Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Urban Immigrant Students: How Transnationalism Shapes Their World Learning

  • Published:
The Urban Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article examines the lives of three transnational second-generation immigrant Latinas who reside in urban centers in California and maintain close ties to Mexico. Drawing from a participatory research and ethnographic study, I provide evidence of the out-of-school learning that they experience and how this shapes their notions of global citizenship. Although schools have begun to slowly recognize transnational immigrant students, many urban educators whose cities are palpably transformed by immigrants have not fully connected the promise of such a global lifestyle and its potential for instruction in the classroom.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Names of all persons in this study are pseudonyms. The focal students chose their own pseudonyms.

  2. Participatory research is considered a more democratic way of conducting investigations where “subjects” are not just participants but actually co-researchers who ideally initiate, design, and carry out the research as well as analyze the findings (See Hall 1992, Nygreen et al. 2006, and Maguire 1987). By “organic,” I mean those who share the same life experiences as those being studied; I have borrowed the term from Antonio Gramsci (1971) who proposed that organic intellectuals—the working-class and marginalized who have theorized their own positions—come forward to undo the oppression and harm that the disenfranchised classes experience at the hands of those in power, the elites. Traditional research could be seen as a form of elitism that has often produced misguided or inaccurate portrayals of many communities of color (Valencia and Solorzano 1997). Including members of these communities in the research process becomes one way to ameliorate this pitfall.

  3. I met both cousins through the same nonprofit where we all worked. I met María Topete, however, through a middle school pen-pal literacy project.

  4. A quinceañera is a special 15th birthday celebration for young Latina women. See Sánchez (2002), Cantú (1999), and Dávalos (1996) for a description of this life cycle ritual.

  5. A municipio or municipality in Mexico is that nation’s smallest political entity with a government of its own; it is an administrative subdivision similar to a county in the U.S.

  6. El Chavo del Ocho is a famous television sitcom in Mexico that ran in the 70s and 80s. It continues to receive regular play on Mexican television. The title character, El Chavo, is an orphan in a fictional Mexico City neighborhood whose trials and tribulations are shared by the neighborhood children and adults.

  7. I later learned that this man, Don Pedro, was indeed a recent arrival from San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, seeking work to feed his family, but because of several assaults both in Mexico and the U.S., he had lost what little savings he brought on his journey to California.

References Cited

  • Banks, J. A. (Ed.) (2004). Diversity and citizenship education: Global perspectives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

    Google Scholar 

  • Brittain, C. (2002). Transnational messages: Experiences of Chinese and Mexican immigrants in American schools. In S. J. Gold, R. G. Rumbaut, M. Suárez-Orozco, & C. Suárez-Orozco (Eds.). The new Americans: Recent immigration and American society. New York: LFB Scholarly Printing, LLC

    Google Scholar 

  • Burawoy, M. (2000). Introduction: Reaching for the global. In M. Burawoy, J. A. Blum, S. George, Z. Gille, T. Gowan, L. Haney, M. Klawiter, S. H. Lopez, S. Ó. Riain, & M. Thayer (Eds.), Global ethnography: Forces, connections, and imaginations in a postmodern world. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • California Department of Education. (2005). Ed-Data: Enrollment by Ethnicity in Public Schools. Electronic document, http://www.cde.ca.gov, accessed August 3, 2006

  • Cantú, N. (1999). La quinceañera: Towards an ethnographic analysis of a life-cycle ritual. Southern Folklore, 56(1), 73–101

    Google Scholar 

  • CentroEstatal de Estudios Municipales de Jalisco. (2000). Enciclopedia de los muncipios de México: Jalisco. Electronic document, http://www.e-local.gob.mx/work/templates/enciclo/jalisco/, accessed January 7, 2004

  • Coatsworth, J. H. (2004). Globalization, growth, and welfare in history. In M. M. Suárez-Orozco, & D. B. Qin-Hilliard (Eds.), Globalization: Culture, and education in the new millennium. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Community Assessment Planning, Education Unit. (2001). Fruitvale: Community information book. Alameda, CA: Public Health Department, Alameda County Health Services Agency

    Google Scholar 

  • Dávalos, K. M. (1996). La Quinceañera: Making gender and ethnic identities. Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s studies, 16(2–3), 101–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. Illinois: Chicago University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Escala-Rabadán, L. (2002). Old and new horizons for transnational migrants’ associations: The quest for political empowerment among hometown associations in Los Angeles, California: Paper presented at the Colloquium on International Migration: Mexico-California. March 28–30. Berkeley, CA

  • Fitzgerald, D. (2002). Rethinking the ‘local’ and ‘transnational’: cross-border politics and hometown politics in an immigrant union. San Diego: University of California, The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, T. L. (2002). States of discord: A debate with Robert Kaplan. Foreign Policy, 129, 64–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gazzar, B. (2001). Early return gives students an extended Christmas. The Appeal-Democrat, August 14, C1

  • Giddens, A., & Hutton, W. (2000). Anthony Giddens and Will Hutton in conversation. In W. Hutton, & A. Giddens (Eds.), Global Capitalism. New York: The New Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Glazer, N., & Moynihan, D. P. (1963). Beyond the melting pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Glick Schiller, N., Basch, L, & Szanton Blanc, C. (1992). Transnationalism: A new analytic framework for understanding migration. In N. Glick Schiller, L. Basch, & C. Szanton Blanc (Eds.), Towards a transnational perspective on migration. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldring, L. (1998). The power of status in transnational social fields. In M. P. Smith, & L. E. Guarnizo (Eds.), Transnationalism from below. New Brunswich, NJ: Transaction Publishers

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldring, L. (2002). The Mexican state and transmigrant organizations: Negotiating the boundaries of membership and participation. Latin American Research Review, 37(3), 55–99

    Google Scholar 

  • González, N. E., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, M. (1964). Assimilation in American life: The role of race, religion, and national origins. New York: Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks. London: Lawrence and Wishart

    Google Scholar 

  • Guarnizo, L. E. (1998). The rise of transnational social formations: Mexican and Dominican state responses to transnational migration. Political Power and Social Theory, 12, 45–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Guarnizo, L. E. (2001). On the political participation of transnational migrants: Old practices and new trends. In G. Gerstle, & J. Mollenkopf (Eds.), E pluribus unum? Contemporary and historical perspectives on immigrant political incorporation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation

    Google Scholar 

  • Guarnizo, L. E., Portes, A., & Haller, W. (2002). Transnational entrepreneurs: The emergence and determinants of an alternative form of immigrant economic adaptation. American Sociological Review, 67, 278–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guarnizo, L. E., Portes, A., & Haller, W. (2003). Assimilation and transnationalism: Determinants of transnational political action among contemporary migrants. American Journal of Sociology, 108(6), 1211–1248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, B. L. (1992). From margins to center? Development and purpose of participatory research. The American Psychologist, 23(4), 15–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Hefflin, B. R. (2002). Learning to develop culturally relevant pedagogy: A lesson about cornrowed lives. The Urban Review, 34(3), 231–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, T. C. (2001). Telling Their Side of the Story: African-American Students’ Perceptions of Culturally Relevant Teaching. The Urban Review, 33(2), 131–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kugel, S. (2000). Schools firming up links with Dominican Republic. The New York Times, 29 October, 8

  • Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levinson, B. A U. (2005). Citizenship, Identity, Democracy: Engaging the Political in the Anthropology of Education. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 36(4), 329–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2004). Conceptualizing simultaneity: A transnational social field perspective on society. International Migration Review, 38(3), 1002–1039

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P., & Waters, M. C. (2002). The changing face of home: The transnational lives of the second generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation

    Google Scholar 

  • Maguire, P. (1987). Doing participatory research: A feminist approach. Amherst, MA: The Center for International Education

    Google Scholar 

  • Maira, S. M. (2005). Planet youth: Asian American youth cultures, citizenship, and globalization. In K.A. Ono (Ed.), Asian American studies after critical mass (pp. 144–165). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, G. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, G. (1998). Ethnography through thick and thin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Menjívar, C. (2000). Fragmented ties: Salvadoran immigrant networks in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Menjívar, C. (2002). Living in two worlds?: Guatemalan-origin children in the United Stated and emerging transnationalism. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 28(3), 531–552

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & González, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murillo Jr. E. G. (2002). How does it feel to be a problem? “Disciplining” the transnational subject in the American South. In S. Wortham, E.G. Murillo Jr., & E.T. Hamann (Eds.), Education in the New Latino Diaspora: Policy and the Politics of Identity (pp. 215–240). Westport, CN: Ablex

    Google Scholar 

  • Murnane, R. J., & Levy, F. (1996). Teaching the new basic skills: Principles for educating children to thrive in a changing economy. New York: The Free Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Noddings, N. (Ed.) (2005). Educating citizens for global awareness. New York: Teachers College Press

  • Noguera, P., & Wing, J. Y. (2006). Unfinished business: Closing the racial achievement gap in our schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

    Google Scholar 

  • Nygreen, K., Kwon, S. A., & Sánchez, P. (2006). Urban youth building community: Social change and participatory research in schools, homes and community-based organizations. Journal of Community Practice, 14(1–2), 105–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Ong, A. (1999). Flexible citizenship: The cultural logics of transnationality. Durham, NC: Duke University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Orellana, M. F., Thorne, B., Chee, A., & Lam, W. S. E. (2001). Transnational childhoods: The participation of children in processes of family migration. Social Problems, 48(4), 573–592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park, P. (1999). People, knowledge, and change in participatory research. Management Learning, 30(2), 141–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park, R. E., & Miller, M. A. (1921). Old world traits transplanted. New York: Carnegie Foundation

    Google Scholar 

  • Parreñas, R. S. (2001). Servants of globalization: Women, migration, and domestic work. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Parreñas, R. S. (2005). Children of global migration: Transnational families and gendered woes. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A. (1995). Segmented assimilation among new immigrant youth: A conceptual framework. In R. Rumbaut, & W. Cornelius (Eds.), California’s immigrant children: Theory, research, and implications. San Diego: University of California, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. (2001). Legacies: The story of the second generation. Berkeley: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A., & Alex Stepick, A. (1993). City on the edge: The transformation of Miami. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A., & Zhou, M. (1993). The new second generation: Segmented assimilation and its variants. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 530(November), 74–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qin, D. B. (2006). “Our child doesn’t talk to us anymore”: Alienation in immigrant Chinese families. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 37(2), 162–179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg, T. (2003). Why Mexico’s Small Corn Farmers Go Hungry. New York Times, March 3, A22

  • Ross-Holst, C. (2004). Preface. In M. M. Suárez-Orozco, & D. B. Qin-Hilliard (Eds.), Globalization: Culture and education in the new millennium. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumbaut, R. G. (2002). Severed or sustained attachments? Language, identity, and imagined communities in the post-immigrant generation. In P. Levitt, & M. C. Waters (Eds.), The changing face of home: The transnational lives of the second generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez, P. (2001). Adopting transnationalism theory and discourse: Making space for a transnational Chicana. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 22(3), 375–381

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez, P. (2002). “Quinceañera.” In Lee Stacy Leney, & Gordon Leney (Eds.) Mexico and the United States. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez, P. (2004). At home in two places: Second-generation mexicanas and their lives as engaged transnationals. Unpublished dissertation. University of California, Berkeley

  • Shaiken, H. (2005). Toward a partnership of equals? Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies, 1(Spring), 18–20, 22–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Sleeter, C. (2003). Teaching globalization. Multicultural Perspectives, 5(2), 3–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. P., & Guarnizo, L. E. (1998). Transnationalism from below. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, R. C. (1998). Transnational localities: Community, technology and the politics of membership within the context of Mexico, U.S. migration. In M.P. Smith & L.E. Guarnizo (Eds.), Transnationalism from below (pp. 196–240). New Brunswich, NJ: Transaction Publishers

    Google Scholar 

  • Stepick, A. (2003). Immigrants, race, and power in Miami: Reconfiguring relations. Paper read at Center for Latin American Studies, November 20, at University of California at Berkeley

  • Suárez-Orozco, M. M. (2001). Globalization, immigration, and education: The research agenda. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 345–365

    Google Scholar 

  • Suárez-Orozco, M. M., & Qin-Hilliard, D. B. (2004). Globalization: Culture and education in the new millennium. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Thao Y. J. (2004). Empowering Mong students: Home and school factors. The Urban Review, 35(1), 25–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, W. I., & Znaniecki, F. (1918–1920). The Polish peasant in Europe and America. New York: Dover

    Google Scholar 

  • Trueba, H. T. (2002). Multiple ethnic, racial, and cultural identities in action: From marginality to a new cultural capital in modern society. Journal of Latinos and Education, 1(1), 7–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Census Bureau. (2000). State and County QuickFacts. Electronic document, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/, accessed on August 4, 2006

  • Valencia, R. R., & Solórzano, D. (1997). Contemporary deficit thinking. In R. R. Valencia (Ed.), The evolution of deficit thinking: Educational thought and practice. Washington, DC: The Falmer Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner, W. L., & Srole, L. (1945). The social systems of American ethnic groups. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Yi, D. (2001). Many skip school to spend holiday in Mexico. The Los Angeles Times, December 26, B2

  • Zhou, M. (1997). Segmented assimilation: Issues, controversies, and recent research on the new second generation. International Migration Review, 31(4), 975–1008

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I am especially indebted to the young transnational Latinas in this study who opened their homes and shared their lives with me. In addition, support for this project came from several sources: The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans and the following UC Berkeley institutions—the Graduate School of Education Spencer Research Training Fellowship Program; the Center for Popular Education and Participatory Research; the Center for Latin American Studies; and the Center for Latino Policy Research. I thank María E. Fránquiz, Lucila Ek, Armando Trujillo, and Juan C. Guerra for helpful comments on strengthening this piece.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, University of Texas at San Antonio, 6900 North Loop 1604 West, San Antonio, TX, 78249, USA

    Patricia Sánchez

Authors
  1. Patricia Sánchez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia Sánchez.

Additional information

Patricia Sánchez is an assistant professor in the Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In her research, Dr. Sánchez uses a sociocultural lens to examine issues related to globalization, transnationalism, and immigrant students and families. Her teaching interests include bilingual teacher preparation, racial/ethnic formation, and a sociocultural critique of education.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sánchez, P. Urban Immigrant Students: How Transnationalism Shapes Their World Learning. Urban Rev 39, 489–517 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-007-0064-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-007-0064-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation