UC San Diego

This thesis analyzes the educational aspirations and outcomes among people associated with Tlacuitapa, a small Mexican town with a long history of immigration to the United States. Second generation Tlacuitapenses raised and educated in the United States are compared to similarly aged co-ethnics who grew up in the origin community. Results indicate that Tlacuitapenses set high educational goals for themselves regardless of where they live, though aspirations are slightly higher in the United States. However, despite having similar educational goals as their counterparts in Mexico, respondents educated north of the border finish far more years of school even when controlling for age and parents' education. Follow-up interviews isolate two features of the Tlacuitapa community in the United States that explain this variation. First, high documentation and employment rates among immigrant parents from Tlacuitapa create favorable economic conditions that provide educational opportunities for their children. Second, much of the Tlacuitapa second generation participates in "safe harbors" - high school programs that facilitate student enrollment and advancement. The term "Tlacuitapense exceptionalism" is used to describe the relative economic and legal stability of the Tlacuitapense immigrant generation and the comparatively high college participation and completion rates of the second generation. This exceptionalism challenges the causal mechanisms that undergird the downward assimilation model proposed by Portes and Zhou, who do not consider several key determinants of educational success in articulating segmented assimilation theory. The thesis calls for a "resegmentation" of assimilation theory with a stronger focus on class and documentation distinctions.\