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CHAPTER TITLES

1. Sacrifice
2. Ofelia & Germán: Migrant Time versus Child Time
3. Gender and Parenting from Afar
4. Armando López on Fatherhood
5. Children and Power during Separation
6. Middlewomen
7. Cindy Rodríguez between Two Worlds
8. Divided by Borders

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"Since 2000, approximately 440,000 Mexicans have migrated to the USA every year." - Joanna Dreby

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Natalie - Even though I am familiar with many of the stories brought out in this book, I recognize that every story is different and affects families in different ways.  I work with many immigrant children who have followed their parents or accompanied their parents to the United States in an effort to make better lives for themselves.  Some of these children are not legal.  These are additional concerns for us as educators to consider and keep in mind in how they can overall affect these children.  Some of these children have parents in Mexico.  Again, these are special circumstances to which as educators we need to be sensitive with respect to the well-being of the child.
This is a book that perhaps everyone should read, or at least parts of which should be identified for educators to keep in mind. We may have similar stories within our own building and be completely blind to them.

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How has the Book Impacted You Moving Forward

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How has the Book Impacted You Moving Forward

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I think this is dynamic and multi-dimensional question as you can argue money and financial gain holds power.  The money, however, is in el norte or the United States so does the country hold the power?  Additional power struggles exist in the book between men and women, marital conflict, and parent child relationships as sometimes the children hold the power in deciding if they want to migrate or not.

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Tim - I realize the type of sacrifices many of these Mexican families make in order to help support their children and their families. This book only reinforces some of the privileges I have experienced growing up and how I need to be more cognizant of how I look at all types of people. I plan on now taking the time to help our ELL students transition in school. My school does a number of activities that celebrate different lifestyles and world cultures from international cookbooks created by the parents and global studies day where parents & community members can present a different country to the students. I want to get more involved in these school-wide initiatives.

I want to personally bring more awareness to the origin, culture, and lifestyles surrounding the history of various sports and games to help bring a worldwide perspective to physical education. I want to share role models of different genders and ethnicity's as a means of giving students different examples of people who have been successfully.  By ultimately adding a more multi-cultural centered education program, I hope to inspire more of my students.

Additionally, the book has impacted me moving forward as I feel ready to start giving back more to my own parents for the sacrifices, time, and love they gave me growing up and supporting me along the way. I also think as a doctoral student, it has given me a chance to see how the author gathered various data to support her claims such as interviews, surveys, etc.

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How has the Book Impacted Your Life Moving Forward

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How has the Book Impacted Your Life Moving Forward

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We need to understand that students come from many different diverse upbringing and backgrounds and we cannot treat students with a one-size fits all approach.  Many students may not have adequate resources at home limiting their ability to eat properly, study well, or have the energy / time to live up to their full potential.

We need to not only fight for our own country's poor and impoverished students, but we need to also advocate and find ways to help our neighboring countries even the educational playing field as they are even more disadvantaged than we thought.

Many students rely on extended family members, so when it comes to communicating information there should be multiple forms and handouts available for both parents, step-parents, grandparents, etc.

As educators, we need to be aware that special circumstances exist for students so taking the time to survey students and have constant communication is helpful in learning about students situations.

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Lessons Learned from the Book & Ways It Can Be Applied as Educators

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Lessons Learned from the Book & Ways It Can Be Applied as Educators

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Joanna Dreby, the author, meticulously interviewed students and parents over a four year span to illuminate the various dimensions of migration and transnational life.  The book is divided into 8 different chapters that focus on different themes Dreby noted over the four years. One of the major issues discussed is that while parents send money home to pay for children's schooling they hope the sacrifices they make will result in inter-generational mobility.  Yet, parents are unhappy often working two jobs in the USA in cramped living spaces while children are also unhappy as they are separated from their parents and are often cared for by grandparents and neighbors.  Additionally, the passage of time causes further family complications.

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Video Clip - Through the Eyes of an Illegal Immigrant

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Video Clip - Through the Eyes of an Illegal Immigrant

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Children -  Without the presence of fathers, or sometimes both parents, the children of Mexican immigrants must learn to depend on extended family members. School may not be as important - which is paradoxical since most immigrants come to the United States so that their children can have better opportunities.

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Parents - Will sacrifice not physically being with their children for sometimes many years (Germán was separated from his parents for 12 years before he saw them again)
***Immigrant children with mothers in the United States aspire more to continue their education than immigrant children with only fathers or both parents in the United States.

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Challenges Faced by Immigrant Children and Mexican Parents

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Challenges Faced by Immigrant Children and Mexican Parents

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Mexican immigrants cross the border in order to better the lives of their families in Mexico. Without English language skills, cultural or physical geographical knowledge of the United States, they try to assimilate by getting jobs and maintaining a routine that will help their families in Mexico. Because of the financial obligations both in Mexico and in the United States, most often they kept in an economic position which is below the standard of living.

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With their immediate families in Mexico, Mexican immigrants truly depend on each other: extended family members who have arrived in the United States before them, or other Mexican immigrants like them seeking to gain experience in a new culture. If they are fortunate, they meet the acquaintance of people like the author, Joanna Dreby, who can connect them to other people (social workers or lawyers) who can also offer their services.

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Tim - Before I started reading, I thought I might not have any personal connections. I viewed the topic of immigrant children and second language acquisition as a personal blind-spot, therefore, I was eager to learn more about this topic. However, I quickly realized the connections and similarities that existed between some of my own personal experiences.  The book dives into the difficulties that many American families experience such as consumptive needs, balancing work and home time, divorce and separation, and tensions between parents and children. Additionally, it focuses on gender and generational issues which is problematic not only in regards to personal life issues, but also as educators in how we bridge the gap between millennials and older generations.

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Natalie- Besides being a daughter of immigrant parents, I have a personal connection with the specific Latino population focused in this book. As I was working my way through college, I was able to secure a position as a bilingual clerk in a large mushroom farm. This was my very first exposure to immigrants very different from my parents and very similar to the ones brought out in this book. Like the Mexican immigrants introduced in the book, almost all of the ones I met in my job left their families behind in Mexico in order to be able to make their lives in Mexico better. I was surprised and saddened to see professional, college educated men working in an industry in which their education was useless.  The experience helped me better appreciate my own education, the value of it, and the society in which we live.  I was fortunate to work in this job all through college and even during Amnesty and was able to use bilingual skills to help legalize over 400 employees. This book brought back many fond memories of my time in this position as well as help me reflect upon my focus in my graduate studies.

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What do parents expect to accomplish by dividing their families across borders? How do families manage when they are living apart? More importantly, do parents' relocations yield the intended results?

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Joanna Dreby - The author is a divorced mother one son, Temo, whose father is of Mexican origin and who she met during a visit to Mexico.  She seemed particularly intrigued by the challenges facing Mexican immigrants - especially when crossing the border also means leaving their families, and many cases, children behind.

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Challenges faced by countries that border one another