‘Girls just like to be friends with people’: gendered experiences of migration among children and youth in returning Irish migrant families

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 559-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryant Jensen ◽  
Silvia Giorguli Saucedo ◽  
Eduardo Hernández Padilla

We analyze path models of a nationally representative sample of Mexican adolescents in 2008 to explore how migration variables interact with school retention to shape their migration plans, effort in school, and achievement on a standardized measure of Spanish literacy. Among other findings, we discover that more immediate plans are associated with lower performance for students considering migration and that this relationship varies by family socioeconomic status. We also find that parent migration exposure negatively affects achievement for some groups. We interpret findings in terms of structural inequalities in Mexico and conclude with recommendations to enrich academic learning opportunities for children and youth within migrant families and communities.


2019 ◽  
pp. 45-57
Author(s):  
Joanna Dreby

This chapter focuses on how regimes of illegality shape children’s power within families, specifically in their relationships with parents and siblings. It explores how unauthorized migration alters the experiences of three groups of children in Mexican migrant families: children in Mexico whose parents are unauthorized migrants in the United States; child migrants living in the United States, most often unauthorized like their parents; and children born in the United States to unauthorized parents. Drawing on interviews conducted with children in both Mexico and the United States, this chapter emphasizes the impact of gender, age and birth order on children’s experiences of power vis-à-vis their relationships with parents and other family members. A turn toward restrictive immigration policies has magnified the detrimental effects of enhanced enforcement and deportation regimes on families and especially on children and youth. U.S. immigration controls affect migrant and non-migrant children; both those whose parents migrate without them as well as those born to migrant parents in host countries. The specter of illegality within a family changes children’s roles and concrete responsibilities in their families as well as their feelings related to these changes.


Author(s):  
Ute Ritterfeld ◽  
Timo Lüke

Abstract. Audio stories offer a unique blend of narrative entertainment with language learning opportunities as a user’s enjoyment is dependent on their processing of the linguistic content. A total of 138 third- and fourth-graders from low socioeconomic status and migrant families recruited from a metropolitan area in Germany participated in a randomized pre–post follow-up intervention study with a control group. Children listened to a tailored crime story of approximately 90 min over a period of 3 days within the classroom setting. Entertainment value for the age group was established in a pilot study. Outcome variables included semantic and grammatical skills in German and were administered before (pretest), shortly after intervention (posttest), and 2 weeks later (follow-up). We used nonverbal intelligence, reading, comprehension skills, age and sex as control variables. Results indicate a strong positive effect of media reception on language skills. The effectiveness of the intervention is discussed with reference to different linguistic domains, entertainment value, and compensatory effects in populations at risk of language learning deficits.


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