Description
The study examines how Transfronteriz@s navigate the San Diego-Tijuana international border region. The guiding research question asked: What are the types of knowledge, skills, and talents that are used by Transfronteriz@ young adults as they navigate the borderland area to obtain transborder cultural and social capital, along with a high school education in the United States? The study examines the knowledge, skills, and talents that are utilized by young adults (18 to 34) who grew up (a) in a border culture, (b) live a transborder lifestyle, (c) attended at least one level of schooling in both Mexican and American schools as Transfronteriz@s, (d) completed a high school diploma in the U.S., and (e) have dual citizenship. The study is limited to the single research international border site, the Tijuana-San Diego region, with data collection during the summer-fall of 2017. The participants represented a purposeful sample of eight Transfronteriz@ young adults who matched the research criteria set by the researcher in this study. Qualitative mixed-methods were used, involving semi-structured interviews, pláticas (conversations), a focus group, journal field notes, and case studies to bring voice to the participants, while making the reader informed of the findings. Dedoose software was used to code descriptors (N=615), which generated nine themes that respond to the three sub-research questions (SRQ) of the study. The nine themes identified are: 1. Belongingness as Bewilderment, 2. Family Interdependence, 3. Parental Concerted Cultivation, 4. Resilience and Adversity, 5. Reverse Migration Hardships 6. Transborder Policy Tensions, 7. Dual Frame of Reference, 8. Transfronteriz@ Agency, and, 9. Explicit & Implicit Transfronteriz@ Knowledge, Skills, and Talents. The findings of the study call for public schools to provide assistance, leadership and entrepreneurial training to Transfronteriz@s who are cross-cultural brokers, and who are already adding to the human capital of the San Diego-Tijuana borderland region.
