Latino Immigrants Rights to Education: What are Propositions 187 and 227?

Many are the dreams illegal immigrants wish to reach once they begin their lives in the United States; one of them is a more secure, better life for their children. They understand the importance of education and one of the first thing on their “to do” list is to enroll their children in public schools. Because these children have never been taught the English language before they are a great disadvantage in learning the subjects being taught compared to their English speaking peers. Many public school systems throughout the United States have integrated courses to help these children to learn English. These courses are usually available for one year, after which, they are left to themselves to either “sink or swim”. Unfortunately, that one year does not translate into an equal educational opportunity as they remain a group largely at risk for academic failure.

Propositions 187 and 227: Latino Immigrant Rights to Education

Retrieved from the American Bar Association Website

Several States in the Union have enacted or are in the process of enacting legislation that curtails the rights of immigrants, especially those who are suspected of being undocumented aliens and those from whom English is a second language, particularly Latinos.  Nationally, there are approximately 3 million students identified as limited English proficient (LEP). Spanish-speaking students are by far the single largest language group representing 72.9 percent of all LEP students in the country.  California has the largest number of LEP students with 1.4 million enrolled in its schools ( 46 percent of all LEP students nationwide). Eighty percent of all LEP students in the state are Spanish speaking.  Unfortunately, the overwhelming presence of Latino students in the classrooms has not translated into equal educational opportunity for them as they remain a group largely at risk for academic failure. A 1997 report issued by the State Superintendent’s Hispanic Advisory Task Force concluded that California public schools have consistently failed to meet the academic needs of Hispanic students and that Hispanics are performing dramatically below state averages in all the key indicators of success in school.

In 1974, the U.S Supreme Court, determined that language minority students are entitled to  parity of participation in U.S. schools and that our schools have an affirmative obligation to remove the language barriers preventing  their inclusion in the mainstream academic community. Also, the children must be given a meaningful opportunity to learn the core curriculum regardless of the home language they bring into the classroom.

School district must provide programs to LEP students through which they can acquire the language skills necessary to participate academically with their peers.  Also, a district must ensure that these same students do not suffer educational or academic deficits because of their English language limitations. The Court had also affirmed that under the Equal Protection Clause, (part of the fourteenth amendment of the United States), school districts could not deny immigrant children access solely on the basis of their immigration status.

Since these ruling and statutory amendments, the language minority and immigrant student population has grown immensely. In the view of many Latinos, politicians took direct aim at these children by supporting divisive statewide campaigns that eventually resulted in the passage for Propositions 187 and 227.

The goal of Proposition 187 is to prevent undocumented immigrants access to benefits and public services, including public school education. Although the implementation of its exclusionary provisions has been halted for the time being by legal challenges in both state and federal courts, the passage of Proposition 187 fueled a climate of fear for the Latino families and their children. The proposition has also created hostility between immigrant and nonimmigrant students, and between educators who approved the initiative and those who opposed it.  The anti-Latino immigrant forces have been successful in convey the message to all voters in California that the Latino undocumented children take too long to learn English and that the bilingual programs provided for them are too costly.  These comments set the stage for what eventually became Proposition 227.

Proposition 227 seeks the elimination of California’s bilingual education programs and the imposition of English-only program for the state’s 1.4 million LEP students.  Proposition 227 requires that all English learners be placed in English language classrooms where they will be taught English by being taught in English for a period of a year. Once these students have acquired a basic knowledge of English, the initiative mandates that they be transferred to an English language mainstream classroom. Extensions of time period are available and can only be provided with prior written consent and subject to certain prescribed criteria, for example that the child has special physical, emotional, psychological or educational needs.

I personally know a woman in the Hispanic community I belong to whose children, 8 and 10 years old are experiencing the same dilemma in their elementary school.  The family emigrated from Mexico 2 years ago. Her husband has a meager job with a meager pay.  She just gave birth to a baby boy and is unable to work to attend her child’s needs. Both she and her husband have not obtained a formal education in their own country and speak only Spanish in their home.  At their elementary school, their children have been the beneficiaries of language educational programs available. The help received, however, has been insufficient. They understand and speak English more than they did a year ago, but not sufficiently well to feel comfortable to sit in a classroom where any given subject is taught in English. The school will not extend additional help. Mom and dad cannot personally help them neither can afford to pay for private tutoring.  

Can the government afford not to take action in preparing these children for their academic success?  By investing more money in educational programs of this type will not only ensure a brighter hope for better employment opportunities for the children but substantial tax contribution upon which the very financial future of the United States depends.

 Escobedo, D. (1999). Propositions 187 and 227: Latino immigrants rights to education. Human Rights: Journal of the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities. Retrieved November 4, 2010, from Academic Search Complete Database.

Latino Immigrants: Patterns of Survival

When people reside illegally in the United States, they live with the fear they may be discovered, incarcerated for a time and deported in their home land.

A few weeks ago, a woman whom I highly admire experienced this very nightmare, when Immigration officers arrived to her home early on a Monday morning, handcuffed her husband and took him away.  I remember calling her that morning for something related to a church affair. I noticed something was not right by the sound of her voice.  I asked her what was wrong. After a few moments of silence, she recounted the horror she experienced in agonizing details:  It was 7 o’clock in the morning and her husband had gotten ready for work.  As always, she had packed his lunch and sent him off with a kiss. Five minutes later she heard a knock at her door.  “Did he forget his lunch again?”  she thought. When she opened the door and found herself in front of two Immigration officers handing her husbands’ personal belongings, including his lunch, and telling her that he had just been arrested, she felt sheer terror coming over her.  She managed to ask them if she could see him and where they were going to take him. She was told that she could not see him but revealed to her the name of the prison where he was heading to and was promised he would be allowed to call her later on that day.

And he did call her a couple of hours later. He was allowed a few minutes, just enough time to tell her that the order of deportation had been issued and that he was expected to be back in Mexico in the following two weeks.  Before he hung up, he expressed his deep love for her and their three children.

 People may wonder what makes individuals and families leave their own country to come and live in the United States when they won’t enjoy the same privileges and rights that legal U.S residents and citizens do. This has been the question that inspired many scholars to find the answers by researching this interesting topic.

The United States, followed by Germany and Canada have the largest number of immigrants amongst advanced industrial countries. An overwhelming number of them are undocumented.  When they arrive to the U.S., however, how do they adapt and cope with the new experience, situation and culture?

What are the stresses they often experience? What maybe the resources of strength that soften this hard experience and enable them to successfully integrate in a new country and way of life? How do cultural, economic, health and educational systems impact the immigrants?

The diverse and massive immigration that occurred in the United States during the last part of the 20^th century provoked many different reactions from governments and citizens. The dynamic increase of Latino immigrants, especially the undocumented ones, has often resulted in hostile and discriminatory attitudes that put their lives at severe risks. On one occasion, during the 1990s, in San Diego, California, two young men fostered by exacerbated hate towards the increasing number of immigrants in their city, decided to “hunt down” Mexicans that ended up with the shooting and killing of someone who they thought was an undocumented Latino.  The person killed was a legal resident of Mexican origin. Experiencing discrimination due to their identity may be a very new and unpleasant experience for the new comers.

The reasons for migrating vary. For some it is a well-planned and thoughtful process that is viewed with optimism for a better life. They would travel by plane and be in the U.S. in a matter of hours. For others it is being forced out of their country due to political realities that is even life threatening. They would take on long, difficult and dangerous trips. In San Diego County, California, tightened border surveillance has pushed those crossing the borders to the eastern part of the county.  In the winter, there are people who freeze to death as they travel through mountainous terrain; in the summer this same trek takes them through desert-like conditions where many die of dehydration and exposure.  For those who complete the journey, memories of others who died in the process result in grief and guilt issues that are difficult to deal with.

One other issue immigrants are exposed to is the lack of fit from their accustomed values, roles and expectations, and those of fronting many conflicts and pressures that are fatiguing.  Many families react by hanging on to old cultural patterns and rituals. However, as the young generation grows, because of their full exposure and interaction to societal institutions, conflicts between children and parents are often created and the younger generation integrates new values and roles that threaten the family’s cultural framework. The family system is dramatically challenged to undergo a new configuration of values and styles that will allow them to keep some of the old but hopefully integrate new ways to thinking and behaving that will enable them to cope more effectively in the new society. Often, if one spouse has more readily entered into societal roles due to education and or employment, the other spouse who is not acculturating at the same rate will be left behind creating problems within the couple. If, after a few years the family is still not coping well due to failing to develop new skills to address the issues at stake, more cultural clashes between spouses and children will be experienced.

The immigration experience typically implies that some family and friends will be left behind in the country of origin. The separation of family’s breaks ruptures the support the immigrant had been accustomed to.  Due to language, cultural and economic issues, immigrants will often find themselves without the moral support and network that had enabled them to function. Social relationships are critical to satisfying the need for communication and to mitigate isolation.

From the sample of Washington D.C. immigrants (Espino et al., 1987) discovered issues in Education for children /youth that place them at high risk for delinquency behaviors and retardation of social and developmental skills. This study indicated that 35 percent were functioning two or more years below expected grade level. Some might think that the delay is related to lack of English proficiency, however, when these children were given the school achievement testes in Spanish, 72 percent scored a two or more year delay in reading and 73 percent a similar delay in mathematics. As Espino noted, once a child or teen reaches this grave level of academic delay, achievement motivation becomes hard and the teens are at risk of severe self-esteem and shame issues associated with their efforts at school skills.  Consequently, when immigrants are unable to develop coping skills in the broader society, their children will similarly miss out on these skills and can easily resort to behaviors that are antisocial. These young people will not master the verbal skills that will allow them to interact with adults from a broader range of socioeconomic groups; consequently, they are restricted to many areas of the city and activities they could benefit from and withdraw and function in a limited but familiar territory.

Support structures do exists, however and they provide the much needed help the immigrants necessitate in order to better functioning in the society.  The immigrants very often live in neighborhoods where people from their country are found with whom they can speak their native language and identify themselves in other areas. Many do act as cultural brokers, sharing their experiences and providing the do’s and don’t that will enable them to learn from others mistakes.  They teach them where rent is affordable, what stores have their cultural foods, where English classes are held. These people may also provide linkages to recreational and social activities.   This kind of networking provides ties to the old culture as a way to stabilize the immigrant’s situation.  The important principles that the cultural supports should help the immigrants to begin to reach out to their new cultural scenario rather than stay immersed in their old culture. Not reaching out will only insures that the second generation will be constrained in the acculturation process as well.  Other important resources to assess for are religious institutions that immigrants may connect to.  Some churches will provide resource information that will enable the immigrant to cope more effectively.  Certainly, the support derived from spiritual or more formal connections to belief systems is a valuable resource for helping them cope emotionally and for providing a context that will enable them to feel connected to others.  Some communities have agencies that provide specialized immigration services for all immigrants and refugees, offering help with documentation as well as services for employment training, job securement and English classes.

Recognizing the particular vulnerability of children and youth in relation to adapting and succeeding in school and social environments may enable workers to focus their intervention as well as prevention efforts in these need areas. Workers and social agencies must help with the integration of these immigrants into societal systems. More systematic and organized dorms of specialized services focused on their individual and group needs must be developed. Most importantly, human service workers must examine their own politics and attitudes toward immigrants, refugees and in particular those who are undocumented. Residues of prejudice or racism must be identified and eradicated so as not to raise further barriers that these human beings must overcome.

While life in the United States is certainly challenging for all the illegal immigrants, and the fear of being deported is ever-present, these people hope that some new reforms that will change their illegal status will take place, one that will assure their right to live in this Country. Because of the instability, crime, the lack of job opportunities, the perspective of going back to their native land is one that fills them with great apprehension. That is why they are willing to take on the risks associated with their illegal status.

Zuniga, M. (2002). Latino immigrants: Patterns of survival. The Haworth Press, Inc.Retrieved on 11/4/2010 from Academic Search Complete database.

Introduction

It has been over three years since I have been closely involved with the Hispanic community here in Richmond.  When I met my husband at a social event back in 2007, I was introduced to several women and men who, like me, had left their Country to come to the U.S. to start a new life.  I was touched by the warmth by which they interacted with me and with one another.  I spent a good part of the evening shaking hands, giving and receiving hugs.  I laughed at their jokes, ate delicious home-made food and danced the night way.  When I left to go home that night, I felt as close to my former home as I have ever been. I had been embraced by a community of wonderful people and found the man it would later become my husband.

The night spent at that social event was the first of many more that followed during subsequent months.  Each time, at each encounter, I would meet someone new from some Country in Central and South America; interesting women and men with similar backgrounds.  They all treated one another with great caring and respect.  I soon found myself looking forward to be in the company of this fun, caring and loving people.

 As I became more involved in their lives, I also became aware of the limitations they were subjected to.  Many of them did not drive a car, spoke little or no English, had no health insurance and really did not have but a few material possessions.  They were close to one another and always available and willing to help if any in the community was in stand of need of something. 

As time went by, the friendship with a few of them grew stronger.  They slowly started to be more open about their dreams, aspirations, their doubts and fears. I still remember the incertitude a lady felt as she was about to reveal the “dark” secret of her life.  Noticing her nervousness, I tried my best to inspire in her a feeling of trust. Still hesitant, she revealed that she was living in the United States illegally, meaning, without legal permission to reside in this Country. She said she was “undocumented” meaning that the legal authorities had no documentation or information about her residence in the U.S.

Immigrant demonstration.  Picture retrieved on 11/4/2010. The Huffington Post