The Education of Children in Im/migrant Families

chapter examines research on the education of children in immigrant families, focusing on the ways the children and the families have been constructed in public arenas and conceptualized and classified in research discussions. Throughout the chapter, we use the term im/migrant to denote those who have been labeled immigrant, migrant, and refugee, including the undocumented. Although the distinction between each of these terms is critical because they carry social and legal implications it is important to note that the terms are not always mutually exclusive or permanent.1 Immigrants move to a country to seek permanent residence and migrants move to find itinerant work. However, migrants may change their initial intent to return to their home country and immigrants may also change their intent to stay. In addition, families include members who fall within different immigration categories such as siblings who are citizens and who are undocumented. Nonetheless, what children of im/migrant families share is the risk of becoming part of the educationally underserved, socially neglected, and of being identified problematic group of students. Their families are likely to live apart from each other for extended periods, they are more likely to be mistakenly labeled and placed in special education, and their educational paths are burdened with difficulties such as the fear of their parents' deportation. The numbers of im/migrant children in schools have increased throughout the world. The principal receiving areas are North America, Western Europe, the Persian Gulf, Asia and the Pacific, and the Southern Cone of South America (Massey, 1999). In the United States, one out of every four children younger than the age of 8 lives in a family where at least one parent is an immigrant (Foundation for Child Development, 2007). Approximately 93% of children of immigrants were born in