Cross-Generational and Transnational Perspectives on Schooling in Mexican Immigrant Families' Narratives

Abstract

Through an intergenerational tradition of migration and the maintenance of reciprocal ties with relatives in Mexico, immigrant families utilize multiple strategies to take advantage of educational as well as occupational options on both sides of the border. The operation of education in a transnational social field holds potential consequences for second-generation immigrants' academic performance and adaptation. Much of the work on second- and third-generation students in American schools has taken a pessimistic view of their academic and post-academic futures. However, the present study reveals a more ambiguous set of findings. Most adolescents echo their first-generation parents' goals of social mobility through education and rate their interest in school as high. However, students describe their schools as boring and report doing the minimum necessary to pass their classes. Students' declining academic performance may be associated with an educational system that stresses the credentialing role of sch...