06/28/11 –Dr. Adam Sawyer:
Adam Sawyer of Bard College addresses the challenges that youth in rural Mexican migrant-sending communities face for staying in school and achieving at high levels in Mexico. He also discusses the kinds of resources that migrants and their families may have at their disposal for schooling, and how documentation status affects the chances that Mexican youth migrants will continue their schooling and go on to finish high school upon migration to the United States. He focuses on the migrant-sending community of San Miguel Tlacotepec, Oaxaca. In attempting to determine the impact of outmigration on the educational persistence and attainment of youth in San Miguel Tlacotepec, Sawyer finds that being from a mgirant-household is associated with lower levels of schooling attainment in Tlacotepec, though remittance income may be associated with higher educational aspirations and a higher likelihood of high school completion, though the necessary separation comes at a high psychological price.
