The following research thesis explores the ideologies surrounding the literacy myth, the American Dream, and the immigrant bargain and how these terms affect the lives and literacy practices of American immigrants and their pursuit of higher education. Research from the field of rhetoric and composition and social and political sciences is surveyed as a means to define the relationship between all three terms and trace how their ideologies affect those from immigrant backgrounds. This thesis uncovers capitalistic ideologies present in the myth, the Dream, and the bargain that romanticize the role of schooling and labor in attaining upward mobility and have become inherent in the lives of American immigrants and those from immigrant backgrounds.