Looking at the education of migrant farmworker children in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua

Abstract

When dealing with migration, people are commonly thought of as traveling from one country to another, specifically to the United States. However, a significant part of the country’s immigrants migrate to agricultural production areas, where they can find seasonal work to survive. Throughout this investigation we will address the children of these immigrants, specifically those who arrive at the region of the Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua. The difficult living conditions due to droughts, lack of work, drug trafficking and insecurity in this mountainous and semi-desert strip have led to the migration of entire families to the city of Cuauhtémoc to work as agricultural day laborers in search of opportunities to improve their quality of life. In most cases complete families travel, that is, father, mother and children, who suffer the loss of their lands, possessions, family, social and school ties. When faced with an urban context, it is children especially who suffer discrimination from a society that excludes and represses them, invisibility makes them vulnerable, the target of human rights violations, causing dropouts in schools, which has become a challenge for teachers in schools. This qualitative, ethnographic and phenomenological study gathers the perceptions of children, teachers, administrators and experts, as well as the social reality of this group, through observation and interviews. It concludes with a reflection on the neglect of this social and educational problem, as well as the teaching strategies to face it. Similarly, the historiography of the Basic Education Program for Boys and Girls of Migrant Agricultural Day-Labor Families (Programa de Educación Básica para Niños y Niñas de Familias Jornaleras Agrícolas Migrantes, Pronim) is gathered at the national and local level.