This a research presentation that I did for my School & Society class toward receiving my teaching license. I chose this topic because I lived in a very small agricultural town in Washington with a large Hispanic farm-worker population. I helped tutor students at the elementary school there and wanted to further explore some of the barriers that Hispanic migrant students may face.

1. Educational Barriers Faced
by Hispanic Migrant
Students
Caitlin C. Baker

2. Who are migrant students?
• A migrant student “is, or whose parent, spouse, or guardian is,
a migratory agricultural worker… and who, in the preceding
36 months, in order to obtain, or accompany such parent,
spouse, or guardian in order to obtain, temporary or seasonal
employment has moved from one school district to another”
(Florida Advisory Committee, pg. 3)
• According to National Farm Worker Ministry, “Under U.S.
law, agricultural workers as young as the age of twelve are
permitted to work.”
• Major aspects of the life of migrant students that cause barriers
to educational opportunity: Mobility, Poverty, Work,
Language/Culture.
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3. Aspects of the Life of a Migrant Student
and the Resulting Obstacles
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4. Mobility
• Migrant students many move three to five times during each
school year (Martinez, et al.)
• “The family’s migration is not patterned around the traditional
school year” causing migrant students to “experience
considerable disruptions in the continuity of their education”
(Kindler).
• Because of frequent moves, migrant students must adjust to
“differing school systems, curricula, and social conditions”
and may experience “problems with records and credit
transfers” (Kindler).
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5. Poverty
• The median annual income for farm workers is between
$2,500 and $5,000. About 75% make less than $10,000 a year
(U.S. Dept. of Labor).
• Additionally, the cost of migrating can be quite expensive
(Kindler, pg. 4).
• Poverty can cause additional numerous obstacles such as poor
health/nutrition, hunger, social isolation because of
embarrassment over clothes, low-self esteem/confidence.
• Poverty may force students to work or to babysit siblings or
cousins while adults are working, which may cause them to
miss school.
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6. Work
• “Children as young as 10 can make a significant contribution
to their family’s income by working rather than attending
school” (Kindler).
• Field work exposes children to a variety of health risks from
accidental injury and exposure to pesticides and chemicals
(Kindler).
• In a survey of 84 migrant students, 75% had worked or were
working in the fields (Martinez, et al.).
• In agriculture, “there are no limits to how many hours children
can work” (National Farm Worker Ministry).
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7. Language/Culture
• Migrant students who were not born in the U.S. “may have
had little or no formal schooling in their native country”
(Kindler).
• In absence of appropriate bilingual instruction or instruction in
Spanish, “limited proficiency in English not only impedes
academic progress, but can lead to social isolation as well”
(Kindler).
• In my experience working at an elementary school in a very
small Hispanic agricultural town in Washington, students often
missed school to translate for their parents.
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8. Survey on Public Education for Migrant
and ELL Students
• Survey focused on attitudes toward recent Latino/Hispanic immigrants
versus non-Latino/Hispanic immigrants, attitudes toward migrant workers,
attitudes toward bilingual education as well as a few questions specifically
for teachers about the availability and effectiveness of programs for ELL
and migrant students at their schools.
• I emailed the link to the survey to students of my three classes this
semester, as well as posting the link to the survey on Facebook and
encouraging friends to take it.
• I did not specifically target any demographic. Non-educators could answer
“N/A” to questions that specifically targeted educators.
• 41 people responded to the survey but not all respondents answered each
question
• The results of several questions which I found most interesting are included
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9. Survey Results
In general, do you have a
positive or negative
attitude toward recent
Latino/Hispanic
immigrants?
Generally
Positive
Of the 39 respondents, 21
answered “Generally
Positive,” 0 answered
“Generally Negative,” and
18 answered
“Neutral/Mostly Neutral.”
Generally
Negative
Neutral/
Mostly
Neutral
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10. Survey Results
In general, do you have a positive
or negative attitude toward
migrant workers?
Generally
Positive
Generally
Negative
Neutral/Mostly
Neutral
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Of the 41 respondents,
21 answered generally
positive, 2
answered generally
negative, and 18
answered neutral/
mostly neutral.
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11. Survey Results
In general, do you have a
positive or negative
attitude toward bilingual
education for English
Language Learner (ELL)
students?
Of the 40 respondents, 27
answered “Generally
Positive,” 4 answered
“Generally Negative,” and 9
answered “Neutral/Mostly
Neutral.”
Generally
Positive
Generally
Negative
Neutral/Mo
stly Neutral
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12. Survey Analysis
• I was surprised that no respondents answered that they had a generally
negative opinion of Latino/Hispanic Immigrants. I had also expected that
more respondents would answer that they have a generally negative
opinion of migrant farm workers. Instead, for both questions, nearly half of
respondents answered that they had neutral or mostly neutral attitudes.
These results were inconsistent with the readings that said that xenophobia
is an issue faced by migrant students and their families.
• I was also surprised that only about ¼ of respondents answered that they
were neutral or mostly neutral about bilingual education. This question
received more “generally positive” and “generally negative” responses than
most of my other questions.
• If I were to administer this survey again, I would consider not posting the
survey to Facebook. Though it was a convenient way to encourage a large
group of people to take the survey, it may have affected my results since
many of my friends share similar opinions.
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13. Media Representation
Because the issues of migrant farm workers are largely “invisible” to the rest
of the population, not many media representations exist. However, those
who feel that those issues are important have expressed their passion for the
issues in film, literature, poetry and other mediums:
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, a young-adult novel published in
2000, examines the lives of Mexican farm workers as they struggle to adapt
to life in the U.S.
“And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him” (1995)
is a film told from the perspective of 12-yearold son of Mexican-American farm workers.
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14. References and Works Consulted
Duffie, Lauren. “Migrant Students: A New and Evolving Challenge for Midwest School
Counselors.” Diss. Winona State U, 2010.
Florida Advisory Committee. “Migrant Students: Resources for Migrant Children Similar to Other
Students but Achievement Still Lags.” (Report to United States Commission on Civil Rights).
2007.
Garity, Dylan. “Rigged Game.” 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo3KFUzyMUI
Green, Paul E. “The Undocumented: Educating the Children of Migrant Workers in America.”
Bilingual Research Journal 27.1 (2003) 51-71.
Kindler, Anneka L. “Education of Migrant Children in the United States.” Directions in Language
and Education: National Clearinghouse of Bilingual Education 1.8 (1995).
Martinez, Yolanda G., et al. “Voices from the Field: Interviews with Students From Migrant
Farmworker Families.” The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students 14
(1994): 333-348 11 Sept. 2013
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/rcd/BE020265/Voices_from_the_Field.pdf
National Farm Worker Ministry. “Education.” 2013. 11 Sept. 2013 http://nfwm.org/educationcenter/farm-worker-issues/education/
U.S. Department of Labor: The National Agricultural Workers Survey. 2010.
<http://www.doleta.gov/agworker/report9/chapter1.cfm>
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