Despite many welcoming individuals and communities, the hegemonic narrative regarding immigrant origin families suggests that hard work may not be enough to overcome the economic, social, and political walls within and encompassing the United States. The increasingly diverse stories of immigrant families are often met with undifferentiated…

This article advocates for the application of comparative international approaches to preparing pre-service and in-service teachers for meeting the needs of refugee students. To start, the paper presents literature on refugees' varied educational experiences in their home countries and refugee camps as well as the processes through which they come…

A great deal has been written about immigrant children and youth. Drawing on work done in the USA, this paper focuses on implications for school improvement policy and practice. Discussed are (1) the increasing influx of immigrants into schools, (2) different reasons families migrate, (3) concerns that arise related to immigrant students, (4)…

Twenty percent of all youth in America's schools are children of immigrants, making them first- or second-generation immigrant students. Addressing these students' literacy needs with relevant curriculum paves the way for them to experience meaningful learning. Literacy scholarship also points to the specific literacy needs of adolescent girls and…

The author moved from Guatemala to California with her mom. In this article, she talks about the challenges of learning English. She needs to learn English to take care of her mom until her "papa" comes to take care of them. If she knows English she can help her mother with the groceries and answering the phone. She can also teach her…

This article presents the author's personal narrative as an immigrant from Sierra Leone who has undergone so many challenges in life and ended up turning all these obstacles into opportunities. In this article, the author describes his life growing up in Sierra Leone, his first experience of the horrors of war, his life as a student, and his dream…

In this article, the author describes his life experiences and how difficult it was for him as a Mexican immigrant living in the United States. His life changed when he moved to America, but his character changed when he started middle school. He had been constantly insulted by his classmates, and at the time he wanted to get revenge. The kids he…

In this article, the author shares his journey of obstacles he has endured in his life. The author's journey begins in Tequila, a small town of Mexico, with his cherished and young mother giving birth at the age of 16. He is the oldest and only son, in a family of two younger sisters and two hard-working parents. Poverty has been a reality for his…

In this article, the authors identify the cultural and spiritual assessments needed to conduct counseling with Muslim Americans and Muslim immigrants to the United States. Assessment processes are outlined that include cultural identity (which subsumes several variables); worldview; spiritual assessment along with acculturation level and migration…

Extant cultural models articulated in "Flyover Country" print media responses to ICE workplace raids showed a welcome of sorts of Latino newcomers. These models suggest a place for Latino students at school and more broadly for Latino children and parents in these communities. Thus, they index an unwillingness to see Latino newcomers in…

In this article, the author describes his experiences as a Mexican living "illegally" in the United States and how Esperanza Community Collegial Academy has given him a second chance to find himself and his place in this world. At Esperanza he is part of a program that promotes higher education, MEXA (Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de…

Third-grader Jaime of Denver, Colorado, was having a hard time concentrating in school. The son of Mexican immigrants, he had learned to speak English perfectly in his dual-language public school, but reading and writing was another story. When her mother, Xochitl Rico, knew about Cesar Chavez Academy, a new tuition-free charter school where the…

Most analyses of the sociolinguistic aspects of immigration focus on contexts where a single language is official and widely used. In bilingual Catalonia, newly arriving immigrants find themselves in a situation where the administration seeks to treat Catalan as a fully functional public language while large sectors of the local population still…

As faculty and administrators at federally designated "Hispanic serving institutions" (defined as colleges and universities having a minimum Latino student population of 25 percent), the authors came together in part because of the lack of research on the experiences of undocumented students, particularly in the Midwest; their own…

From a critical language perspective, the main issues facing education of immigrant populations are the ways in which these populations are segregated as the Other and how educational practices often work to perpetuate a fringe status. In this paper, I draw upon both discursive perspectives on policymaking and pedagogical practices to address the…