The 'Invisible' Children: Raised in America, But Now Struggling in Mexico Claudio Sanchez - nprED
go to original November 15, 2016

A Mexican child joins immigration reform protesters at a rally in Washington (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Children and teenagers of Mexican descent make up one of the fastest-growing populations in the nation's public schools.

That's a well-known statistic, but less known is that, in the last eight years, nearly 500,000 of these children have returned to Mexico with their families. Nine out of 10 are U.S. citizens because they were born in the U.S. That's according to Mexican and U.S. government figures compiled by researchers with the University of California system, and the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

These families have returned to Mexico because of the economic downturn in the U.S. Many others were deported and had no choice but to take their U.S.-born children with them.

Whatever the reason, Mexican schools have been caught off guard, totally unprepared to receive them. Researchers with the U-C Mexico Initiative say these students will in all likelihood travel back and forth between both countries so schools on both sides of the border need to work together to make sure they get a quality education.

Anthony David Martinez raises his hand in class at the Escuela 20 Noviembre school in Tijuana, Mexico (Sandy Huffaker/NPR)

In Mexican schools, the single-biggest problem these U.S.-born children and teenagers face is that they can't read or write in Spanish. In the U.S. schools they previously attended, many lacked the academic English they needed to do well. They're often labeled "English Language Learners" or ELLs.

Patricia Gandara, co-chair of the Civil Rights Project, has been tracking these students in both countries. She says both the U.S. and Mexico struggle with these transient students, and she says Mexican schools can learn a lot from educators who work with these kids in this country.

Gandara and others call these children Los Invisibles: the Invisible Ones.

Read the interview with Patricia Gandara at NPR.org

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