). Therefore, this section will first present the two frameworks and then connect them to present the conceptual framework guiding this research.
The COR framework presents immigrants' integration process as a confluence of societal forces that moves beyond immigrants' individual characteristics. This framework recognizes that structural and contextual factors influence immigrants' integration process. Researchers have shown that policies, economic structures and conditions, and community demographics shape immigrants' access to social, economic, and educational opportunities (Marrow, 2005(Marrow, , 2011Portes & Rumbaut, 2006;Stepick & Stepick, 2009). While community economics and demographics both influence immigrants' COR, "governmental policy represents the first stage of the process of incorporation" (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006, Chapter 4, Section 3, para 1). These policies can range from exclusionary, to passive acceptance, or active encouragement of immigrant incorporation (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). This article focuses on the policy aspect of the context of reception as policies convey a response from government officials that indicates how immigrants should be integrated (or not) into the community (Martinez et al., 2012).
Moreover, recent work using this framework recognizes that immigrants' COR are nested; the federal and state levels influence the local level but do not entirely determine these contexts, which consists of a unique set of factors (Golash-Boza & Valdez, 2018;Hopkins et al., 2019). In a federal system, like the United States and Canada, multiple levels of policymakers develop these, at times, contradictory policies that shape how communities and schools respond to their new immigrant communities. Of the nested COR, this article focuses on the state/province and district/division level policies because of the important and constitutionally mandated role these two levels have in shaping schools (Spillane, 1996;Vergari, 2010). While the COR framework offers a nuanced view of local responses to immigrant students, the policy design framework provides insight into the creation of policy and the messages that these policies signal to both the policy targets and the broader community about the target population's place within the community.
The policy design framework presents policymaking as a socially constructed process that contains assumptions about the nature of the policy problem, the target groups' power and positioning, and these groups' role in the democratic community. Schneider and Ingram (1993) proposed four socially constructed target groups: the advantaged, contenders, dependents, and deviants. The advantaged and contenders are both politically powerful and have greater access and influence to shape policy elements than the dependent and deviants. This differential access has consequences for the types of policy designed, the benefits and burdens ascribed to the groups, and ultimately the target groups' sense of political identity (Ingram & Schneider, 2005). Examples of how the differing social construction of target groups influences policy constructions can be seen in the portrayal of immigrant students in the United States as either dreamers who came to achieve the American Dream (dependents) or "illegal aliens" 3 who came to reap economic benefits through crime (deviants; Golash-Boza, & Valdez, 2018;Rodriguez, 2018). For dreamers, proposed policies like the DREAM Act provide a pathway to citizenship if they meet certain criteria 4 . Several states' restrictive higher education policies demonstrate the consequences of deviant construction of undocumented immigrant students as they ban undocumented students from enrolling in top-tier public institutions and from paying in-state tuition (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2015).
These different policies illustrate how policy tools convey assumptions about the nature of the policy target, the type of interactions they should have with the government, and their role in the public sphere. Policy tools or instruments are the mechanism by which policymakers seek to realize their policy goals and influence the behavior of their constituents (McDonnell & Elmore, 1987;Schneider & Ingram, 1990). Policymakers' toolkits include mandates, sanctions, inducements, capacity-building, and hortatory tools. Policymakers choose amongst these tools based on the targeted audience and what they expect will motivate the desired policy outcomes. In this study, the analyses revealed that Pennsylvania relied heavily on mandates, which as the first and oldest policy tool, rely on the government's hierarchal authority to ensure compliance to some minimum standard (McDonnell & Elmore, 1987). Mandates disregard the policy target's capabilities and assume that targets will comply without further coercion or incentive. They also present the target group as compliant (Schneider & Ingram, 1997). By contrast, this study will show how the Manitoban ministry tended to focus on capacity building tools, which provide resources to help build material, intellectual, or human resources (McDonnell & Elmore, 1987). Unlike other tools, capacity-building tools do not have a clear set of desired outcomes. Rather, the policy assumes that the target group would willingly engage in some desirable actions if only they had the proper set of tools. This tool indicates a respect for the group's autonomy and capability (Schneider & Ingram, 1990). These differing tool choices establish differing feedback loops as will be discussed next.
Once a policy is created, policy design theorists examine the policy feedback loop by considering whom the policy mobilizes and what the policy signals about the policy targets' place in the government (McDonnell, 2009;Mettler, 2002). The policy feedback loop occurs as the policy allocates benefits or imposes costs on different groups, which then creates mobilization and interpretive effects (McDonnell, 2009). Policy mobilization incentivizes targeted groups to organize to either protect their benefits or resist the policy's costs (McDonnell, 2009). A policy's interpretive effects conveys messages to the target population and others (such as teachers and administrators) about the target population's role and value in the community and the appropriate way for these citizens to interact with the government (McDonnell, 2013;Schneider & Ingram, 1990). Policies signal these messages by first allocating resources that shape "individuals' material well-being and life opportunities and, thus, directly affect their capacity (meaning ability, aptitude, or faculty) for participation" (Mettler, 2002, p. 352). In schools, these resources can include time (e.g. course scheduling), (teacher) expertise, and curricula (e.g. advanced courses). Secondly, interpretive effects shape citizens' cognitive processes by influencing citizens' understanding of their political identity and place in their democracy (Mettler, 2002;Pierson, 1993). Schools as public, political institutions reflect these elements in specific ways. For example, policies signal to both the adults and students in the school community about the values and the respective group's roles to play in public political spaces (Gitlin et al., 2003;Santos & Menjivar, 2013).
Examining the state/province and district/division policies using the policy design and context of reception framework can reveal two important components. First, the policy design framework reveals how policymakers understand immigrant students. Second, it explicates how policies influence students' engagement with schools and their developing political identities. Policies first do this by allocating both material and psychological resources to groups and individuals. Moreover, policies shape the COR by signaling the role and value of immigrants to both immigrant students, educators, and other community members. These policy signals contour the context of reception by indicating which responses are appropriate and natural. Using the policy design and COR frameworks allows for an analysis of the documents that the state/provincial departments of education and district/divisions boards produced to understand how these two NIDs sought to incorporate their new immigrant populations into their schools. These documents signaled the values held by the state/province and the two communities, which had consequences for immigrant students' experiences in their schools. These experiences and the subsequent feelings of belonging or exclusion to their school have important consequences for citizens' sense of political identity, shaping their civic and political activities (Brezicha, 2018;Mettler, 2002).

Literature Review
This literature review provides a brief overview on how policies designed at the state/provincial level shape immigrant students' COR. It then examines how school districts, in particular NID districts, have responded to their changing student demographics. It concludes by examining how immigrant students make sense of their experiences of policies in their daily interactions in schools.
New immigrant destination districts have varying capacity to support immigrant students given their size and resources (Hopkins et al., 2019;Lowenhaupt & Reeves, 2015). Therefore, states and provinces play an important role in supporting NIDs and ensuring immigrant students' equitable treatment. This is particularly true as research has shown the complimentary nature of state and local educational agencies (LEA) policymaking (Spillane, 1996). While little research has looked specifically at how states and provinces support immigrant students and NID districts in particular, some research has examined state level actions to understand how these actions frame and either help or hinder the integration process of immigrants. For example, Martinez et al. (2012) examined legislation in 12 Midwestern states that are all considered NID states to understand how the policies fell along a continuum of inclusionary to exclusionary. They considered any policies that addressed immigrants and found that the states varied in the types of policies they passed both within the state and across the region. Interestingly it was not always the states with the highest growth in immigrant residents that legislated the most on immigrant issues showing how policymakers create policies based on their socially constructed understanding of the problem they are addressing. Other research finds that states with more inclusive policies that grant immigrants greater access to social, economic, political, and health resources have lower rates of poverty for immigrant groups than more exclusionary states (Trinidad De Young et al., 2018). While neither of the previous studies explore the relationship between these pieces of legislation and immigrants' educational experiences, Filindra et al. (2011) examined the relationship between state-level policies and immigrant students' educational outcomes. They found a positive association between immigrants' access to state welfare and other benefits and immigrant children's high school graduation rate. This finding highlights how policies can help create a positive COR and allocate resources that support immigrant integration. Lastly, Rodriguez and Monreal (2017) conducted a policy analysis that examined the framing of immigrant in South Carolina legislation. They documented how the legislation framed immigrants as outsiders in the state creating an exclusionary context of reception at the state level. While not the focus of that article, these authors drew on Rodriguez's other work to show how immigrant students were both aware of and impacted by the exclusionary rhetoric they documented in the policies. This research highlights how policies have an influence on immigrants' COR and ultimately on immigrant children's educational outcomes.
When looking specifically at state-level educational policy, research has suggested that its design plays an important role in framing the COR. For example, Beck and Allexsaht-Snider (2002) examined the impact of the Georgia's Department of Education leadership in adopting an Englishonly language policy. Their study revealed how policies in the form of curricular materials, state guidance documents and mandates were designed by the state department of education to clearly communicate support for an assimilationist, English-only approach to language learning that froze any efforts to support Georgia's growing immigrant student population. This administration ultimately eliminated bilingual education programs thereby materially reducing supports for Georgia's growing immigrant population. An analysis of Wisconsin's bilingual education policy revealed that despite a welcoming stance towards bilingual students, the state department of education's limited guidance on the policy led to a wide variety of district implementation (Lowenhaupt, 2015). Given NIDs documented differences in capacities (Lowenhaupt & Reeves, 2015) as well community contexts, the state department of education plays an important role in crafting policies that contribute to the COR and support for immigrant students at the local level. This study specifically seeks to understand how the state and provincial framing of immigrant students in publicly available documents supports the work done in schools and ultimately the experiences immigrant students have.
At the local level, research has shown that school district action "is pivotal to whether and how reforms reach classrooms" (Burch & Spillane, 2005, p. 51). This proves particularly challenging when districts attempt to implement equity-oriented reforms that challenge conventional practices and educator beliefs (Trujillo, 2013;Turner, 2015). These challenges may be exacerbated in many NID districts, which face those same challenges while also undergoing a rapid demographic shift that necessitates difficult conversations about selecting the best instructional services to meet their new student population's needs and ways to reallocate scarce resources (McAdams, 2006;Zehler et al., 2008). One study comparing NID and established immigrant destination districts found that while NIDs had higher indicators of educational quality (e.g. high school graduation rates and 4-year college enrollment rate), the NIDs struggled to identify and support students learning English (Dondero & Muller, 2012). These struggles may stem from the difficulty NID districts have building the organizational and instructional capacity required to support immigrant students' academic, social, and linguistic needs (Lowenhaupt & Reeves, 2015). Furthermore, how districts position immigrant students and their learning needs influences the nature of the support that they and their teachers receive through professional development opportunities, committee participation, and advice seeking networks (Hopkins et al., 2015). For example, in one NID, board members and district leadership largely resisted addressing immigrant students' needs until community boundary spanners helped shift the narrative around immigrant students from "illegal aliens" to "families just like us," providing the district leadership the political space to act more responsively (Brezicha & Hopkins, 2016). Even when well-intentioned district leadership frames demographic shifts in neutral terms, it can perpetuate deficit thinking and influence the policies created (Turner, 2015). These studies illustrate the ways policies at the state and district level shape the COR immigrant students encounter when entering their new schools. Moreover, these policies reveal a construction of immigrant students that signals their value to both the immigrant students as well as adults working with them.
While there is little research that directly examines immigrant students' understanding of policies, the research that does exist suggests that the context that policies creates intimately shapes immigrant students' perceptions of themselves and their role in the political community. One study examined how the Arizona immigration policy known as SB 1070 5 related to first and secondgeneration immigrant students' sense of well-being, self-esteem, feelings of being American, perceived ethnic discrimination by authorities among other measures. The researchers found positive and significant relationships between students' awareness of the law and their perception of ethnic discrimination by teachers and others authorities. They also noted that a negative and significant relationship existed between students' awareness of the law and the identification as Americans. Moreover, they noted that the awareness of the law also relatedly negatively to students' abilities to regulate their emotions in class while being positively related to their engagement in risky behavior. These findings suggest that the policy context and messages contained within these policies intimately affected immigrant students' experiences, attitudes, and perceptions (Santos & Menjivar, 2013). This awareness shapes not only their experiences with authorities it also changes their identification with the nation. The present study highlights the ways in which students come to interact with policy and how these interactions shape their feelings of belonging.

Context
This comparative case study focused on Larton, Pennsylvania, and Perth, Manitoba. In the larger study, the federal COR for immigrant in both Canada and the United States were considered (Brezicha, 2015). However, this article focuses on the responses of the state, provinces, and the two NIDs as they are the entities with constitutional mandates to provide education for their newly 5 SB 1070 was policy Arizona enacted that allowed to local law enforcement to ascertain immigration status during lawful police stops, imposed a requirement that all "aliens" carry proof of registration; prohibited undocumented immigrants from working; "and [granted] permission for warrantless arrests if there is probable cause the offense would make the person is removable from the United States" (Morse, 2011). arrived immigrant students. While these communities shared some similarities (see Table 1) 6 , the communities differed in their response to the immigrant influx. These responses stem partially from the differences in attitudes and policies towards immigrants and multiculturalism, which have important implications for the schools' responses to their new immigrant population. Additional differences in the community relate to the community's immigrant populations. In Larton, the majority of immigrants were from Latin America; in Canada the immigrant population was more diverse with immigrants coming predominantly from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. In both cases, these groups have been historically subject to racist and xenophobic immigration laws whose effects continue to reverberate in both societies (Bonilla-Silva, 2002;Gans, 2012;Madut, 2018;Sorrell et al., 2019). Importantly, and as will be shown in the Manitoban case, both the province and division worked to create more inclusive policies for their immigrant students.

Larton, Pennsylvania
As a coalmining town in the late 19 th century, Larton attracted immigrants from England, Scotland, Wales, and Germany who came seeking work in the coalmines. As America's appetite for coal grew, more immigrants from Ireland and Southern Europe arrived to the scorn of earlier immigrants who saw these new arrivals as economic threats willing to work for less and in more dangerous conditions. As the coal industry faded and the city's population declined, Larton's redevelopment organization formed to attract new businesses. They succeeded and several international corporations came, bringing many blue-collar jobs in meatpacking, manufacturing, and distribution. These jobs attracted predominantly Latina/o immigrants who came for the jobs and affordable housing. Between 2000 and 2010, the Latino/a population grew from 3.5% to 37%, representing a 900% increase.
As the immigrant population rapidly grew, tensions simmered with long-standing residents blaming immigrants for bringing crime, exploiting social services, and straining the economically struggling city budget. In the wake of two high-profile criminal cases, Larton's mayor and supporters used these incidents to justify enacting a series of restrictive ordinances designed to "punish people and businesses that aid and abet illegal aliens" including those who knowingly rented housing or hired an "illegal" immigrant. In addition, the city council ordained English as the city's official language and mandated that all city business be conducted in English. These touchstone laws angered many immigrants and allies who decried the law as discriminatory and racist while the laws' supporters saw it as necessary to stem immigrant arrivals. This climate of suspicion strained relationships between local White community members and the predominantly Latina/o immigrants. While in subsequent years several courts overturned the illegal immigration policy, groups coalesced to support the integration of the immigrants into Larton. These groups supported immigrants by providing citizenship and English language classes, afterschool tutoring, and translation services and helped push the community forward (Brezicha & Hopkins, 2016). This context framed the work of the Larton Area School District (LASD) and Larton Area High School (LAHS) and shaped the immigrant students' experience.

Perth, Manitoba
Located in the Canadian prairies, Russian Mennonites seeking religious freedom originally immigrated to Perth, Manitoba. The town grew to become a regional agricultural and business center. By the 1950s, the town was home to other immigrant groups like the German Lutherans and English Anglicans. Like Larton, this small community successfully sought to stimulate its economy by establishing a Chamber of Commerce and attracting new blue-collar jobs in the pharmaceutical, meatpacking, and construction industries. Unlike Larton, Perth actively encouraged immigrants to settle in the community making it one of Manitoba's top destinations for immigrants and one of the province's fastest growing cities. This demographic change has been received positively with the Chamber of Commerce's executive director noting, "we attracted people from more than 40 countries and we have more than 100 countries represented in the region." The statement highlighted that community leaders viewed the increasing immigration and population's subsequent diversification as beneficial for the town. Between 2001 and 2011, the population in Perth grew from 9,000 to 14,000 an almost 47% growth. Its population has nearly doubled between 1981 and 2011. Much of this population growth has been attributed to immigrants who have arrived as part of Manitoba's Provincial Nominating Program. The nationality of the immigrants arriving in Perth have changed over time. In the late 1990s and early 2000s many Mennonites whose families had roots in Canada returned to Perth from South America, particularly Paraguay. In addition, many German and Russian Mennonites arrived in the late 1990s and early 2000s. With the opening of a large pharmaceutical company among other industries, a second wave of immigrants came as the company actively recruited Filipino and other southeastern Asian workers to the area. It is in this context that the Perth School Division (PSD) and Perth High School (PHS) received their new immigrant students.
Considering these two communities' responses reveals starkly different reactions to their new immigrant community members that created two very different COR. In Larton, though community leaders actively recruited the industries that attracted the new immigrants to the area, many within the community reacted with fear to their new neighbors. This fear created a COR marred by suspicion and distrust that was only heightened by the policies created and the language used in those policies. Meanwhile in Perth, the community leaders actively recruited and embraced the immigrants arriving in their small town. This overt welcome was reinforced by the policies that were crafted. These differing stances nested within the broader historical and national contexts had major implication for the immigrants' COR and the students' experiences as will be shown in the findings.

Data and Methods
The data in this article come from a comparative, case study completed in August of 2015 that examined how immigrant students' experiences at the two high schools within these two NID districts shaped their feelings of belonging and ultimately their political identities (Yin, 2003, pp. 13-14). The study focused on two high schools in Manitoba and Pennsylvania. These two cases were purposefully selected as two information rich cases (Patton, 2015) as the two communities reacted differently to their new immigrant residents suggesting that the COR also differed. These differing contexts would theoretically lead to the students having different experiences in schools and those experiences might alter their feelings of belonging to the new community. As a case study, the study focused on issues in which the boundaries between the context (the two NID communities in two traditional immigrant-receiving nations) and phenomena of interest (the relationship between immigrant students' feelings of belonging and their political identities) were not evident. Using a case study research design allowed for a comprehensive research strategy that explicitly recognizes the influence of the context on the phenomena under study as what occurs within schools reflects and engages multiple actors and systems across the various levels of government (Baxter & Jack, 2008).
The larger study included data from federal, state/provincial, district/division and school level documents regarding immigrant students, as well as interviews with students, educators, administrators, community members, and classroom observations. This article, however, narrowed the focus to two parts of the data sets. First, it drew upon the documents gathered at the state/province, district/division, and school level to consider how immigrant students were framed in these documents. Secondly, it used student interviews to understand students' experiences of their schools.
To gather the publicly available documents, I searched the websites of the two high schools, the district/division, and state department of education, and provincial ministry for any references to ELLs or English as an Additional Language (EAL) students, immigrant, migrant, and refugee students 7 . I gathered documents related to the missions and visions of the schools and LEAs as these statements may contain values and beliefs of the local communities (Schafft & Biddle, 2013). At the school division and school board level, I examined school board meeting minutes and agendas, memos, professional development announcements, newsletters, and commissioned reports. At the state department of education and provincial ministry of education level, I analyzed documents that targeted ELLs or English as an Additional Language (EAL) students, immigrant, migrant, and refugee students including reports, guides, manuals, PowerPoint presentations of professional development offerings among other documents (see Appendix A for a complete list of documents). I gathered these documents between November 2013 and August 2015 and uploaded them to NVivo. I deidentified documents related to the schools and district/division but not the state/province unless those documents specifically mentioned the district/division under study.
To understand students' experiences, I conducted three semi-structured interviews with 11 immigrant students in Larton and 12 immigrant students in Perth. The students were either first-or second-generation immigrants. These interviews ranged from 20 to 75 minutes and were designed iteratively to explore students' experiences and feelings of belonging in their schools and communities and how this related to their political socialization. The students' ages ranged from 14 to 21 and backgrounds reflected the immigrant groups within the two communities. These interviews were transcribed and imported into NVivo where identifying information was removed.
In reanalyzing the data for this article, I went through three iterative cycles. First, I re-read and memoed about each piece of data to document my initial understandings, as well as potential codes and trends. I then used both inductive and deductive codes to analyze the documents and interviews (Saldaña, 2009). The deductive codes came from the conceptual framework and included codes such as target population, policy tool, inclusionary, exclusionary, and policy orientation (i.e deficit or strength), programs, and resources. Within these deductive codes sub-codes included different types of target populations (i.e. dependent, deviant) as well as policy tools. Inductive codes emerged from the documents and interviews themselves such as racism, coded language, and funding sources. After completing the initial coding, I reviewed each code and the data contained therein. I wrote about the potential relationships between these different codes in several memos that then became the basis for the axial codes. As part of this process, I collapsed redundant codes and deleted codes that were not useful. From these memos, I generated several overarching codes such who was named, motivation to act, goals of actions. Each of these codes clarified the relationship between the initial codes. For example, the code for who was named and how connected the different ways the documents addressed the groups as ELLs, EALs, immigrants, refugees and the valences associated with these different naming conventions and what it signaled about the attitudes and values of the groups associated with the naming convention. I attended particularly to how the concepts of interest (i.e. target populations, contexts of receptions etc.) fit together.

Findings
The first research question asked: how did the documents found on the website for the state department of education, provincial ministry of education and school district/division frame immigrant students? The second research question asked: how did these policies influence immigrant students' experiences integrating into their new schools? The findings are organized by the two research questions. The first set of findings stems from the document analysis, which revealed stark differences in how the two communities identified and discussed their immigrant students. Moreover, the documents highlighted differing motivations and goals for governmental action or inaction as the case may be. The findings are presented along these two categories. The second set of findings come out of student interviews and are presented by the two case sites to show how these first set of findings created a context for the students' experience in their respective high schools.

Who Was Named and How?
This first theme revealed how the different entities clearly communicated differing values and expectations regarding immigrant students in the ways they addressed the students. Pennsylvania's Department of Education (PDE) largely focused on English Language Learners (ELLs) rather than immigrant or refugee students. Meanwhile the Manitoban Ministry's 8 documents offered an explicit and positive portrait of immigrant students in the documents reviewed. The district/division level highlights how differently the two communities viewed immigrant students. In Larton, we see veiled references to immigrant students but no explicit acknowledgement of their presence let alone their unique strengths and challenges. Meanwhile, the documents analyzed in Perth showed that school officials welcomed and took proactive steps to integrate their immigrant students. This analysis found a striking parallel between the ways that the state/district and province/division discussed (or did not) immigrant students highlighting the important relationship between these two branches of government. These differences reveal the power of the language used to construct the target populations (Schneider & Ingram, 1997).
Most of the documents reviewed on the PDE website did not specifically address immigrant students. Instead, they focused on English Language Learners (ELLs) or Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students who under PA Code §4.26 are guaranteed "a program for each student whose dominant language is not English for the purpose of facilitating the student's achievement of English proficiency and the academic standards" (22 PA. Code §4.26). While these labels are typical of many government documents, the labels also attend to what ELLs do not know (English) and ignore their strengths and cultural backgrounds (Callahan, 2005;Garcia & Kleifgen, 2010). I found only three references to immigrants in a circular on enrolling students (PDE, 2009c), the Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS) Handbook, a statewide data system (PDE, 2014) and the 2015-2016 Administrative Manual for Federal Programs (PDE, 2015a). The first mention of immigrant students was found in a circular on the enrollment of students (PDE, 2009c). In the circular, citing the Plyler v. DOE ruling, the PDE clarified that "a child's right to be admitted to school may not be conditioned on the child's immigration status" (PDE, 2009c). The second document defined an immigrant student as a child "not born in any state, and has not been attending one or more schools in any one or more states for more than three full academic years" (PDE, 2014, p. 280). This technical definition focused only on immigrant students for the purposes of documentation and verification for federal initiatives and state mandates. Given the purpose of the database, this limited scope makes sense. The 2015-2016 administrative manual discussed immigrant students in the context of the administration of Title III of No Child Left Behind. As the PDE notes, Title III focuses on developing LEP students "including immigrant children and youth that are also identified as LEP students" (PDE, 2015a, p.34). All of these documents sought to ensure that the PDE and LEAs complied with federal mandates. In no other publicly available document on the PDE's website did the PDE acknowledge immigrant students or discuss their specific strengths and needs. This absence was striking given the estimated 67% increase in ELLs attending Pennsylvania schools since 2000, many of whom were either immigrants or children of immigrants (Basic Education Funding Commission, 2015, p. 30).
Reviewing 15 years of Larton's school board meeting minutes, the district's and high school's websites revealed only one policy that specifically acknowledged immigrant students but only as it related to student enrollment. This policy echoed the state's circular (PDE, 2009c) on student enrollment saying "the district shall not inquire about the immigration status of a student as part of the enrollment process". At the school board level, the school board meeting minutes revealed a startling silence about the immigrant students arriving in Larton. While the board did not directly acknowledge the arriving immigrant students, they did address the growing concerns of 8 The Ministry of Education has had several names in the past forty years. These include the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Education, Citizenship and Youth, the Minister of Education and Advanced Learning among others. This article will refer to the provincial level branch in charge of education as the Ministry. All in-text citations and references, however, will have the correct attributions. overcrowding in the district. One school board member reported that he spoke with "principals and staff [who] feel our schools are over-crowded… test scores are being affected by this problem" (Larton Area School Board [LASB] meeting minutes, 8/28/2008, p. 13) 9 . Another board member worried that "our children who were once excited about attending schools do not want to go to school because of the over-crowding" (LASB meeting minutes, 8/28/2008, p. 13). These comments named the problem as the "School District has grown too fast" (LASB meeting minutes, 11/21/2006, p. 17). They did not address the reason for this rapid growth other than one veiled reference to "families that have fifteen (15) kids from one house" (LASB meeting minutes, 6/11/2003, p. 2). This coded language highlighted the stereotypes present in the community about immigrant families having many children. Moreover, the minutes suggest that some board members thought that the overcrowding was temporary, thus not requiring a systemic response. For example, one board member commented, "a new school may not be needed seven (7) years down the road" (LASB meeting minutes, 3/20/2003, p. 12-13). Given that the board did not name or even acknowledge immigrant students, they took few steps to support students.
Meanwhile in Manitoba, the Ministry has historically taken a more proactive stance towards educating culturally and linguistically diverse students. Beginning in the 1980s, the Ministry has worked to create more inclusive schooling by supporting ESL programming, heritage language education, and antiracism education (Ministry of Education and Training, 1992, para. 4). In the 1990s, the Manitoban government began working to address the needs of their increasingly diverse student population. This can be seen in the an explicitly positive stance the Ministry developed towards immigrant students. A document entitled Belonging, Learning, and Growing demonstrates this stance framing immigration as a positive for both the Manitoban economy and its society: Immigration has played a crucial role in ensuring Manitoba's continued economic growth. Manitoba has made a commitment to double the number of immigrants attracted to the province…. The increased linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity of learners requires more effective responses to their educational needs, to ensure their success in school. While highlighting the benefits of immigration, the statement also recognized that the changing student population necessitated changes in practices to ensure student success. Moreover, the Ministry (2006) explicitly stated that it "values the linguistic and cultural diversity that characterizes communities and schools in Manitoba" (p. 11). This explicitly positive stance towards immigration and the attending linguistic and cultural diversity sent a clear signal to the divisions of the Ministry's values and its asset-based approach to the province's increasingly diverse students. Moreover, the Ministry has continued to signal its evolving understanding of diverse learners as evidenced by the 2003 "Report on the English as a Second Language Program Review". This report documented the Ministry's recognition that as demographics shift they needed "to focus attention on the needs of diverse learners, and re-energize efforts aimed at reducing educational disparities" (MECY, 2003, p. 2). In particular, the Ministry noted that "changes in newcomer settlement patterns to include more rural areas mean more schools and school divisions are challenged to provide local programs for ESL Learners" (MECY, 2003, 2). These two statements explicitly recognized that as demographics and settlement patterns shifted, the Ministry's supports also needed to shift to support the differing needs of the LEAs and their students. To do this, the MECY, along with the Ministries for Advanced Education and Training, and Labour and 9 Please note that to protect the anonymity of the district, these sources are not included in the citation list. Immigration, convened a group to formulate a strategic action plan and develop recommendations for the Ministry on meeting the needs of the LEAs and their newly arrived immigrant students. As part of this 2003 report, the Ministry decided to use the term English as an Additional Language (EAL) instead of English as a Second Language. The Ministry explained that, "this revised term better reflects the additive nature of learning another language. The additive approach acknowledges and builds upon the strengths and contributions of Manitoba's intercultural, multilingual student population" (MECY, 2003, p.1-4). The EAL label highlighted that these students already speak at least one (if not more) languages, which honors students' knowledge rather than emphasizing what the students did not know. In making this language shift explicit, the Ministry further supported immigrant students by valuing their home language something not seen anywhere in the Pennsylvania documents.
Like the Ministry's explicitly positive stance towards immigrant students, both Perth city and school division officials embraced the growing numbers of immigrant students and their families. For example, Perth's Mayor was quoted as saying "We've had a lot of growth in the last number of years. We have a very diverse economy, a lot of immigration and people say this is a great place to live and do business". This statement highlights that city leaders saw the increasing immigration and subsequent diversification of the population as beneficial for the town. This positive sentiment continued at the division level where the 2015 annual report boasts of its diversity saying that it educates students from 37 different countries (PSD, 2015). Moreover, Perth's division's mission centered on supporting and valuing students' uniqueness as evidenced in the Educational Philosophy, Mission Statement and Priorities, (2011): "Perth is a student-centred school division…Valuing all students in our care, recognizing their uniqueness, worth and potential, preserving their dignity, listening to their voice, and proving them with hope." In addition, the division adopted a foundational policy commitment that conveyed the Board of Trustee's commitment to "creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive environment in which students, staff and parents are aware of and respect the human rights, diversity and dignity of others" (Perth School Division, 2014) 10 . This policy specifically referenced the provincial policies' respect for diversity highlighting the interplay between the two policy actors.
The differences in who was named and how they were named clearly indicated two different stances towards immigrant students. In Pennsylvania and Larton, the silence found in the documents around immigrant students suggested at best an ambivalence to their presence and at worst a deliberate exclusion. This silence stands in stark juxtaposition to the deliberately affirming stance of the Manitoban body of documents. In these documents, immigrant students are welcomed and valued. These differing stances then indicate a difference in motivations to act and goals for those actions as we will see in the next section.

Motivations and Goals for Action
This set of findings considers the justifications different actors provided when taking action regarding immigrant students. Given the different framing of immigrant students, the section shows how the motivation for and goals of actions also differed considerably.
In Pennsylvania, most of the PDE's language focused on ensuring that LEAs met the "responsibility" and "mandates" of the state and federal government. Thus, the motivation to act came from external stakeholders. For example, the PDE focused on ensuring that the LEAs knew and complied with the requirement to provide English as a Second Language (ESL) services. This is evidenced in the circular the PDE issued to ensure that LEAs met "the requirements and interpretations of the legal mandates governing the education of students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), also known as English Language Learners (ELLs)" (PDE, 2009a, p. 1). This compliance-oriented motivation yielded little evidence of capacity building policies that could proactively develop LEA's capabilities to meet immigrant students' needs.
This compliance-oriented motivation continued in other documents that pertained to working with immigrant students included guidance on complying with federal programs such as the migrant and refugee education program and Title III grants. As a federal grant, Title III seeks to ensure "that Limited English Proficient (LEP) students, including immigrant children and youth that are also identified as LEP students, develop English proficiency and meet the same academic content and academic achievement standards that all children are expected to meet" (PDE, 2015a, p. 34). While the grant sought to improve ELL students' performance, the state provided little guidance as to how to improve the students' performance focusing instead on the LEA's legal mandates rather than on building LEA's capacity. For example, the Title III grant permits LEAs to choose instructional strategies and curriculum "consistent with federal and state guidelines and requirement… [and] must be founded on scientifically based research and have demonstrated effectiveness" (PDE, 2015a, p. 34). However, searching for programs or guidelines on how to choose such programs did not yield resources that could support the LEAs. Thus, the focus from the PDE remained squarely on meeting the mandates set forth by the federal government with few resources provided to do so.
As the motivating force behind action for the state consisted of meeting federal mandates, it was not surprising to see that the predominant goal the PDE had for linguistically diverse students were related to developing English language skills. This goal aligned to the targets of their actions who were as previously described ELLs and LEPs and was articulated in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program's goal statement "each student whose dominant language is not English for the purpose of facilitating the student's achievement of English proficiency and the academic standards" (PDE, 2009a, p. 1). This language framed ELLs in need of remediation rather than recognizing the students as emergent bilinguals with a myriad of assets. Moreover, this language could signal to LEAs that their focus should have been on remediation rather than a more holistic approach to the education of immigrant students. Another example of the narrow nature of the PDE's goals can be seen in the limited guidance the PDE offered LEAs on choosing a language learning program. The State noted that programs should be "based on an educational theory recognized as sound by some experts in the field or considered by experts as a legitimate experimental strategy" (PDE, 2009a, p. 3). The PDE offered a handout overviewing the programs' linguistic goals and structures but no information on the available research regarding best practices to support ELLs. Importantly, only seven of the eighteen programs shared the PDE's ESL program's goals of "developing literacy in English". Other programs, like the various bilingual models, had the more linguistically ambitious goal of "developing literacy in two languages: bilingualism" (PDE, 2009b, pp. 1-2). This limited information left NID LEAs with little guidance on how to make this complex decision (Scanlan & Lopez, 2014) about which program would be most effective in supporting immigrant students' education and integration. It could also implicitly signal that one of the seven programs that directly aligned with the State's ESL goal would be best for LEAs.
Beyond goals for the ESL program development, the State also mandated that "all LEAs with ELLs enrolled must offer staff development related to ESL for all LEA personnel as part of the Professional Development Act 48 Plan" (PDE, 2009a, p. 7). This mandate sought to develop the professional capacity of LEA personnel. However, the state provided limited direction about the nature and quality of this professional development. While some districts might have responded proactively, the lack of specificity and guidance likely allowed for a great deal of variance in the implementation of this mandate as others have noted (Lowenhaupt, 2015).
The PDE also managed the federally funded Refugee Education Program, which provided supports for refugee students and their families. These grants "assist recently arrived refugee students and their families demonstrate a greater assimilation and integration into the school and community in a culturally and linguistically competent manner" (PDE, 2015b, para. 1). Through this program, the State offered technical assistance and built districts' capacity to work with refugee students. This program presented the first evidence of a capacity-building resource for districts. Interestingly, it specifically targeted refugee students and not immigrant students who, depending on which framing was being used, may have raised the specter of "illegality" and therefore may have been politically untenable. Furthermore, these resources came from a federal program and not the State's own resources, a pattern that Larton's school board repeated when making decisions about how to allocate their own resources.
Given the limited motivations to act found at the state level, examining the documents found in Larton's school district revealed similar compliance orientation towards the LEA's work with their immigrant students. Most of the actions were undertaken to comply with federal or state mandates. The board's limited response to immigrant students can be seen in the few professional development days approved specifically geared towards teachers' work with ELLs. Most of the professional development opportunities related to legal compliance issues or working with ELLs. As with the PDE policies, none of these professional development sessions specifically named immigrant students as the targeted student group. These professional developments included online computer programs that ostensibly taught teachers Spanish: "Board approve purchasing of Rosetta Stone on-line and standalone training modules for teachers for approximately $6,000. (Expenditure is supported by the Title III Grant Funding)" (LASB meeting minutes, 5/29/07, p. 24). It is worth noting that this training opportunity did little to develop educators' knowledge of working with culturally and linguistically diverse immigrant students. Often times, school board members approved these professional development opportunities noting, "Title III funding will pay for this training at no cost to the District" (LASB meeting minutes, 2/21/12, p. 5). A version of this refrain was found nearly every time the board allocated funds for professional development targeting ELLs. Moreover, when questioned about funding these expenditures when Title III money was not available, the Superintendent responded that the district "cannot offer the services and those persons understand that" (LASB meeting minutes, 08/25/2005, p. 1). This response suggests that both the board and the district leadership were motivated to act based on the availability of external funds rather than an intrinsic belief in the students' needs or deservingness.
When examining what motivated the Manitoban ministry's work with immigrant students, there was a clear difference in the lack of compliance orientation. Given the federal government's limited role in education, there were no discernable external mandates that the province had to meet. The mandate it did have came from provincial legislation that mandated the Ministry "provide direction and allocate resources in support of youth programming and kindergarten to grade 12 education" (Manitoba Education and Advanced Learning [MEAL], 2015a). The Ministry continued noting that one of its overarching goals was to "ensure that education practice and policy in Manitoba is guided by the principle of inclusion" (MEAL, 2015a). The Ministry further explained this principle of inclusion stating that: Inclusion is a way of thinking and acting that allows every individual to feel accepted, valued, and safe. An inclusive community consciously evolves to meet the changing needs of its members. Through recognition and support, an inclusive community provides meaningful involvement and equal access to the benefits of citizenship. (MEAL, 2015b) Given these explicit beliefs and values, the Ministry's motivation to act and the way it acted sought to build LEA's capacity to work with immigrant students. These capacity building efforts sought to help LEAs develop their ability to work with immigrant students. For example, the Ministry's 2013-2014 annual report highlighted the improvements it made to build the capacity of the local divisions and schools "especially in rural and northern areas in formalizing their planning and protocols for EAL and increasing local capacity for welcoming and meeting the needs of EAL learners and families" (MEAL, 2014, p. 28). To this end, the Ministry created resources for educators and divisions such as professional development opportunities and curricula guides for World Refugee Day, Asian History Month, and Islamic History Month. Other resources included publications that focused on working with refugee and immigrant students. One report interviewed 11 refugee students living in Manitoba. This report sought to introduce educators to refugees, develop insights into both successful and unsuccessful educational programming, and strengthen programming and school supports for educators (MEAL, 2015c). The Ministry's numerous capacity-building efforts included professional development opportunities that supported educators' work with immigrant and refugee students and families. The Ministry also funded grants for educators to attend conferences that would improve their practices. Lastly, the Ministry sought to create networks of teachers and administrators working with immigrants by facilitating their connections to each other through a dedicated website and by highlighting exemplary schools and teachers. At the division level, PSD seemed to be motivated by its commitments to inclusion. This motivation to act can be seen in a report that it commissioned in 2008 where the author wrote: In light of the tremendous increase in the numbers of EAL students in [PSD] over the last ten years and the diversity of those learners' backgrounds and experiences, research was undertaken in 2008-2009 to document the successes and challenges of EAL learners formerly in [PSD] so that the division could begin to assess its response to the varied needs of its newcomer populations.
Thus, the division showed that it recognized that it needed to change how it educated an increasingly diverse student population and sought to develop the capacity to response to its student body's changing needs by commissioning this report. The report analyzed the needs of the students, their families, teachers, and immigrant supporting organizations. It found that many students felt cared for by their teachers both academically and personally. However, the students noted that at times they were not in the best classes to meet their needs and abilities. The parents felt that the schools supported their students; however, they reported some difficulties communicating with teachers across language and cultural differences. This holistic analysis allowed for a more comprehensive district response. While a document analysis cannot trace causality, it is interesting to note that in the 2011-2012 school year, PHS' leaders set a goal of "strengthen[ing] connections between the school, parents and the community" by having parents report that they had an "increase in opportunities to communicate with teachers and school administrators." This priority directly responds to the report's findings regarding parents' feelings of disconnections. Lastly, the division partnered with Perth's immigrant resettlement agency to provide immigrant families an orientation to the Canadian school system as well as share other resources and translation services.
In addition to these proactive steps, the division developed teachers' capacity in several ways. First, the division hired a district EAL curriculum specialist. This division-wide person connected the EAL teachers for collaboration and resource sharing. For non-EAL teachers, the division worked with the province to provide several professional development opportunities, including work sessions with EAL specialists as well as dedicated collaboration time for teachers to meet with other teachers working with EAL students. In addition to the divisional efforts, the high school administration also gave teachers time to work with Ms. Lehrer, the school's EAL teacher. Reviewing this policy context shows that the provincial and division-level policies supported adults' work with their newly arrived immigrant students. The document analysis provided evidence of two very different contexts of reception. In the Larton case, the documents highlight the limited recognition and resources available to immigrant students. In the Perth case, the documents outline the multiple avenues for resources and support available to immigrant students. These different contexts of receptions will be further reflected in how the immigrant students experienced these policies in action.

Larton Students
Given the lack of targeted policies, many of the interviewed students felt unsupported, marginalized, and disconnected. This next section examines how Larton immigrant students described their high school experiences, which resulted from interactions between the policy contexts, their educators, and peers.
Most of the immigrant students interviewed shared a high school experience filled with disconnection and marginalization. Many students commented that most teachers did not seem to know, care, or respect their students. Christopher, a Dominican high school senior, exemplified these sentiments, saying, "teachers don't show interest in me like they just do their thing. So, I feel like I'm nobody" (personal communication, 6/24/14). Other students noted that the teachers did not know how to help them learn English. Bianca, a Dominican sophomore, shared that "my history teacher she helped me, and she asked me if I understood something but like other teachers don't do that.... I think personally that they need to understand that I don't know like English as well" (personal communication, 5/22/14). More troubling, Bianca felt that some of her teachers were racist saying that "all immigrant students say that they're racist" (personal communication, 5/22/14). Other students echoed Bianca's sentiments saying that teachers saw immigrant students "more just a nuisance than anything…They barely put any of the immigrant students into Honors' classes. You'll never see one in an Honors' class ever. You'll only ever see them in the very low classes…It's really separated (Jacob, personal communication, 5/1/14). An Office of Civil Right report on LAHS supported Jacob's observation revealing that while nearly half of the school was Latina/o, Latina/o students represented only 13% of gifted and talented students and 16% of student enrolled in Calculus and Physics courses (Office of Civil Rights, 2015).
Beyond feeling a lack of care and an underrepresentation of immigrant students in honors classes, many Larton students did not understand how their choice of classes affected their postsecondary options, nor were they aware of the myriad of afterschool opportunities available to them. This limited knowledge of the school's options hindered them from fully engaging in their school. Some students had to take extra classes while others did not engage in extracurricular activities. This left students with few chances to cultivate connections with a caring adult and successfully navigate the complex high school environment.
For example, Ayesha did not know how to choose her classes; therefore, she enrolled in the classes that interested her. While she wanted to go to college, she did not understand the credit system nor that certain classes would prepare her for college. As she explained: I actually didn't know what do I need. I took the interesting classes that I wanted. … In my junior year, they [her teachers and counselors] were like, 'You weren't supposed to take this. You have to take that, so I had to take an extra class just to make it up because I didn't even know how to take based on credits. (Ayesha, personal communication, 6/10/14) This excerpt shows Ayesha attended school for three years prior to meeting with a guidance counselor about her class requirements, which led her to take extra courses her senior year.
Beyond the academic struggles of immigrant students, the students also reported that the school's policies were often unequally enforced, communicating to the students a sense of distrust and unease. For example, Veronica shared how security officials did not consistently enforce the policies. As Veronica explained: I don't know though like the security guards don't make you feel safe, I mean…Some of them are really cool, but some of them are annoying and obnoxious like they don't care, like they have favorites…. Like if they see two kids doing the same exact thing, they'll pick on like one rather than the other, than you know the other one. (Veronica,personal communication,5/20/14).
This quote highlights Veronica's frustration as she witnessed the arbitrary implementation of policies. The inconsistent implementation carried over into her feeling of safety, which was only sometimes present. The Office of Civil Rights (2015) supported Veronica's observation, noting that Latino/a students accounted for nearly 70% of out-of-school suspensions and 60% of in-school suspensions, revealing a disproportionality of discipline. Given the lack of guidance from the state and the school district, teachers also felt unprepared to meet their students' changing needs and echoed the students' frustrations. While beyond the bounds of this article to fully flesh out these feelings, interviewed teachers shared a frustration with the district and lack of understanding of their new student populations that likely contributed to the difficulty the immigrant students had adjusting the high school. Moreover, it speaks to the importance of clear policies to guide the practices in NID schools.

Perth Students
In Perth, immigrant students shared overwhelmingly positive experiences with their teachers. All the students reported that they felt treated fairly by their teachers. Many students had connected to a Perth High School (PHS) adult and this eased their transition into the Canadian schooling system. The students felt that these adults knew and cared about them. Daniel, a 17-yearold senior from the Middle East, suggested that his teacher "is like their friend" (personal communication, 11/7/14). Therefore, the students in Perth more often felt a sense of belonging to their school.
The students noted that the teachers understood their immigrant status and, as a result, supported them by altering assignment requirements and providing them with extra support. Jason, a 19-year-old Filipino immigrant who arrived in Perth two months before school started, noted that his teachers understood his situation as a newly arrived immigrant and gave him the appropriate considerations. This allowed him to feel: Like a normal high school student…. They will give considerations for some, for like when you've got an assignment because we just moved in, we don't have any computers yet, printers, they will extend it for a day or two, the deadline. (Jason, personal communication 10/15/14) Jason appreciated feeling like just another high school student who received the supports he needed without drawing extra attention to himself. This balance allowed him to be successful but not more conspicuous than he already felt.
Other Perth students shared similar experiences that demonstrated the teachers' consistently helpful and caring stances towards the students. Miriam found evidence of teachers' care through their steady helpfulness and kindness. An 18-year-old Filipina student who arrived in Perth in January of 2014, she discusses her struggle to adjust as she felt "so shy and I just isolated myself" (personal communication 10/16/14). One important factor in her adjustment had been the close relationship she had developed with her teachers. As she explained: I've to adjust really because the language itself and the you know teaching style and the teacher and student relationship is far different from the Lastly, Perth teachers helped students find extracurricular activities, which further connected them to PHS. Many of Ms. Lehrer's students mentioned that she often shared opportunities to get involved in the school, which she tailored based on the student's interests. As Andrew, a 14-year-old Filipino student, shared Ms. Lehrer suggested that he join the Student Council as he explains "I actually want to join the council…because Miss Lehrer said it was fun… And you can get to meet more people" (personal communication 10/16/14). By understanding the students' strengths and interests, Ms. Lehrer acted as an important bridge for her students to connect with PHS. She shared different opportunities available to the students and facilitated their participation in these clubs by providing important information about how to join the group. These small steps helped the students feel a connection to the school community and many of them felt a strong sense of belonging to the school.
The students' feelings of being treated fairly made it possible for them to connect with their teachers. As shown by the numerous examples of teachers who treated the students equitably, the teachers facilitated the students' connections to the school. The watchful and supportive gaze of the teachers helped students navigate their high school whether it entailed choosing classes, extracurricular activities or supporting their academic success. Thus, the students felt that their teachers treated them fairly, kindly, and supportively. The students referred to their teachers as friends and parents rather than as distant authoritarian figures. They felt comfortable sharing their concerns with their teachers and this ensured that they could resolve any of the difficulties they encountered with the support of a caring adult.

Discussion
This case study's findings reveal how state and provincial policies along with LEAs' policies influenced and shaped immigrant students' experiences. In the Pennsylvania case study, both the state's and division's language centered on ELL students rather than a more expansive and holistic term for immigrant students who were rarely directly named in policies. This focus on ELL students reinforced a deficit perspective that ignored the students' funds of knowledge (Callahan, 2005;Garcia & Kleifgen, 2010;Moll et al., 1992;Valenzuela, 1999). By narrowly focusing on the need to learn English for school success, the documents implicitly emphasized English as the only means to join the school community. Given this deficit construction of students, it is not surprising that the motivation to act came from the need to comply with federal mandates. Therefore, the PDE focused their policies on ELLs, refugees, and migrants, all populations specifically targeted and supported by federal mandates and funds. These policies and the accompanying guidance focused on meeting mandates that provided the district with tasks irrespective of the district's capacities. There was little evidence of capacity-building policies that would develop districts' abilities to work effectively with their new students. Rather, the silence in the PDE's documents left a growing population of students without representation or recognition at the State level. This silence was also mirrored in the Larton documents, which continued the State's focus on ELLs. Larton's policymakers also relied on federal funds to support any work with immigrant students as they frequently mentioned when allocating resources for a new program. Given the state's and district's focus on complying with federal mandates, both sets of documents indicated that the minimum necessary to meet the mandates was done and nothing more. This created a context of reception for LHS immigrant students where they often felt unknown, misunderstood and uncared for by the adults at their high school.
The silence found in the Pennsylvania case is juxtaposed by the Manitoban documents that explicitly declared immigrant students as both welcomed and important community members. These documents and policies provided a significantly different context for Manitoban divisions as the province worked steadily to learn how best to respond to their new student population. This resulted in a bevy of resources and work that signaled to the divisions that the shifting demographics were both a positive and required changes in practices to help their new students integrate and succeed. These capacity building opportunities helped created contexts within which the divisions could help support their schools as they welcomed their new student population. Perth's policy documents mirrored Manitoba's explicit message of inclusivity with the board adopting an overtly inclusive mission. Moreover, Perth had access to a bevy of Ministry resources that facilitated the several layers of division support. These supports included a district staff person, multiple professional development opportunities, and a network of teacher supports. The immigrant students attended a high school that had received support from both the Ministry and school division. This facilitated the students' transitions and communicated that the students were valued members of their school and new communities. These differences have implications for policymakers, community, and students' political identities, as will be discussed in the implication section.

Implications
Comparing these two cases reveals divergent approaches to the changing demographics of both communities. While both communities experienced a rapid growth in their immigrant residents, the difference in the COR related in part to the policy contexts of the two communities. These contexts were created by the interaction of multiple layers of policymakers as theorized by the nested context of reception (Golash-Boza & Valdez, 2018;Hopkins et al., 2019). This article in particular focused on the intersection between the state/province and LEAs. This makes the comparison of the Canadian province to the U.S. state all the more interesting given the different constitutional structures of the United States and Canada. Thus, the Canadian provinces have long played a larger role in the educational system than many of the U.S. states (Vergari, 2010). This role proves particularly important as evidenced by the documents analyzed here in which the state/province helped frame and provide the LEAs with the resources they need to respond to their changing student body. These documents reveal the way the COR students experience is intimately shaped by the interaction between the state/province and the LEAs. Manitoba's documents emphasized supporting the more diverse student body and constructed the increased diversity as beneficial for Manitoban society. The documents used specific and targeted language recognizing immigrant students' unique strengths and value in the community. This type of government recognition communicates powerful messages to constituents and the target population "about who matters in our society and who does not and what kinds of people get served by government and who is ignored or punished" (Ingram & Schneider, 2005, p. 19). Beyond the inclusive messages communicated within the policies, the Ministry used several capacity-building policies to support the LEA's work with their immigrant students. Using capacity-building tools conveyed that the Ministry felt confident in the LEAs' ability to meet their students' needs (Schneider & Ingram, 1990).
Conversely, the notable absence in the Pennsylvania policy documents of any mention of immigrant students indicated at best an oversight, at worst a deliberate exclusion of a growing student population. This oversight left LEAs with minimal guidance on how to best support their immigrant students. The policies that did target groups such as ELLs, refugees, and migrants were often mandates that indicated that the state assumed that without these rules a) that LEAs would not engage in these activities and b) that the LEAs could fulfill the mandates (Schneider & Ingram, 1990). As seen in Larton's case, without the attending capacity, the mandates left Larton to implement these policies without understanding how to work effectively with immigrant students. Moreover, the State sent no signals about the benefits of the growing diversity, which meant that prejudices present in Larton continued unchecked. Lastly, the targeted funds for refugee and migrant students came from the federal government suggesting that support for these students came from the federal government not the state or local government. This lack of independent support may have indicated to the districts that immigrant student groups did not require localized supports, as indicated by the superintendent who indicated an unwillingness to expend local capital in support of the immigrant students independent of federal funds.
This article highlights several important differences that are revealed in part because of the comparative nature of this study. These differences speak to the importance of state and provincial level leadership, particularly in the context of changing demographics for smaller NID communities. Thus, for NID LEAs, which often have limited resources both in terms of funding and staff expertise, the state/province becomes a particularly important source of support and information. Leadership at the state/province level is crucial to developing these NIDs' capacities to work with and support the integration of their new immigrant student populations. Beyond the immediate supports that the state/province can and should provide, the state/province policies creates a contour that plays an important role in setting the agenda for how LEAs respond to their increasingly diverse student population. By choosing to focus a variety of resources on immigrant students moving to Manitoba, the Manitoban ministry signaled that it viewed the immigrant students as valuable members of the community whose needs merited consideration. This signaling demonstrated that these young citizens had an important role in the public sphere. By contrast, the Pennsylvania response signaled a compliance focus as the State sought to meet the minimum requirements as directed by federal mandates. This framed immigrant students as dependent on LEAs complying with these externally imposed standards and as not deserving of consideration independent of these mandates. This framing signaled that immigrant students were seen as a burden to the local communities with a limited role to play in the community. This suggested to LEAs and other stakeholders that this group of students were only as valuable as the federal funds provided.
The state/provincial policy messages reverberated in the two groups of students' experiences in their new communities and schools. In Perth, students felt cared for and welcomed into their new school. This messaging had two important avenues to shape the students' political development. First, given the myriad of resources and supports built into the Manitoban context, the students received services that directly supported their ability to navigate successfully their new schools. This developed their abilities and aptitude to integrate into the Canadian community and participate in their new political systems (Mettler, 2002, p. 352). Moreover, these welcoming experiences in this public, politically constructed space conveyed to the immigrant students "their role in the community, [and] their status in relation to other citizens and government" (Mettler, 2002, p. 352). As employees of the state, educators are the street level bureaucrats who in word and deed come to represent the state to their students as they implement these public policies and create these inclusive spaces (Lipsky, 1980). From these formative first experiences with these street-level bureaucrats, the students can see their educators as respectful, ethical, and beneficent, core ingredients in developing a sense of political trust (Torney-Purta et al., 2004) a necessary ingredient in the healthy function of a democratic society (Hetherington & Husser, 2012).
Conversely, for the Larton students, the school's policies and adult interactions conveyed to them a message of at best indifference, at worst a deliberate and prejudicial exclusion by street-level bureaucrats who enacted these policies. Thus, the immigrant students had difficulty locating the resources and supports that they needed to navigate their new high school. These experiences then significantly shaped the materials resources available to them to participate in the life of the school. These material differences shaped their higher education interests and vocational possibilities. All of these factors influence students' political socialization and the likelihood of their participation in the political community (Brady et al., 1995;Torney-Purta, 2002). Moreover, these negative high school experiences suggested that they were not welcome in this political community which as other research has shown had implications for how students perceived themselves as political actors (Brezicha, 2018).

Limitations and Future Research
This article comes out of a larger study that focused on immigrant students' experiences. Therefore, the data gathered were not explicitly designed to answer the article's two research questions. Thus, future research would benefit from more deliberately exploring the interplay between LEAs and state/province around demographic changes in the communities by conducting interviews with both state and district actors responsible for responding to these changes.
Secondly, the interviews with the immigrant students did not explicitly focus on their understanding of the policies. However, future research should investigate how immigrant students understand policies as they affect them. Some provocative research has been done on this in Arizona looking at immigrant students' awareness of a restrictive immigration act and their civic and political identity development (Santos & Menjivar, 2013). Importantly, though, this research used survey research rather than qualitative methods that prevents us from knowing how students made sense of the policies.
Lastly, data collection ended in the summer of 2015 and many of these policies and policymakers have changed since that time. For example, many policies have been updated in Pennsylvania and the PDE now offers more resources for LEAs on their website, including a resource list on how to support immigrant and undocumented students. In Larton, the community has since repealed its English only ordinance and the city and district website is accessible in both Spanish and English, facilitating the sharing of information with all Larton's residents. These hopeful developments signal a shift to a more proactive approach on the part of the state and LEA. Nonetheless, these data present an important insight into the role of the state/province in supporting NID school communities and ultimately helping immigrant students integrate into their new school and society.

Conclusion
The differences in Larton and Perth students' feelings of belonging make sense, considering the differing COR that formed in part from these different policies. These policies framed and communicated messages to the students, teachers, and school leaders that shaped how educators responded to their new immigrant students. These differing experiences then shaped the students' understanding of their political communities and their civic role models. For educators and school leaders to counteract effectively the negative policy messages, they need to understand how policies send these messages in order to interrupt them and advocate for the crafting of equitable policies that support all students. Thus, it is imperative that, as states develop their capacity to support LEAs, they consider how they can support the development of a positive COR for immigrant children and families. In this way, policy can support the development of connected and caring schools that facilitate the development of students engaged political identities.
Building Hope: Refugee Learners Narratives Community Schools Act Curriculum Framework for English as an Additional Language (EAL) and Literacy, Academics, and Language (LAL) Programming Diversity and Equity in Education: An Action Plan for Ethnocultural Equity (For Consultation October 2003