Uprooted in Mexico: The US Children 'Returned' to a Country They Barely Know Nina Lakhani and Monica Jacobo - The Guardian
go to original July 14, 2016

Isabel Mendoza with her daughter who was born in Oxnard, California, sitting outside the Yucunicoco council offices. (Nina Lakhani)

After 14 years as an undocumented farmworker in the US, Julia Aguilar returned to Mexico last year with her two sons, both of whom were born in California. The boys, then seven and 10, had never previously visited their new home town of San Martín Peras in an isolated corner of the southern state of Oaxaca.

The move was not easy: the two boys spoke English and the region’s indigenous Mixteco language, but barely any Spanish. Life was hardest for the eldest, Jorge, who was unable to make friends or participate in classes at school.

“The children called him names and laughed at his Spanish. The teacher didn’t care, he just sat in class unable to understand or speak to anyone. He cried every day and begged me to send him back to the US,” said Aguilar, 39.

Jorge is one of at least half a million American citizens to enrol in Mexican schools since 2010 amid a rising wave deportations and voluntary repatriations driven by the US economic downturn and family obligations.



Since 2010, 1.4 million Mexicans have been repatriated by US migration officials, and more are likely to follow after last month’s supreme court decision that will block legal recognition of 4 million undocumented parents.

It’s unknown how many others have returned voluntarily, often taking their US-born children with them.

Whatever the reason for their return, the transition is tough for many American-born children who face a shock of cultural and language changes, as well as delays accessing basic education and health services while their families tackle the expensive, onerous bureaucratic process of claiming Mexican nationality.

Read the rest at The Guardian

Related: Young and Undocumented Mexicans Travel to Mexico City to Reconnect with Their Motherland (Fusion)

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