Latinos in the Global Context: Beneficiaries or Irrelevants?

Abstract

It is well established that the impact of globalization is immediate and widespread. Yet the public institution most affected by this force of change is slow in responding to the need for change in content and its conceptualization of the learner and citizen. This article examines at ground level the impact that this inertia has on one of the youngest and fastest growing groups in the United States: U.S. Latinos. Although gifted with many of the skills and dispositions highly valued in the global economy, U.S. Latinos face three major educational roadblocks that impede their access to the global village: a low-quality education, resegregation across the educational system, and limited access to higher education.

Key words:

• Latinos
• globalization
• education
• diversity
• economic and social change
• minority education

Notes

¹I use the term Latino for Spanish-speaking groups who come primarily from Latin America and who reside in the United States. Many of my comments directly relate to Mexican-origin Latinos who make up more than 80% of the Latino aggregate and not to the first and second waves of Cuban Americans whose economic status allows them to surpass the obstacles to educational advancement and entrée into the global economy that low-income Latinos face.

²These numbers are significantly lower when U.S. Latinos are disaggregated from the total. For example, the California State University enrollment in 2003 was constituted by 18% Mexican American and 6.8% other Latinos.