Community Cultural Wealth: Supporting Migrant Youth in Schools

Latiné migrant youth are a unique population of students with complex academic and social-emotional experiences. Those experiences are enhanced by several factors including strong family connections, commitment to educational success, and overall resilience. There are also systemic issues that may cause instability to migrant youth due to limited access to resources and heightened exposure to unstable environments. In this study, 20 Latiné migrant youth from the rural western United States participated in semi-structured interviews that explored their experiences during the pandemic. Using a phenomenological analysis, these students provide much-needed insight into their experience. The authors used a community cultural wealth framework to examine how migrant youth create their own paths to meet their educational and socio-emotional needs. One of the valuable lessons learned from that study was a better understanding of the ways virtual learning impacts migrant youth. While there are benefits to virtual learning in accessing academic knowledge, school psychologists should consider additional support to increase social-emotional wellness.