Family Migration and Education Mobility. Pathways to Success in Autobiographies of Girls of Moroccan Origin

Abstract

The article proposes an in-depth analysis of the link between family migration and educational mobility, using data deriving from an original qualitative study on successful students with an immigrant background. First, a conceptual framework is provided, identifying some crucial theoretical and empirical issues concerning migrant families: educational mobility as a family strategy and project; the challenges of intergenerational transmission in revisiting cultural and ethnic identities; the importance of the “act of passing on” trough family relations. Second, autobiographies of students of immigrant origin are used to examine whether and in what conditions family functions as a driver of educational success. Through the biographical approach, strategies and narratives students adopt to represent family migration and the relationships with parents are reconstructed. Finally, using the outlined conceptual frame, the emblematic stories of Amna, Ikram, and Sole, three girls of Moroccan origin, are chosen and analyzed, in order to illustrate different ways values, norms, and behaviors are negotiated in order to reshape family identities and ties, towards the common goal of educational success.