The first of a series of 10 study units for a Migrant Educators' National Training OutReach (MENTOR) correspondence course introduces the characteristics of migrant education, and problems and educational needs of American migrant children. Designed to be used in preservice or inservice teacher education, the unit discusses teacher attitudes and self-awareness of prejudice, migrant student strengths, and the importance of recognizing migrant students' talents and abilities. The unit describes migrant heritage and two common characteristics--migrancy and economic difficulties--while stressing the economic, cultural, ethnic, and attitudinal diversity among migrant workers. The unit reviews services available to migrants, limitations of those services such as community conservatism, prejudice, language barriers, and cultural factors. Excerpts from books, reports, and interviews illustrate educational conditions facing migrant children, emphasize the importance of community resources in teaching migrant educators about the cultures they serve, and discuss sociological factors which anthropologists have labeled the cultures of poverty, machismo, and silence. Addresses of state offices of migrant education and a 30-item bibliography are included. (LFL)