Who Migrates and Why: Plyler v. Doe in the Modern Era
Posted: 23 Feb 2010 Last revised: 25 Feb 2015
Date Written: May 7, 2007
Abstract
In Plyler, the court discounted education as a pull factor for immigrants - that is, as a factor in immigrants’ decision to enter illegally. Is that still a reasonable assumption? To what extent is education a significant pull factor? Using this question as our starting point, we conducted in-depth interviews with 25 Mexican migrants in California about their migration decisions. We found that the majority of respondents came in response to economic disparities between the U.S. and Mexico, rendering as a reasonable assumption that educational opportunity is not the primary reason for migration.
This paper was prepared for the Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity's Roundtable on the 25th Anniversary of Plyler v. Doe. It was funded with grants from the Warren Institute and the UC Berkeley Labor and Employment Research Fund.
Keywords: Undocumented Immigrants, Mexico, Migration, Education, Employment
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