Many urban classrooms are facing an influx of students who are transient, part of migrant families who decide to reside in cities and large urban centers looking for financial stability and better educational opportunities for their children. This represents a different challenge for English as a second language, bilingual, and mainstream teachers who might not be equipped to work with English language learners (ELLs) who have a transient background and speak a language for which few instructional resources exist. Reviewing the scholarly literature, the author investigates salient issues of providing quality education for the sons and daughters of migrant workers, who before residing in urban areas experienced a nomad lifestyle while working migrant jobs. The author also poses some of the promising practices that have been suggested by academicians and practitioners to address the many challenges of educating highly mobile ELLs.
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