Breaking barriers to immigrant parental engagement: A systematic review and policy implications

Parental engagement is pivotal to children’s academic, social, and emotional development. However, immigrant parents face unique barriers to engaging within their children’s schools, particularly participating in decision-making processes, communicating with educators, and supporting their children’s education. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to examine key barriers that immigrant parents encounter and to explore implications for school policy approaches to empower their engagement. This literature review is guided by two research questions: (1) What barriers do immigrant parents face when engaging with their children’s schools? and (2) What are the implications for school policies and practices to empower immigrant parental engagement? Amid school systems—institutional factors—and broader systemic and cultural factors shaping immigrant parental engagement, this review highlights the importance of immigrant parents’ social capital and networks. Despite existing research emphasizing the importance of social connections in empowering immigrant parental engagement, a notable gap remains in understanding how social capital and connections contribute to their engagement and how they can be strengthened. Finally, this review discusses policy recommendations and implications for future research, advocating for equity-focused school-community partnerships as a promising parental engagement model to bridge the gap between immigrant families and schools.