Opportunities for Adolescent Hispanics - Article Analysis Essay Sample

Introduction

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The article Latino/a adolescents in emerging immigrant community is an article that voices the concerns of young people moving to America with the hopes of improving their livelihoods. Most people move to another country with the hope of finding greener pastures as it were. In the case of the older people, it is for economic opportunities better than those in their home countries, while for the younger folk, focus is on the educational pursuits (Hill & Torres, 2010). Despite high hopes of coming to a foreign country, the people dont always get what they expect. This review is a paper focusing on the intensive social concern and justice issues that these groups fail in their quest for a better life.

Aspirations among minorities that moved from one country to another in search of a better life are nowhere near short. In fact, a majority of those who move from one country to another in search of opportunities often have many aspirations in their mind. However, with these aspirations comes myriad challenges that come in their way and end up forcing them to let go of their dreams. Some of these challenges include the low expectation at high schools where such students are enrolled so that there is no expectation that the students may be in a position to attend college. The financial situation of the family also plays a part in explaining why a majority of these students do not proceed with their education. Noting that a majority of the Latino population is a labor intensive part of the population with low income, it is thus possible to correlate the financial situation of the family with their inability to cater for college education for the children (Calaff, 2007).

With all these factors being considered, this article seeks to look at a new point of view which is rarely examined by researchers, namely the barriers that such students face. Despite researchers writing that the successful Latino students that they had studied had passed through some challenges, these researchers failed to describe the kind of challenges they had to go through. Furthermore, even where the perception of barriers was taken, it was only taken from the point of view of the parents rather than that of the learner themselves. In fact, all of the studies that offer information on this study all include immigrant participants who had been residents for a significant amount of time in the host country. Recent immigrants are thus identified by this study as inadequately researched into. As a result, states with these emerging communities dont have the necessary infrastructure to ensure that they are catered for as opposed to states such as California, which are used to immigration cases (Bohon, Macpherson, & Atiles, 2005).

Immigrants in the mean age of 16 years old were used after consent from their parents, to answer questions from the interviews that was posed for them to answer the question: what are the dreams that they have and what are some of the barriers that they have faced? Some of the results that directly emerged from the interviews were concerning the goals of the adolescents once they grew up, that is to get a family and to be in a skilled profession (which meant to at least have a college education). The main barrier that was seen as hampering one from proceeding with higher education was early pregnancy and non-endorsed barriers such as the race of the child and similar factors. These immigrant students saw that it was mainly up to them to determine their future, despite the odds stacking up against them when aiming to finish their education.

The students often face difficulties especially in the area of finances. Students have voiced the concern that the lack of finance to take them through college would be the only barrier that stops them from getting to their college goals. In fact, most of these children have to gamble with completing their high school and having to determine whether continuing with higher education is feasible in the long run or not. However, the issue is that the Hispanic child often rests responsibility for these failures on themselves. A majority of them would conclude that if they didnt reach their goals, that they had not done their best. They would take the blame squarely if something they had planned didnt go their way, despite the prevalence of external factors.

What remains from the results of this study is what has been stated by many researchers, and rightly so: family plays a critical role in the education of the Hispanic child. However, education legacies within these communities pose the greatest challenge to their continuing education. The article also identifies possibly new points of view from these newly immigrated families such as the circumstances beyond ones control intervening to have a devastating effect on the education of the person. This was something that was not noted before in other studies. Indeed, when new families to move to a country, there is always that feeling of fatalism that hangs over their heads. This could be one of the reasons for which students can no longer engage in meaningful education. Furthermore, the economic situation of an immigrant family is all the more fragile and my hamper the chances of the child attaining higher education (Yowell, 2000).

Considering the points that the article makes clear, there is need for the establishment of systems where such families can be absorbed and provided with the proper means of achieving education. This in turn will cause them to have better chances of improving their livelihoods. The article is effective in its presentation in that it provides the necessary facts that are need to ensure that the challenge is recognized and properly dealt with, especially in the case of new immigrants. Achieving the American dream for these individuals should not just be a dream because of their demographic affiliations, but conscious effort should be put to into the education sector to ensure that everyone is benefitting equally. This may mean to implement programs, just like in the state of California within our emerging immigrant communities, which will enable the access of public facilities to all. This paper has also aired out moral questions, where children and young adults have been seen to take responsibility for circumstances outside their control. In providing affordable education for all, governments should ensure that they put in place the necessary means to provide education to all, regardless of their origins. This article makes the reader realize that if these barriers can be overcome, then the endless cycle of poverty and financial limitation among some groups such as the Hispanics can be averted.

References

Bohon, S. A., Macpherson, H., & Atiles, J. H. (2005). Educational barriers for new Latinos in Georgia. Journal of Latinos and Education.

Calaff, K. (2007). Latino students' journeys toward college. Bilingual Research Journal, 201-25.

Hill, N., & Torres, K. (2010). Negotiating the American Dream: The paradox of aspirations and achievement among Latino students and engagement between their families and schools. Journal of Social Issues.

Yowell, C. (2000). Possible selves and future orientation: Exploring hopes and fears of Latino boys and girls. The Journal of Early Adolescence.