Day 1
Title: Forced Migration and Education
2:30pm-3:50pm
Panel Description
This panel will explore issues which affect undocumented students throughout their everyday school lives.
Panelists
Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Nancy Landa, Monica Jacobo-Suarez
Discussant
Maria Paula Ghiso
Ariana Mangual Figueroa
Biography
Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
Ariana draws from the fields of language socialization and linguistic anthropology to examine language use and learning in multilingual communities living in the United States. Her research documents the everyday experiences of children and families as they participate in learning activities across multiple settings including home, school, and their communities. She is particularly interested in the ways in which an individual’s linguistic and cultural development is shaped by citizenship status and educational policies and the ways in which this becomes evident in daily, routine interactions. Her major projects include: an ethnographic study of a mixed-status, emerging Latino community in Southwestern Pennsylvania and an ongoing ethnographic study of the citizenship and schooling experiences of a mixed-status group of immigrant Latina girls in New York City supported by a 2013 NAED/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Panel Abstract
Speech or Silence: Undocumented Students’ Decisions to Reveal their Citizenship Status in School
This paper provides ethnographic evidence of the ways in which undocumented students make decisions about when to share or hide their migratory status during conversations with peers and teachers in elementary school. It argues that an analytic focus on how and when students in middle childhood talk about migratory status during everyday school activities deepens our understanding of a population that often remains invisible to teachers and educational researchers. The findings suggest ways in which public school and university educators can work to make schools positive and productive spaces for undocumented students.
Monica Jacobo-Suarez
Biography
The Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE)
Monica Jacobo-Suarez is Professor at the Interdisciplinary Program on Educational Policy and Practices in the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), Mexico. Monica holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations by CIDE and a PhD. in Public Policy and International Development by the University of Pittsburgh, as well as studies in research methodology from the University of Syracuse and the University of Michigan. Monica was a post-doctoral fellow at RAND Corporation (2013-2014), where she led the qualitative evaluation of the New Haven Promise, a post-secondary education program. Monica’s primary research interests are Mexican return migration, mixed-status families, education policies for immigrant populations, bilingual education, and mixed-methods research. Recently, Monica published “De Ida y de vuelta: el impacto de la política migratoria estadounidense en México y su población retornada”, by Carta Económica Regional. For years, Monica has combined research and activist work, both in Mexico and in the U.S. As part of her activist efforts to facilitate reintegration of Mexican deported children and youth, the Federal Ministry of Education (Secretaria de Educación Pública) recently waived the requirement for apostille and official translation of education documents for students coming from the U.S. This change constitutes a major achievement for the collaborative effort in which Monica takes part. She’s an active member of the Intersectorial Group to Promote Education and Identity Rights of returned youth, hold by the Mexican Secretaria de Gobernación.
Panel Abstract
Activist Research: Promoting the right to education of returned Mexican-American children in Mexico
The purpose of this study is to reflect on the collaborative work that civil society, academia, and deported youth have been doing since 2013 to ensure the right to public education of return migrant children and youth in Mexico. In June of 2014, I began collaborating with the Women in Migration Institute (IMUMI), a leading organization based in Mexico City, to guarantee education access for U.S.-born children of deported Mexican families. Obsolete legislation, bureaucratic inertia, and lack of valid identity documentation have shown to be considerable obstacles for Mexican-American children. As a result of our joint-advocacy efforts, the Mexican Ministry of Education recently amended relevant legislation to facilitate school access and studies accreditation for this growing population in Mexico. Apostille and official translation of foreign documents were eliminated as requirements for accreditation in primary, secondary and preparatory education. This change constitutes a major achievement for Mexican returnees, activists, and academics that participate in our group. Yet, policy reform isn’t enough by itself. Our current participation within the government groups seeks to monitor implementation and make the reform extensive to higher education.
Nancy Landa
Biography
Born in Mexico City and raised in Los Angeles, United States, Nancy Landa is a migration scholar and migrant rights advocate. Nancy holds a Masters in Global Migration from the University College London (UCL) and she is currently leading initiatives that merge research, social action and digital activism to create transnational networks of solidarity among migrants and advocates. Landa speaks and writes on transborder activism, her experience of being a deportee under the Obama Administration, and the social injustices migrants are subject to due to the increasingly restrictive immigration policies in the Americas and beyond. Nancy is the author of the blog mundocitizen.com, an online platform created to document her life journey post-deportation and to explore contemporary issues in migration from perspectives often unheard from – the voices of migrants themselves. Her story and activist work has been featured in Eileen Truax’s book “Dreamers, an immigrant generation’s right for their American Dream” (Eileen Truax: 2013 – Spanish edition & 2015 – English edition) and other major print and media publications including: Los Angeles Times, The Independent, NPR Latino USA, New York Times, La Opinión, Univision, and Mundo Fox.
Panel Abstract
Barriers to Educational Mobility for U.S.-Educated Deported Youth
In a post-DACA era, conversations on educational access and mobility for undocumented migrants have focused on youth living in the U.S. In a context of escalated immigration enforcement policies in the past two decades, much less is known of those who have fallen through the cracks of a disjointed and dysfunctional US immigration legal framework. The Mexican case is a revealing one – a country that has received 2.3 million deportees in the last decade, the number of U.S.-educated young adults ages 18-35 might well surpass the number of DACA-recipients. Drawing from her own personal experience of deportation and her involvement in digital advocacy and militant research, Landa discusses the nexus of migration and education policies beyond the U.S. territory. This presentation will review the requirements for recognition of foreign education in Mexico that complicate the educational mobility and reinsertion into the skilled labor market of young adults who are being forced to return “back home”.
Maria Paula Ghiso, Discussant
Title: Forced Migration and Education
2:30pm-3:50pm
Panel Description
This panel will explore issues which affect undocumented students throughout their everyday school lives.
Panelists
Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Nancy Landa, Monica Jacobo-Suarez
Discussant
Maria Paula Ghiso
Ariana Mangual Figueroa
Biography
Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
Ariana draws from the fields of language socialization and linguistic anthropology to examine language use and learning in multilingual communities living in the United States. Her research documents the everyday experiences of children and families as they participate in learning activities across multiple settings including home, school, and their communities. She is particularly interested in the ways in which an individual’s linguistic and cultural development is shaped by citizenship status and educational policies and the ways in which this becomes evident in daily, routine interactions. Her major projects include: an ethnographic study of a mixed-status, emerging Latino community in Southwestern Pennsylvania and an ongoing ethnographic study of the citizenship and schooling experiences of a mixed-status group of immigrant Latina girls in New York City supported by a 2013 NAED/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Panel Abstract
Speech or Silence: Undocumented Students’ Decisions to Reveal their Citizenship Status in School
This paper provides ethnographic evidence of the ways in which undocumented students make decisions about when to share or hide their migratory status during conversations with peers and teachers in elementary school. It argues that an analytic focus on how and when students in middle childhood talk about migratory status during everyday school activities deepens our understanding of a population that often remains invisible to teachers and educational researchers. The findings suggest ways in which public school and university educators can work to make schools positive and productive spaces for undocumented students.
Monica Jacobo-Suarez
Biography
The Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE)
Monica Jacobo-Suarez is Professor at the Interdisciplinary Program on Educational Policy and Practices in the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), Mexico. Monica holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations by CIDE and a PhD. in Public Policy and International Development by the University of Pittsburgh, as well as studies in research methodology from the University of Syracuse and the University of Michigan. Monica was a post-doctoral fellow at RAND Corporation (2013-2014), where she led the qualitative evaluation of the New Haven Promise, a post-secondary education program. Monica’s primary research interests are Mexican return migration, mixed-status families, education policies for immigrant populations, bilingual education, and mixed-methods research. Recently, Monica published “De Ida y de vuelta: el impacto de la política migratoria estadounidense en México y su población retornada”, by Carta Económica Regional. For years, Monica has combined research and activist work, both in Mexico and in the U.S. As part of her activist efforts to facilitate reintegration of Mexican deported children and youth, the Federal Ministry of Education (Secretaria de Educación Pública) recently waived the requirement for apostille and official translation of education documents for students coming from the U.S. This change constitutes a major achievement for the collaborative effort in which Monica takes part. She’s an active member of the Intersectorial Group to Promote Education and Identity Rights of returned youth, hold by the Mexican Secretaria de Gobernación.
Panel Abstract
Activist Research: Promoting the right to education of returned Mexican-American children in Mexico
The purpose of this study is to reflect on the collaborative work that civil society, academia, and deported youth have been doing since 2013 to ensure the right to public education of return migrant children and youth in Mexico. In June of 2014, I began collaborating with the Women in Migration Institute (IMUMI), a leading organization based in Mexico City, to guarantee education access for U.S.-born children of deported Mexican families. Obsolete legislation, bureaucratic inertia, and lack of valid identity documentation have shown to be considerable obstacles for Mexican-American children. As a result of our joint-advocacy efforts, the Mexican Ministry of Education recently amended relevant legislation to facilitate school access and studies accreditation for this growing population in Mexico. Apostille and official translation of foreign documents were eliminated as requirements for accreditation in primary, secondary and preparatory education. This change constitutes a major achievement for Mexican returnees, activists, and academics that participate in our group. Yet, policy reform isn’t enough by itself. Our current participation within the government groups seeks to monitor implementation and make the reform extensive to higher education.
Nancy Landa
Biography
Born in Mexico City and raised in Los Angeles, United States, Nancy Landa is a migration scholar and migrant rights advocate. Nancy holds a Masters in Global Migration from the University College London (UCL) and she is currently leading initiatives that merge research, social action and digital activism to create transnational networks of solidarity among migrants and advocates. Landa speaks and writes on transborder activism, her experience of being a deportee under the Obama Administration, and the social injustices migrants are subject to due to the increasingly restrictive immigration policies in the Americas and beyond. Nancy is the author of the blog mundocitizen.com, an online platform created to document her life journey post-deportation and to explore contemporary issues in migration from perspectives often unheard from – the voices of migrants themselves. Her story and activist work has been featured in Eileen Truax’s book “Dreamers, an immigrant generation’s right for their American Dream” (Eileen Truax: 2013 – Spanish edition & 2015 – English edition) and other major print and media publications including: Los Angeles Times, The Independent, NPR Latino USA, New York Times, La Opinión, Univision, and Mundo Fox.
Panel Abstract
Barriers to Educational Mobility for U.S.-Educated Deported Youth
In a post-DACA era, conversations on educational access and mobility for undocumented migrants have focused on youth living in the U.S. In a context of escalated immigration enforcement policies in the past two decades, much less is known of those who have fallen through the cracks of a disjointed and dysfunctional US immigration legal framework. The Mexican case is a revealing one – a country that has received 2.3 million deportees in the last decade, the number of U.S.-educated young adults ages 18-35 might well surpass the number of DACA-recipients. Drawing from her own personal experience of deportation and her involvement in digital advocacy and militant research, Landa discusses the nexus of migration and education policies beyond the U.S. territory. This presentation will review the requirements for recognition of foreign education in Mexico that complicate the educational mobility and reinsertion into the skilled labor market of young adults who are being forced to return “back home”.
Maria Paula Ghiso, Discussant