Becoming Transnational Youth Workers : Independent Mexican Teenage Migrants a...

Becoming Transnational Youth Workers : Independent Mexican Teenage Migrants and Pathways of Survival and Social Mobility, Hardcover by Martinez, Isabel, ISBN 0813589800, ISBN-13 9780813589800, Brand New, Free shipping in the USThis volume examines a group of migrant Mexican teenagers in the US who left their families behind in search of financial support for them and the processes and strategies they use as migrants to pursue survival and social mobility for their household and themselves across borders. It demonstrates how these youths are disrupting their parents' class positions and what this means for their survival and social mobility within and across two bordering nation-states, as they end up not in the work their parents filled in Mexico but in exploitative, low-paying service jobs typically reserved for adults in the US. It draws on a qualitative case study conducted between 2006 and 2015 across communities in Puebla, Mexico, and New York City to understand the reasons these minors immigrated without their parents and how and why they challenged Western ideas of age by immigrating, working, and remaining outside traditional schooling. It describes the processes that lead these independent migrants to arrive at various adult-like statuses and roles, as independent immigrants, school leavers, and undocumented workers, as well as how they became adults. Annotation ©2019 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR ()