Migración, remesas y escolarización: ¿estímulos o amenazas para la Educación para Todos en México?

Resumen

As Mexico assesses its relative success in meeting the Education For All 2015 goals, schooling opportunities in many parts of the nation have been impacted by the international migration phenomenon and the resulting troves of financial capital it receives by way of absent migrants. Whether this transformation has been a net positive or negative in regards\nto the schooling of those remaining behind has been subject to debate and speculation. This research delves into this question through an examination of the impact of financial remittances on schooling within one prominent migrantsending community in southern Mexico. This paper presents case studies of four in-school youth in the town who\nreceive remittance income from fathers residing in the United States. We find that remittances, while potentially helpful for schooling performance and attainment, are alone not enough to boost educational outcomes and in some cases can contribute to the pursuit of non-schooling pathways for youth. In the presence of remittances, the ability of mothers to\naid their children with school related tasks—usually as a result of relatively high educational attainment in their own right—appears to be a critical mediator of these pathways. We also find that the explicit and implicit values regarding education transmitted by absent parents to play a role in subsequent student academic trajectories. The implications of these findings for Mexico’s progress in attaining the Educational For All 2015 goals are discussed.