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Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco

As part of the 2016 Carl and Alice Daeufer Education Lecture Series, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education presents Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco’s public talk, Education in the Age of Mass Migration, on Wednesday, January 20, 6–8 p.m. in the Architecture Auditorium.

Suárez-Orozco is the Wasserman Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Information Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. A prolific researcher and expert in immigrant education, migration and multilingualism, Suárez-Orozco is the author and/or editor of 26 books and volumes, including Learning a New Land and Making Migration Work.

“In the 21st century, global migratory flows bring ever-more diverse populations from heterogeneous ethnocultural, racial and religious backgrounds,” he said. “The world is witnessing a rapid rise in the numbers of a plurality of migrants—involuntary, internal or international, authorized or unauthorized, environmental refugees and asylum seekers. In the second decade of the 21st century, 244 million folk are international migrants, or 3.3 percent of the world’s population.

“In a world on the move, Hawaiʻi is an extremely important and instructive case for any understanding of the great global migrations in the 21st century. At over 17 percent, the percentage of Hawaiʻi’s foreign-born immigrant population is significantly higher than the U.S. total (13 percent). Our country’s paradigmatic first (and only always) ‘minority-majority’ state, Hawaiʻi’s immigrant population grew at a particularly fast rate in recent times (between 1990 and 2000 Hawaiʻi’s immigrant population grew by 30 percent). How Hawaiʻi manages the transition of its littlest new Hawaiians—the children of immigrants in schools—will be a defining new chapter in the unfolding Hawaiian saga. It has significant implications for the well-being of the children, for Hawaiʻi’s future and could be a model for the entire nation.”

Go to the College of Education’s website for more information.

—By Jennifer Parks

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