The Work Kids Do: Mexican and Central American Immigrant Children's Contributions to Households and Schools in California

Abstract

In this article, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana highlights the work immigrant children do as active agents in supporting and sustaining their families, households, and schools. Building on the work of sociologists who examine children's engagement in social processes, Orellana maintains that we should not lose sight of children's present lives and daily contributions in our concern for their futures. Similarly, we should not see immigrant children only as a problem or a challenge for education and for society while overlooking their contributions to family and school. Integrated into her discussion are the voices of Mexican and Central American immigrant children living in California as they describe their everyday work as helpers at home and school. These examples illustrate how immigrant children's work can be understood in many ways — as volunteerism, as opportunities for learning, and as acts of cultural and linguistic brokering between their homes and the outside world. (pp. 366–389)

“Our Child Is Not Like Us:” Understanding Parent-Child Conflict Among U.S. Latino Families

“…Parents considered English proficiency necessary for children to attain goals of education and social mobility; as such, they did not perceive learning Spanish as a source of significant parent-child conflict. This finding is consistent with some studies indicating that immigrant parents generally consider their children's English proficiency to be an asset to the children and the family (e.g., De Ment, Buriel, & Villanueva, 2005;Orellana, 2001). Therefore, Spanish-language discrepancies might be more consequential for the parent-child relationship than English-language discrepancies.…”

A Longitudinal Daily Diary Study of Family Assistance and Academic Achievement Among Adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, and European Backgrounds

“…Family obligation is an important cultural value for adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds. It provides them a sense of academic motivation, and assisting their family gives them a sense of role fulfillment and happiness (Fuligni 2001;Orellana 2001;Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco 1995;Telzer and Fuligni 2009). Thus, interventions should not aim to decrease these youth's family assistance behaviors.…”

“…Youth from diverse backgrounds engage in family assistance behaviors on a daily basis by caring for siblings, doing household chores, and helping their parents (Hardway and Fuligni 2006). Family assistance is a particularly important aspect of family life for youth from Latin American and Asian backgrounds, especially for those from immigrant families (Fuligni et al 1999;Hardway and Fuligni 2006;Orellana 2001;Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco 1995). These adolescents spend significantly more time assisting their family and value it more so than their peers from European backgrounds (Fuligni and Pederson 2002;Fuligni et al 1999;Hardway and Fuligni 2006).…”

‘Becoming’ a possible threat: masculinity, culture and questioning among unaccompanied young men in Sweden

“…Some of the participants have reunited with their families. Their narratives partly correspond with how children migrating with their family can describe similar positional changes within their family, for instance by becoming 'cultural mediators' in their new locality (De Block and Buckingham 2007;Orellana 2001). For the participants in our study, this position change is clearly related to the reunification, and to tensions or conflicts related to them as individuals, their relationships within the family, and to what they have learned in different local settings.…”