Distinction and Exclusion in Public Education. Attention to the Migrant Farmworker Population in Mexico

Abstract

Through the school system, social inequality and capitalist, patriarchal, and colonialist violence are reproduced when the causes of precariousness are made invisible, and the myth of meritocracy is reinforced. These inequalities are accentuated throughout the educational path, generating a “Matthew effect”. That is, while the upper social classes have an initial advantage and tend to benefit more and more as time goes by, those who are at a disadvantage from the beginning experience an accumulation of inconveniences.
Through the specific case of the deficient educational attention received by Migrant Agricultural Day Laborers (MADL) in Mexico, this article analyzes how school institutions have become intertwined with these contexts of violence. In addition, it examines how, since the implementation of neoliberal policies, the exclusion of the most vulnerable population, which is considered cheap and easily replaceable labor, has increased.
Likewise, the proposal of intersectionality is taken up again to reconstruct the different aspects that generate discrimination against JAM girls, boys, and adolescents who, although they share the same root and based on the dominant power structure, have various edges that make these minors a particularly vulnerable segment of the population.
The evidence shows that the government's capacity to care for the population in vulnerable situations has been exceeded, and questions arise as to whether current programs can meet specific needs or whether new public policies are required in line with reality.