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Mexican Immigrant Parents and the Forms of Capital They Provide Their Children Through Time

Thu, April 24, 9:50 to 11:20am MDT (9:50 to 11:20am MDT), The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3

Abstract

This paper extends the literature of cultural capital (CC) and community cultural wealth (CCW) by demonstrating that there exists a temporal factor. Drawing from fifteen interviews with Mexican-American, first-generation college students I show that the forms of capital they need from their parents change as they progress through school. My findings are outlined in three stages 1) children rely on their parents’ “formal” forms of CC in grade-school 2) students then rely on their parents for “informal” forms of capital, such as those outlined in CCW in junior-high and secondary-school, lastly 3) students rely on their mother’s social capital at the postsecondary-level. These findings counter the idea that immigrant parents from working-class backgrounds do not assist their children throughout school.

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