Relatively little is known about the dilemmas that bilingual teachers face in negotiating between the dominant culture's requirements and minority students' predicaments and aspirations. This article is the outcome of a year and a half of participant‐observation research on a Hispanic (Puerto Rican) bilingual teacher's strategies and handling of these dilemmas. This teacher's thinking about her role and practice and the beliefs and values that shape and interpret her pedagogy are discussed.

Recent literature has emphasised the importance of family involvement within immigrant families in determining their children's educational pathways. On the one hand, the focus on family involvement and the transmission of familial resources becomes more important when disentangling ethnic educational inequalities for second-generation youth. On the other hand, particular practices of family involvement seem to counterbalance disadvantaged origins and become the driving force for educational success. However, few, if any, studies systematically explore the importance of family involvement for educational success by children of immigrants from an international comparative perspective. This introduction paper attempts to fill this gap. In addition to previewing the contents of the articles found in this issue, we include a comparative review of the main communalities found in the contributions of this special issue. The paper concludes with suggestions for future comparative research on family involvement and educational success by children of immigrants in Europe.

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In the last two decades, Spain’s Canary Islands have received thousands of undocumented migrants arriving by boat from the coasts of North and West Africa. The sharp increase of unaccompanied minors has presented a particular challenge, as these minors fall under the State’s protection system and are entitled to an education and other rights, once in Spain. What economic and socio-cultural factors push these youth to seek a better life whilst endangering their own? What educational opportunities are available to them in Spain and how can these propel them into secure living situations? What can be said about their integration prospects?This ethnographic study, based on field research carried out in a reception centre for unaccompanied minors in Tenerife, focuses on the youth’s migration trajectories, and on the extent to which the education and support they receive in Spain relates to their socio-economic integration into European society and beyond. The findings reveal that although the centre provides the youth with a window of opportunity to be in Spain and gain an education, the ambiguousness of their legal situation brought about by immigration policies once they have left the centre, is not conducive to their leading a stable and productive life in the current context.

Given the power relationships between researchers and participants in Participatory Action Research (PAR), this chapter challenges the assumption that migration researchers “give voice” or “empower” participants, and advances the idea that such researchers need to uncover their own voice in the research process through dialogue, interaction and reflection with their partners. In the literature review on PAR, the concept of “giving voice” is quite prevalent yet based on the author’s own qualitative/migration research, she would argue that the actual voice of participants themselves is seldom emphasized or revealed in qualitative/migration research. Paulo Freire’s concepts of dialogue, conscientization, and action for change underscored by his interpretation of voice, which recognizes that marginalized people’s voices emerge out of the conditioned silence created by differential power dynamics, is critically needed as grounding for PAR researchers. In critiquing the use of voice, the conclusion makes a plea for PAR researchers to engage in finding their own voice by embracing the notion of cultural humility.