The Work Kids Do: Mexican and Central American Immigrant Children's Contributions to Households and Schools in California

TLDR

Sociological research emphasizes the importance of recognizing children’s everyday contributions, cautioning against viewing immigrant children solely as problems while overlooking their active roles in family and school. The article examines how Mexican and Central American immigrant children in California support and sustain their families, households, and schools. The author incorporates first‑hand accounts from these children, detailing their daily tasks as helpers at home and school. These narratives reveal that immigrant children’s work functions as volunteerism, learning opportunities, and cultural‑linguistic brokerage between home and the broader world. Pages 366–389.

Abstract

In this article, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana highlights the work immigrant children do as active agents in supporting and sustaining their families, households, and schools. Building on the work of sociologists who examine children's engagement in social processes, Orellana maintains that we should not lose sight of children's present lives and daily contributions in our concern for their futures. Similarly, we should not see immigrant children only as a problem or a challenge for education and for society while overlooking their contributions to family and school. Integrated into her discussion are the voices of Mexican and Central American immigrant children living in California as they describe their everyday work as helpers at home and school. These examples illustrate how immigrant children's work can be understood in many ways — as volunteerism, as opportunities for learning, and as acts of cultural and linguistic brokering between their homes and the outside world. (pp. 366–389)