Miguel is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Miguel's research investigates how culture and context inform Latin American immigrants' approach to family financial socialization. That is, how does the interplay of social, cultural, and economic challenges facing immigrant families influence the ways they learn financial knowledge, develop financial attitudes, and engage in financial behaviors? 

Miguel's overall research agenda is two-sided. First, he seeks to better understand how the unique confluence of social, economic, and political factors facing immigrant families (e.g., documentation status, nativist hostility, cultural incongruence) impacts their participation in and access to mainstream financial services and systems. Second, he is interested in revealing how immigrant families leverage their embedded strengths and values to overcome obstacles to meet their financial, social, and cultural needs (e.g., via cultural wealth, funds of knowledge, and participation in informal economies). Miguel hopes to achieve this research agenda by employing an asset-based qualitative approach that centers on the identities and experiences of immigrant families, which have thus far been obscured by the dominant framework used to understand family financial socialization. 

Miguel's research has lent itself to the development and refinement of various financial education initiatives from the college to community levels. The insights derived from Miguel's research have been used to develop culturally responsive financial education programming for first-gen undergraduates at the University of Minnesota,  for immigrant parents working in rural Minnesota, and for immigrant families who recently arrived in Minneapolis.  Such programming efforts center the identities and goals of learners while helping equip them with the knowledge and resources necessary to contend with the social and economic systems in which they exist. By first recognizing their strengths, values, and assets, learners are empowered to recognize challenges, develop goals for themselves and their families, and develop the skills necessary to chart their path toward financial well-being.  

Miguel's master's thesis investigated how Mexican immigrant communities utilize the tanda (or lending circle), an informal financial practice that reinforces cultural identity while helping communities overcome forms of financial exclusion and marginalization. Currently, Miguel is seeking to defend his preliminary written Exam wherein he critiques and conceptually expands upon the prevailing Family Financial Socialization framework to better address how the unique experiences and challenges of Latin American immigrant families inform their socialization processes and outcomes.