Foreign-born Americans, as well as the generations before them, have been the main driver of U.S. population growth and the epicenter of national racial and ethnic change, since passage of the 1965 law that changed the nation’s immigration policy. It is projected they will remain as such over the next 50 years. This comes as a surprising, yet fearful revelation in a country that has seen an increase in immigration tension and alienation. A recent survey done by the Public Research Religious Institution found that many working class Americans have feelings of anxiety and pessimism (Anderson, 2010), and that they possess more hostile attitudes toward immigrants. “Compared to a few years ago, Americans report less tolerance when encountering non-English
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The contributions featured in later sections will directly respond to questions of urgency that frequently surface in today’s political climate. My goal is advancing the field of education, research, policy and practice that promote excellence and parity, and the stories and research accumulated in this article aims to build a collective understanding that will hopefully precede better policy measures, action, and evaluation. Every immigrant deserves an accurate and fair chance to start new lives. Uncovering the multiplicity of experiences embedded in these developing contexts for immigrant children is important not only for generating groundbreaking theories and methodological advances but also for promoting backward mapping strategies for policy making and implementation science (Elmore, 1979–80). We believe effective practice builds on metis (Scott, 1998)—local expertise and contextualized knowledge—and that sound policy builds its agenda on actual needs and priorities for those it intends to serve. For all these reasons, this special issue presents rich portraits of diverse immigrant children who are too often characterized as “disadvantaged” and even “culturally deprived” (Fuller & Garcia Coll, 2010). Ultimately, we hope that a collection of these voices will celebrate the strengths and resilience, contributions and humanity of a population that …show more content…
I want to avoid the binary labeling of immigration status – the widely accepted “documented” or “undocumented” – but will use them interchangeably in cases where further clarity is needed. The metric I will use to describe status will incorporate a variety of developmental outcomes beyond these common labels and will explain how legal status affects individuals’ aspirations toward higher education and coming to terms with the trials of being
The contributions featured in later sections will directly respond to questions of urgency that frequently surface in today’s political climate. My goal is advancing the field of education, research, policy and practice that promote excellence and parity, and the stories and research accumulated in this article aims to build a collective understanding that will hopefully precede better policy measures, action, and evaluation. Every immigrant deserves an accurate and fair chance to start new lives. Uncovering the multiplicity of experiences embedded in these developing contexts for immigrant children is important not only for generating groundbreaking theories and methodological advances but also for promoting backward mapping strategies for policy making and implementation science (Elmore, 1979–80). We believe effective practice builds on metis (Scott, 1998)—local expertise and contextualized knowledge—and that sound policy builds its agenda on actual needs and priorities for those it intends to serve. For all these reasons, this special issue presents rich portraits of diverse immigrant children who are too often characterized as “disadvantaged” and even “culturally deprived” (Fuller & Garcia Coll, 2010). Ultimately, we hope that a collection of these voices will celebrate the strengths and resilience, contributions and humanity of a population that …show more content…
I want to avoid the binary labeling of immigration status – the widely accepted “documented” or “undocumented” – but will use them interchangeably in cases where further clarity is needed. The metric I will use to describe status will incorporate a variety of developmental outcomes beyond these common labels and will explain how legal status affects individuals’ aspirations toward higher education and coming to terms with the trials of being