It’s been a hard year for many, but several stories this week highlight just how tough for some teenagers – in particular the children of Latino immigrants to the U.S.

Teens are facing a high unemployment rate, and overall are working hard to cut back, particularly at this spendy time of year, as the New York Times reported over the weekend.

But some teens can’t work, even when there are jobs available. A new documentary profiled on NPR’s All Things Considered today focuses on an 18-year-old jazz saxophonist who immigrated to Indiana from Mexico with his family as a child.

The 18-year-old is a completely American kid who has little memory of Mexico. His spoken Spanish is poor; his written Spanish is worse. But without documents, Sam is unable to legally work, to drive, to get financial aid or even to attend some U.S. colleges.

In Texas, the Indiana teenager’s dilemma is even more common, as the state has one of the largest Latino populations in the country. Public Media Texas reported recently on on a new study from the Pew Hispanic Center on what Latino coming of age means in America. NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff interviewed the study’s lead:

The Dallas Federal Reserve’s blog also reported on the Pew study and tried to uncover the reasons for the pay gap among Latinos in Texas, including among Latino teens.

Education deficits are clearly a key reason Texas’ Latinos haven’t narrowed the wage gap with non-Hispanic whites. Even so, it’s puzzling why native-born Latinos have a much lower average educational attainment in Texas than in other states.

National research on Latino educational outcomes offers a few clues about what may be inhibiting education. Most important, schooling may be interrupted by the need to work or take care of family responsibilities. Latinos tend to have higher poverty rates, lower incomes and larger families than non-Hispanic whites.