Indigenous migration and secondary schooling: an invisible reality in Jalisco

Abstract

This article reflects on the educational attention received by Indigenous students in internal-migration contexts within secondary schools in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Drawing on a document-based review of legal frameworks, public policies, and scholarship on Indigenous youths’ school experiences in migrant settings, it discusses the gap between Mexico’s formal recognition of linguistic and cultural diversity and the everyday conditions of secondary schooling. It argues that the historical targeting of Indigenous education through specialized services, mostly at preschool and primary levels, has left many secondary schools outside institutional support for addressing diversity. As a result, inclusion often relies on individual teachers’ initiatives and students face the non-seen, linguistic silencing, and subtle discrimination. The article contributes to rethinking secondary schooling under internal mobility and outlines action lines to strengthen diagnostics, teacher education, and intercultural strategies in schools not officially classified as Indigenous.