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The Desire to Thrive: Families Overcoming Economic Hardships Through Educational Aspirations

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Abstract

The immigrant Latino community is faced with political challenges unmatched in the United States. Many of these individuals came to the United States to find a more successful place to raise a family due to increased work opportunities. After the Great Recession, many of these opportunities were terminated with the closure of industrialized manufacturing corporations. With the loss of jobs, increased economic pressure mounted and hardships, especially in the educational system, increased. The current study addresses how immigrant Latinos view the education environment in North Central Indiana. A 3 year ethnographic research project presents a greater understanding of the complex economic and educational ecology. For this study, 40 families consisting of 63 parents were identified, along with seven school liaisons. Fifty-six percent of the participating Latinos received less than a high school diploma, adding additional economic strain to families. Qualitative reports are framed around in-vivo coding factors resulting in two themes, Policy, Educational Practices, and Sociological Perceptions and Cultural Desire to Better One’s Family. Evidence from this study calls for policy change to create unity and a place free from fear for Latinos to learn about programs available to aid their children’s academic attainment.

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Notes

  1. The term Hispanic is used in this manuscript not as though Latino and Hispanic individuals are identical, but rather that national estimates use this terminology.

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Acknowledgements

The authors of this study would like to thank Dr. Robert Reyes, Dr. Jorge Chavez, and Dr. Sarah Harrison for their continued efforts to promote change in the community and their efforts on this project. This study would also like to thank Goshen College for their dedication with the Latino Family Research Program.

Funding

Interviews are drawn from the Latino Family Research Project which was made possible through the Lilly Endowment Inc., Grant No 2006 1434-000.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, 626 Osborn Dr. LaBaron Hall Suite #0051, Ames, IA, 50010, USA

    Jordan A. Arellanes

  2. School of Education and Human Development, University of Colorado Denver, 1380 Lawrence St. Suite #1192, Denver, CO, 80204, USA

    Ruben P. Viramontez Anguiano

  3. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, 2330 Palmer Suite #2356, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    Brenda J. Lohman

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  1. Jordan A. Arellanes
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Correspondence to Jordan A. Arellanes.

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Conflict of interest

Jordan A. Arellanes reports no conflict of interests. Dr. Ruben Viramontez Anguiano has stated no conflicts of interest other than the original funding from this project came from his work through the Lilly Endowment. Dr. Brenda Lohman also states no conflicts of interests.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Research Involving Human and Animal Rights

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Arellanes, J.A., Viramontez Anguiano, R.P. & Lohman, B.J. The Desire to Thrive: Families Overcoming Economic Hardships Through Educational Aspirations. J Fam Econ Iss 38, 338–353 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-017-9539-2

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