Gustavo Padilla Montes, Executive Director of the University of Guadalajara at Los Angeles, took part in a panel discussion about the school dropout problem among Mexican youth in the United States at the Advisory Council General Meeting of the Institute For Mexicans Abroad (IME) held November 11 -13.

The discussion, entitled La deserción escolar de los jóvenes mexicanos en Estados Unidos (The school dropout problem among Mexican youth in the United States), was organized by IME's Educational Affairs Commission. Also participating were IME Advisory Council member Jaime Chahin and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) National President Rosa Rosales.

UDGLA’s executive director stressed the significance of the decades-long phenomenon of emigration of Latin Americans and Mexicans to the United States, which has declined somewhat over the past few years, possibly due to the current economic slowdown. In broad terms, the population of youth born in Mexico or of Mexican origin in the United States now stands at 8.22 million, which is 13% of all youth in the US and 28% of young people in Mexico.

According to Padilla Montes, such figures underscore the important role that youth of Mexican origin play in the United States. This is especially true in California, where the percentages are even higher. In the Los Angeles-Riverside area, Latinos make up 54% of the youth population, with individuals of Mexican origin being the most largely represented group. There are also 1.16 million Mexican Americans and almost 600,000 Mexican nationals living in this metropolitan region.

He also said that only 35% of Mexicans 18-29 years of age have attended an institution of higher education (universities, colleges, vocational institutions, etc.), while 69% of non-minorities have benefited from studies at this level.

For her part, LULAC President Rosa Rosales used direct language to describe the Latino dropout situation. “This is a real crisis. Latinos have the highest dropout rates of all of minorities in the United States, and many young people are unable to read and write. So many of them start high school and don't come back the next year.” LULAC has an 80-year history of trying to inspire young Latinos and defending their rights in American public schools.

IME Advisory Board member Jaime Chahín Herrera added that the situation of children of Mexican parents studying in the US is a complex one that requires the involvement of parents, the community, teachers and government authorities if school dropouts are to be avoided. “We've been trying to solve this problem for more than 75 years. The main difficulty is that young people leave school because they have to help their family make a living, or because they don't understand the language, or because they don't like the school, or because they don't believe they need to study to prepare themselves for the future," he said.

More than 31% of Mexican-born students leave school before the age of 18, but this figure drops 9% for children of first-generation immigrants. This means that recently-arrived immigrants have a higher dropout rate than those whose families have had the chance to establish themselves in the United States. This is a serious problem, because so many young people are missing out on opportunities, asserted Chahín Herrera.

To seek remedies to this situation, Padilla Montes said the University of Guadalajara at Los Angeles is attempting to combine efforts by the federal government and educational institutions in Mexico with the educational and cultural opportunities to be had in Los Angeles, which is recognized worldwide for its levels of excellence. UDGLA is proposing a number of programs that will help Mexicans and Latinos in this region have more opportunities for development while strengthening their sense of belonging and fostering their integration into their communities.