About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

23 Int'l Migration Rev. 3 (1989)

handle is hein.journals/imgratv23 and id is 1 raw text is: 


Mexican Immigration and the

Port-of-Entry School


Reynaldo Baca
California State University
Dexter Bryan
California State University
Clair McLean-Bardwell and Francisco Gomez
California State University

     The results of an immigrant student census in a port-of-entry school
     district are used to describe the educational backgrounds of Mexican
     immigrant students and to distinguish types of Mexican immigrant
     students by school entry patterns. Interviews with recently arrived
     Mexican immigrant parents reveal the educational and occupational
     expectations they hold for their children in the U.S. The study find-
     ings are used as a basis for raising policy questions and generating
     research issues.

Our  research on Mexican immigration and California schools grew out
of our study of the social organization of migrating unauthorized Mex-
ican workers from Mexico living and working in the metropolitan area
of Los Angeles. In our 1979 survey (Baca and Bryan, 1981, 1983) of urban
successful, nonapprehended unauthorized Mexican workers we found that
both short-term (3-7 years) and long-term (8 years or more) resident
workers make  repeated round-trip visits to Mexico. This binational pat-
tern seems to work well for the economic enhancement of urban immigrant
workers who  are working in the United States and maintaining ties in
their natal communities in Mexico. Yet, little is known about how the
children of Mexican urban workers are affected by the migration of their
parents. What are the educational career patterns of the children of Mex-
ican urban workers? Do they, like many children of rural migrant workers,
follow their parents back and forth across the border? If migration
experiences lead to an individual or family decision to settle (Massey,
et. al. 1987: 178); how does this decision affect the education of Mexican
children? Do parents with children who have entered schools before set-
tlement leave their children in Mexico to complete their schooling there?
  Our study of the adaptation of children of urban Mexican workers began
in 1984 with an ethnographic study of natal communities in Mexico.
Indepth interviews were conducted with teachers, students whose parents
were in the North, and students who had recently returned from port-of-
entry schools in California. Observations regarding the educational careers
                                          IMR Volume xxiii, No. 1 3

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most