S8/E6: Sociologist's Perspective: Challenges that US Born Children of Immigrants Face with Joanna Dreby (Part 1)

Highest Aspirations

How are the challenges and experiences of English learners born in the US different than those who have recently arrived and why is so important for educators to understand them? In what ways does family members’ citizenship status and fear of deportation or separation affect these students? What kinds of social-emotional supports can educators leverage to help support these students in the classroom, and what policy changes can they advocate for at a local level?

We discuss these questions and much more in a special two-part series with University of Albany professor and author Dr. Joanna Dreby and three of her former and current students who are also English learners born in the US. In this episode, Dr. Dreby shares her experience and expertise in working with students who have grown up as children of immigrants. As you'll hear in our conversation, the challenges they face stretch well beyond learning English. All too often, these students find themselves growing up far too quickly as a result of their parents’ immigration status and lack of familiarity with the US educational system. They are often put in positions where they are expected to act as adults in their homes, their communities, and even in the court system. The trauma all this creates has a direct impact on social-emotional and academic progress, and forces many of these students to question their identities.

Check back next week for part two featuring three of her graduate students, and visit the EL Community page for episode takeaways, resources and more!

Find the full episode transcript here.

Dr. Dreby’s research explores family dynamics under conditions of increased globalization, with specific expertise on international migration, gender, and children.

She is author of two award-winning books Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and their Children (University of California Press 2010) and Everyday Illegal: When Policies Undermine Immigrant Families (University of California Press 2015), and the award-winning article "The Burden of Deportation on Children in Mexican Immigrant Families" (Journal of Marriage and Family 2012). She is co-editor of the volume Family and Work in Everyday Ethnography (Temple University Press 2013). Dr. Dreby has published more than 30 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters on a range of topics including child care fatalities, transnational families, gender and generational relations in families, work-family balance, and the impacts of immigration enforcement policies on children.

In 2017, Dr. Dreby was a Fulbright Scholar to Costa Rica and she received a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Grant in 2004-2005 for field research in Mexico. Her research on children and youth has been funded by the Foundation for Child Development (2009-2012), and her current project titled “the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement Episodes” is funded by the Russell Sage Foundation (2019-2022). She uses a variety of qualitative methods, emphasizing ethnography, comparative research and in-depth interview techniques. She has a background in social services and retains interest in community based work. Dr. Dreby received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2007.

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