The Role of Social Trust in Building the Civic Capacities of Transnational Dominican Youth

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-11 - Out-of-School and Civic Lives of Immigrant Students and Their Families

Abstract

The civic integration of migrant youth is influenced by transnational ties they maintain to their home countries. This qualitative research study investigates the places where five Dominican transnational youth attending a New York City public high school for late-arriving migrants enact their civic identities across the contexts of school, family, and neighborhood. School is a space where the youth develop social trust among teachers and students through caring and supportive relationships, and by drawing upon their transnationalism as a civic asset. They report fewer opportunities to develop social trust in their neighborhoods. Implications are discussed for how these youth perspectives can be leveraged to improve civic outcomes for transnational youth whose sense of belonging and identifications transcend national boundaries.

Author

• Patrick Keegan, New York University