Feeling the Squeeze: Affective Mediation of Parental Educational Expectations Among Low-SES Students from Immigrant Backgrounds

In a broad variety of national contexts, descendants of immigrants from most groups have been found to have higher educational aspirations than their native peers despite tending to perform less well than them in school. While much research efforts have focused on developing explanations for this mismatch between aspirations and school achievement, few studies have taken an interest in exploring the subjective experiences associated to it. This chapter seeks to explore this issue by drawing on life history interviews with low-SES children of immigrants who are the first in their families to study at university. It explores how they experienced the educational expectations of their parents from an early age and how these shaped their aspirations and educational trajectories, with a particular focus on the affective drives underlying these experiences. The findings show how the respondents affectively negotiate their parents’ high expectations, but also highlight some of the challenges faced by respondents who achieved at lower levels throughout their schooling. The conclusion draws some theoretical implications of the study and outlines some prospects for further research.