Understanding Young Binational Children's Critical Consciousness in Mexican Schools

• In Event: Beyond National Boundaries: Transnational Ways of Knowing and Belonging in Mexico

Abstract

Objectives: The period between 2005 and 2015 saw the highest number on record of U.S. born children under the age of 18 living in Mexico. In this presentation we use a transnational frame to explore these children’s understandings of U.S. citizenship, as well as its importance to their experiences of belonging and identity formation processes once in Mexico.

Theoretical Framework: We understand young children, born in the United States and who now live with their repatriated parents in Mexico, to be transmigrants in their own right and, as such, their emerging identities likely develop from their binational perspectives and experiences (Dyrness & El-Haj, 2019). By focusing on the experiences of young children who arrived to Mexico at different stages of their childhood, we explore how citizenship, and transnational interconnections, may powerfully shape children’s lives.

Methods and Data: Data come from an ethnographic study conducted during the 2016-2017 school year. Data collection included interviews, weekly classroom observations, and video recordings of routine interactions. In order to better understand primary school aged children’s perspectives, we draw predominantly from interview data from the 34 binational students ages 6-14 and observational data from their classrooms.

Results: We suggest that instead of developing a critical consciousness related to race or ethnicity or even legal status, the children of repatriated parents living in Mexico understand U.S. citizenship to define their position in a historical migratory flow of people from Mexico to the United States. Although in some ways U.S. citizenship offers children some status, in that they can freely travel in this migratory system, it also is a source of conflict in Mexico as it differentiates binational children from peers. We find that binational students’ sense of belonging in Mexico varies by their own transnational experiences. Specifically, those with no U.S. schooling do not feel the negative social positioning of their U.S. citizenship in daily interactions. Binational children with some U.S. schooling, in contrast, develop a critical awareness of U.S. citizenship that plays out in their daily interactions in Mexican schools. They are cognizant of their U.S. citizenship as a factor of differentiation, one which they downplay with peers. Those with extensive U.S. schooling have more dislocating experiences, particularly in discrimination by peers and teachers. These students may view U.S. citizenship positively and aspire to return. They may develop oppositional transnational identities, not seeking to integrate into the monocultural Mexican identity of peers, but rather holding on to the future-oriented narratives that U.S. citizenship affords them.

Scholarly Significance: The nuances among binational students that we describe are crucial for educators to recognize. Schools can act as interrupters of “diasporic sensibilities” (Lukose, 2007) by emphasizing nationalist identification and assimilation as a goal (Dyrness & El-Haj, 2019; Levinson, 2005). At the same time, they have the potential to serve as spaces where students can develop critical consciousness and an awareness of how to engage in civic action to operate as citizens of a community not bound by nation-state borders.

Authors

• Sarah Gallo, Rutgers University

• Joanna Dreby, State University of New York Albany

• Florencia Silveira, University at Albany - SUNY

• Melissa Adams-Corral, California State University - Stanislaus