(1993). Hispanic Americans Today. Current Population Reports, Series P23-183
Americans of Hispanic origin are one of the fastest growing segments of the nation's population. This report presents data on a wide range of topics, including the following: (1) population growth, composition, and distribution; (2) age; (3) family composition; (4) educational attainment; (5) language and nativity; (6) labor force and occupation; (7) income and poverty; (8) health insurance coverage; (9) housing; (10) business ownership; (11) voting and elected officials; (12) population of Puerto Rico; and (13) exports and imports from Latin America. Most data are presented at the national level, and selected data are shown for the 10 states with the largest Hispanic American population in 1990 and the 10 states with the largest number of Hispanic American-owned firms in 1987. The 1990 census showed that 22,354,059 persons identified themselves as being of Hispanic origin, a 53 percent increase since 1980. This growth has resulted from natural increase and substantial immigration… [PDF]
(2013). Whose Community Is This? Mathematics of Neighborhood Displacement. Rethinking Schools, v27 n3 p11-17 Spr
Displacement was part of students' realities–gentrification in North Lawndale (a Chicago community), deportation in Little Village, and foreclosures in both. The author started the unit in his 12th-grade "math for social justice" class by telling the story (with family permission) of Carmen, a student in his class. Her grandmother paid off her North Lawndale mortgage years before but, because of rising property taxes and a leaking roof, took out a subprime (adjustable) home equity loan. When the rate set upwards, she lost the house. To study displacement, students initially learned discrete dynamical systems (DDS). The author started by teaching students to use a DDS to model an interest-bearing savings account and gave them an assignment to put their knowledge to use. In the second part of the unit–immigration and deportation–students investigated the complicated role of the U.S. government and NAFTA in displacing Mexican farmers from their land to the… [Direct]
(2012). The "Generous Heart": Teachers and Immigrants in the 21st Century. Teacher Education and Practice, v25 n4 p585-588 Fall
Immigrants are a fast-growing segment of the United States population. Presently, some 39.9 million immigrants call America home (Passel & Cohn, 2012; U.S. Census Bureau, 2011b). Today, immigrants come from all over the world, but most new Americans originate in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. It is because of the mass migration of the two last generations that many states–including Hawaii (77.1% minority), the District of Columbia (64.7% minority), California (60.3% minority), New Mexico (59.8% minority), and Texas (55.2% minority)–are now "majority/minority" (U.S. Census, 2011a). The significant increase in the immigrant-origin population is a visible reality throughout schools, where 23.7% of all children are the children of immigrants (Migration Policy Institute, 2011). The data point to a future of growing diversity in the American classroom: As of July 1, 2011, 50.4% of the littlest Americans–those under age 1–were minorities. Immigration's echo, the… [Direct]
(1988). Globe Watch. Teachers' Guide for Globe Watch IV: Mexico, Canada, Finland, Japan, the Arms Race, the Iran-Iraq War.
To enhance the use of the Globe Watch IV public television series, produced jointly by Hampden-Sydney College (Virginia) and the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television, each lesson in this guide provides: (1) a statement of the objective of the program; (2) a synopsis of the issue discussed; (3) background information; (4) brief descriptions on the guests appearing on the program and their main points; (5) terms used in the program; (6) questions; (7) provocative quotes made by guests; and (8) suggested readings. Programs 1-6 address several facets of U.S.-Canadian relationships by showing how Canadians have evolved a different attitude and ethos from that of the United States and by depicting how Canada is protecting its cultural identity in the face of overwhelming cultural imports from the United States. Program 7 considers illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States and examines the effects of the 1986 Immigration Law. The manner in which Mexican…
(2012). Using Qualitative Methods for Revising Items in the Hispanic Stress Inventory. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, v34 n2 p208-231 May
Despite progress in the development of measures to assess psychosocial stress experiences in the general population, a lack of culturally informed assessment instruments exist to enable clinicians and researchers to detect and accurately diagnosis mental health concerns among Hispanics. The Hispanic Stress Inventory (HSI) was developed specifically for Hispanic adults, however, significant social and geopolitical changes over the past two decades have affected the types and intensity of stress experienced by Hispanics. Immigration related policy changes, for example, affect stress experiences among newer immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries in ways that items in the original HSI may no longer capture the full range of today's stressors. Using expert interviews from Hispanic mental health experts and data gathered in 16 community-based focus groups at two distinct study sites, the goal of the current study was to identify new item content to include in a revised… [Direct]
(2009). Transnational Teachers of English in Mexico. High School Journal, v92 n4 p115-128 Apr-May
Much has been written on the effects of Mexican immigration in the U.S., but little exists regarding the ways in which transnationals, who have returned to Mexico, have adapted to and/or transformed Mexican society and the education system. This article is based on a descriptive qualitative study of five transnational teachers of English in Mexico who acquired English as children of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. The transnational cultural capital they gained in the U.S. in the form of English and U.S. cultural knowledge has proven to be highly valuable in Mexico. As teachers of English, they bring their transnational experiences and knowledge into their classrooms and teach \real\ English because they assume that many of their working-class students will be forced to immigrate to the U.S. in the future. At the same time, they encourage the maintenance of English among their transnational students. The U.S. has much to learn from the Mexican education example by valuing the language… [Direct]
(2007). Rethinking the Line between Us. Educational Leadership, v64 n6 p47-51 Mar
As a high school social studies teacher, the author provides his students with a curriculum that helps them think about immigration issues. He describes the instructional units that he has developed to address two key questions about U.S.-Mexican immigration: What is the origin of the U.S.-Mexico border? and Why are so many people today fleeing Mexico and coming to the United States? Because the traditional social studies curriculum in U.S. schools does not give accurate or detailed answers to these questions, the author believes that "we can't simply abandon young people to the stereotypes, biases, and historical misinformation that have become so much a part of the public discourse around immigration."… [Direct]
(1994). Educational and Life Style Aspirations of Secondary Students in Border Colonias of Laredo, Texas.
This paper summarizes results of a survey examining educational attitudes, lifestyle, and aspirations of Hispanic students in south Texas. Many students live in impoverished, rural, unincorporated subdivisions called "colonias" that are growing around Laredo, Texas, and other border cities. An introduction to the Texas/Mexico border cities discusses immigration, recent population growth, and impacts on living conditions and education. The survey was developed at the behest of Communities in Schools-Laredo, Inc., a dropout prevention program. It was administered by students in an undergraduate research methods class to 251 secondary school students in 4 south Laredo schools. Tabulated results are presented for all survey questions. Spanish was the primary language in 61 percent of homes. About 76 percent of students lived with both parents. Students watched an average of 3.6 hours of television per day, primarily situation comedies about teenagers. Student responses reveal… [PDF]
(2009). For Love of Family and Family Values: How Immigrant Motivations Can Inform Immigration Policy. Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, v21 p35-52 2008-2009
This article consists of more than fifty interviews with Spanish and Yucatec-Mayan men from Yucatan, Mexico, to the United States. Based on interview responses, I contend that Yucatec-Mayan immigrants support Jeffrey Cohen's (2004) "household model" and use a ch'i'ibal-centered, or family-centered, decision-making process to frame leaving and returning to their hometown. I theoretically underpin this motivation with Max Weber's wert-rational or value-rational social action. Weber states, ""Wert"-rational [involves] a conscious belief in the absolute value of some ethical, aesthetic, religious, or other form of behavior, entirely for its own sake and independently of any prospects of external success" (1947). Therefore, immigrating is, on the surface, a rational social action, but is underpinned by an emotional, family-based, absolute value system. Absolute values such as love, caring, respect, concern for family maintenance, and family creation in… [Direct]
(1994). Migrant Farmworkers and Their Children. ERIC Digest.
This digest reviews the population characteristics of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their children. Since the 1960s, federal programs for migrant workers and their families have multiplied. However, these programs have differing definitions for "migrant and seasonal farmworker," and no current data system provides a reliable count or profile of migrant children. In 1989 the U.S. Department of Labor initiated the National Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS) to address fears that immigration reform would result in farm labor shortages. Considered by some researchers to be the best data currently available, NAWS suggests that, in 1989-91, there were about 840,000 migrant farmworkers who had 409,000 children traveling with them. Of these children, 36,000 also did farmwork. An additional 169,000 youth were farmworkers traveling without their parents. Migrant farmworkers were primarily Hispanics (94%), born in Mexico (80%), married with children (52%), in the United States… [PDF]
(2010). Contributions to Variations in Academic Trajectories amongst Recent Immigrant Youth. International Journal of Behavioral Development, v34 n6 p500-510 Nov
Immigration presents both challenges and opportunities that affect students' academic achievement. Over the course of five years, varying academic trajectories were identified for recent immigrant students from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico. Latent class growth curve analysis revealed that although some students performed at high or improving levels over time, others showed diminishing performance. Multinomial logistic regressions identified significant group differences in academic trajectories, particularly between the high-achieving youth and the other groups. Consistent with ecological systems theory, school characteristics (a: school segregation rate; b: school poverty rate; and c: student perceptions of school violence), family characteristics (a-separation from mother and father; b-maternal education; and c-paternal employment), and individual characteristics (a-academic English proficiency; b-academic engagement; c-psychological symptoms;… [Direct]
(2009). Bordering the Civic Imaginary: Alienization, Fence Logic, and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Quarterly Journal of Speech, v95 n1 p43-65 Feb
Current figurations of the "immigration problem" in the United States challenge our understanding of the rhetoricity of contemporary bordering practices. The public discourse of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps serves to chart the alienization of undocumented migrants and the enactment of alien abjection on the U.S.-Mexico border. Alienization promises an antidote to majoritarian anxieties regarding national disunity in the form of a shoring-up of cultural boundaries that border-crossing subjects render troublesome. Ultimately, the fence logic engendered by groups such as the Minutemen reveals how struggles over the boundaries of citizenship both enable and limit an affect-charged civic imaginary. (Contains 81 notes.)… [Direct]
(2010). The Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
This volume is the first authoritative reference work to provide a truly comprehensive international description and analysis of multicultural education around the world. It is organized around \key concepts\ and uses \case studies\ from various nations in different parts of the world to exemplify and illustrate the concepts. Case studies are from many nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Norway, Bulgaria, Russia, South Africa, Japan, China, India, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico. Two chapters focus on regions–Latin America and the French-speaking nations in Africa. The book is divided into ten sections, covering theory and research pertaining to curriculum reform, immigration and citizenship, language, religion, and the education of ethnic and cultural minority groups among other topics. With forty newly commissioned pieces written by a prestigious group of internationally renowned… [Direct]
(2007). With Immigrants, Districts Balance Safety, Legalities. Education Week, v27 n3 p1, 14-15 Sep
In this article, the author discusses attempts by schools to navigate stepped-up federal efforts to curb illegal immigration, protection of student privacy, and the safety of students during enforcement operations. In Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, for example, school personnel are barred from putting information about a child's immigration status in school records or sharing it with outside agencies, including federal immigration authorities. Personnel are also told to deny any request from immigration officials to enter a school to search for information or seize students. School officials–with the help of lawyers–instead would determine whether to grant access. Meanwhile, some small communities with an influx of immigrants are weighing how best to respond if children are left stranded at school because family members have been detained in an immigration raid…. [Direct]
(2008). Subtractive Schooling and Betrayal. Teacher Education and Practice, v21 n4 p473-475 Fall
To address the theme of this special issue–namely, the major challenges faced by teacher education in an increasing global society–the author finds herself returning to her earlier work. This return-intellectual-migration gives depth and meaning to the experience of immigration and speaks to the sensibilities (or lack thereof) that many teachers hold toward Mexico's immigrants. In \Subtractive Schooling,\ the author elaborates the view that schools are less about instilling youth with global competencies and more about subtracting their languages, cultures, and community-based identities, much to their academic detriment. The author's recent life-altering experience of finding her extended family in Mexico leads her to recast subtractive schooling as an act of betrayal, with schools acting as handmaiden to society's larger project of cultural, linguistic, and historical erasure. Through the assimilation process and a corollary deidentification from Mexico, Mexicans, and things… [Direct]