Date of Award
5-2019
Culminating Project Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Administration and Leadership, K-12: Ed.D.
Department
Educational Administration and Higher Education
College
School of Education
First Advisor
John F. Eller
Second Advisor
Kay T. Worner
Third Advisor
Roger B. Worner
Fourth Advisor
Anne Parks
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Keywords and Subject Headings
Migration Dreamers Deportation Mexican-American Migrant Education Minnesota
Abstract
Abstract
Several undocumented Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have returned to Mexico, whether by choice or deportation, including children and youth who were born and raised in Minnesota. The research for the case study explored reasons for migration of Mexican families from Morelos, Mexico, who migrated to Minnesota, United States and how deportation affected the education of their Mexican and Mexican–American children upon returning to Mexico. Furthermore, the study also explored Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) adult student’s education system barriers encountered in the Mexican education system as they returned to Mexico from the United States. Study results indicated it is imperative that collaboration regarding K-12 education takes place between the migrant education agencies in Mexico and those in Minnesota since many returning Mexican-American students to Mexico are citizens of the United States, and someday may return to their home state of Minnesota.
Study findings indicated that 90.3% of participants’ reasons for migration to Minnesota from Morelos, Mexico was the lack of employment, and 74.2% of the participants reported that they returned to Mexico voluntarily, either to avoid separation or deportation of families. Regarding the education in Morelos, Mexico, 67.7% of the participants described how the lack of academic support combined with a poor quality of education was affecting their children’s education.
Recommended Citation
Dimayuga-Bruggeman, Elia, "Children Without a Country: A Migration Educational Study of Mexicans in Minnesota" (2019). Culminating Projects in Education Administration and Leadership. 59.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/edad_etds/59
Comments/Acknowledgements
Acknowledgment
I want to extend a special thank you to Dr. John Eller, my dissertation committee chair, and to the committee members Dr. Kay T. Worner, Dr. Anne Parks, and Dr. Roger Worner. Roger and Kay thank you for your encouragement and support throughout this journey. Most of all, thank you for your engaging courses and hands on activities, samples of your experiences, actual cases and guidance. Your classes were enlightening, interesting, innovative, and purposeful. Special thanks also to Dr. Anne Parks, your insights, advice, and time spent on my dissertation and meeting with committee members is very much appreciated.
Special thank you to Lic. Miguel Angel Rivera Nájera, General Director of Migrant Education for Secretaría de Desarrollo Social, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México, and his staff for their assistance throughout the project; this research could not have been completed without your help and coordination. My sincere gratitude to Lic. Celestina Salazar Hurtado, Education Psychologist, for her support of migrant families and their children. Thank you to Ms. Victorina Ruiz and Ms. Isabel Tepozteco for opening the doors of their home and hosting me during the interviews, and most of all, thank you to all the migrant families and DACA adults for sharing their histories, this research could not have been possible without your input.
Thank you to my husband, Mark, for his support and reassurance not to give up on my goal, and to my children Venessa, Erica, William, and Brianna for their encouragement throughout this journey, especially when I almost dropped out of the cohort.
To my cohort classmates for being positive, supportive and for their encouragement to make sure cohort #8 moved forward to meet deadlines—thank you.