There has been a significant increase in migrant children from the USA living in Mexico in the last two decades. This article analyses the association between transnational schooling and the education and migration aspirations (the country one wishes to live or work in) of lower secondary students in Tijuana, a border city with very high return migration. This article also addresses how education and migration aspirations are connected and the extent to which these aspirations are mediated by US-specific capital (US citizenship, having family members in the USA, English proficiency, and cultural identification with the USA). The analyses draw from the 2017 School Integration and Migration Survey, conducted among students in 86 lower secondary schools, and 38 follow-up semi-structured interviews with transnational students. The results indicate that students with US school experience were more likely to aspire to study a two-year college or technical degree than nontransnational students. Transnational schooling was also directly associated with aspiring to migrate or engage in cross-border employment. Interviews elucidate the ways tertiary education plans were subordinate to intentions to work in the USA as funding their education became part of transnational students’ life projects. US schools were essential conduits through which education values, English skills, and national identities became ingrained in Mexican migrant children. Students’ migratory aspirations were nurtured by their experience in US schools and transnational social networks, in addition to their US citizenship. The public policy implications of these findings are also discussed.

¿Cambiarse de escuela? Inasistencia y rezago escolar de los niños de migración reciente de Estados Unidos a México

Increasingly stringent immigration enforcement in the US interior has led to the deportation of large numbers of long‐term Mexican immigrants with families in the USA. We analyse the statistical association between the intent to return to the USA and leaving minor children with spouses or other people in the USA among Mexican immigrants deported from the US interior in 2014–2018, and explore if this association varies by sex and year of deportation. We employ the deportees’ section of the Survey on Migration on Mexico's Northern Border. The results indicate that having left children in the USA considerably increases the likelihood of a plan to return to the USA, especially in the short term and when deportees left minor children with a spouse. Remigration plans were higher among women and slightly decreased over time among parents, suggesting a continued failure of policy to account for the family circumstances of immigrants.

En este trabajo se presenta una investigación sobre el vínculo entre los procesos educativos y la dinámica demográfica en México. La tradición del pensamiento sobre población y desarrollo ha partido de la hipótesis de que el ritmo de crecimiento poblacional, el tamaño de las familias y la migración influyen sobre la acumulación de capital humano entre la población en edades escolares. Se explora aquí la relación del desempeño educativo de los jóvenes entre 14 y 23 años y la razón de dependencia juvenil, la fecundidad adolescente y la migración interna e internacional; para ello se utilizan datos agregados a escala municipal del año 2000. El análisis incluye indicadores de la oferta educativa municipal basados en estadísticas administrativas de la SEP. AbstractThis paper seeks to explore the link between educational processes and Mexico’s demo­graphic dynamic. In the tradition of thought on population and development, it has been hypothesized that the population growth rate, family size and migration influence the accumulation of human capital among the school-age population. This study explo­res the link between the academic performance of youth between the age of 14 and 23 and the youth dependency ratio, teenage fertility and internal and international migration, using data aggregated at the municipal level for the year 2000. The analysis uses indicators on the educational supply at the municipal level based on the administrative statistics of the Public Education Secretariat (SEP).