Monthly Archives: March 2022

The discussion of immigrants in Europe made me think of current events, more specifically the Russian attacks in Ukraine. I read on the news that many countries were accommodating a large number of Ukrainian refugees, but that also meant that the educational system in each country needed to accommodate Ukrainian children as well. I decided to search up how different countries were welcoming Ukrainian students into their schools and found this particular example about Germany.

“The children nervously clutched their new exercise books, sharpened pencils and erasers as their new teachers welcomed them in Ukrainian on the third floor of the former factory. They will follow their curriculum from back home and also take German language classes. The three hours of school each weekday will be followed by activities such as playacting, painting or handicrafts” (Grieshaber, 2022).

It is reassuring to see that other countries are attempting to give Ukrainian children educational opportunities and limit the gap in interrupted schooling. In this case, German and Ukrainians worked together to start an educational program, instead of directly mainstreaming Ukrainian children into German classrooms. The classes are meant to be Ukrainian-German transitional classes. It reminds me of the transitional language programs, or Structured English Immersion classes in the United States.

It is also important to note the long-term effects of Ukrainin immigration to various countries. Barban and White (2011) mention that immigrants in school often differ from native children in terms of performance and attainment. Immigrant status depends on characteristics such as socioeconomic status, educational achievements, and family composition (Barban & White, 2011). As refugees, Ukrainians are low on the social ladder and will depend on the host country to provide employment opportunities for families as well. In the current climate, political factors also play a large role in the amount of support that Ukrainian children and their families get.

This leaves me pondering that as time progresses, is the goal of European governments to assimilate Ukrainian children or to work towards a multilingual and multicultural educational system? Or is this simply a temporary measure?

Media Reflection Group 1

March 24, 2022Media ReflectionsDavid Lewis

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/07/1085013070/how-one-international-student-fled-ukraine-and-brought-along-50-others

This podcast describes the quick reaction of Hasan Abu Zaanona, an international student from Palestine (Global South). His family fled from the Gaza Strip, to Yemen (Global South) then to Ukraine. When war threatened again, he quickly took fifty international students with him to Hungary. Hasan is safely in the Netherlands- but his educational work has been repeatedly uncredited due to bouncing from south-south to south- (poor) north.

He has made his first transition north-north, but faces uncertainty. However, “when confronted with economic restraints in host societies, [children of immigrants] have transnational cards to play not available to their less transnational Western counterparts” (Grasmuck & Hinze, 2016, p.1972). I extend this to Hasan, who migrated with his parents as a child

Hasan was able to mobilize resources and orchestrate movement for an already migratory group. I could attribute this feat to his association with other transnational international students or possibly social capital with a religious/ethnic population. The small population of Muslims in Ukraine live in Hasan’s region (Razumkov, 2016). This could’ve been a challenge, but also a unifying community. Such communities, exclusion or association with a homeland can influence the social position of migrants (Grasmuck & Hinze, 2016).

Unlike the heritage migrants in Grasmuck & Hinze (2016), Hasan’s credentials will not be readily credited in the Netherlands. His social position could also be difficult. “There is a general tendency to see religion, and specifically Islam, as one of the major obstacles to integration”, but the integration process of other groups often shows more parallels in educational performance and transnational activities (Thomson & Crul, 2007, p.1026). He can leverage his transnational networks and competencies into global opportunities or reap benefits from his kinship and transnational socialization upon returning to Palestine.

Grasmuck, S., & Hinze, A. M. (2016). Transnational heritage migrants in Istanbul: second-generation Turk-American and Turk-German “Returnees” in their parents’ homeland. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(12), 1959–1976. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2016.1142365

Razumkov Center. (2016). Religion, Church, Society and State: Two Years after Maidan (pp. 22, 27, 29, 31). Razumkov Center in collaboration with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches.

Thomson, M., & Crul, M. (2007). The Second Generation in Europe and the United States: How is the Transatlantic Debate Relevant for Further Research on the European Second Generation? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33(7), 1025–1041. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830701541556

African Migrants to Italy

March 23, 2022Uncategorizedjill.clark

Media Reflection Group 2-Jill Clark

“In the mid-1980s, the number of immigrants living in Italy began to steadily increase. Initially, the flow of immigrants was moderate and consisted mostly of movement from North Africa, several Sub-Saharan countries, and the Philippines(Barban & White, 2011).”

I must admit that I was unaware of the pattern of migration that exists between Africa and Italy. This video titled Italy Discouraging Flow of Migrants from North Africa exposes the cruel optimism Afirican migrants face upon arrival in Italy. When migrants and refugees travel from Northern Africa to Southern Italy and make it to Italy, they have few places to stay. Many end up in parking lots or on the streets (Drost, 2017). Others are forced into modern-day slavery, working on tomato farms and living in slums. The living conditions of the farmworkers lack plumbing or electricity and can be described as deplorable. Not to mention the dangerous track they must make across the Mediterranean, where the statistics show that only ninety percent survive(Drost, 2017).

The video does mention children or schooling, nor does the video mention whether children live in these conditions. However, tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrants have arrived in Italy without their parents or family in recent years. These children and teenagers represent a particularly vulnerable category of immigrants. The Italian State welcomes these migrant children and provides them with food, shelter, clothing, and education. Their living arrangements and education are organized around a system that helps develop a personalized approach, including a legal guardian. Part of the local population also helps these youngsters integrate into Italian society (France 24, 2020).

References

Barban, N., & White, M. J. (2011). Immigrants’ children’s transition to secondary school in Italy. International Migration Review, 45(3), 702–726. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2011.00863.x

Drost, Naja. (2017, December 9). Italy discouraging flow of migrants from North Africa. PBS. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/italy-discouraging-flow-of-migrants-from-north-africa#:~:text=Italy%20has%20received%20500%2C000%20migrants,to%20discourage%20the%20migrant%20flow. France 24. (2020). The challenges of integration for unaccompanied migrants in Italy. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCbbsk7P14.

German School System & Migrants

March 23, 2022Media Reflectionscolleen.burke

9.3 Media Reflection — Group 1 — Colleen Burke

German school system still holds back children of migrants, experts say

By Sarah Lawton (March 2021)

Much of this week’s reading touched on experiences of students who are immigrants. One article that stood out to me was the experience of those students in European countries and how that may differ from that of students in the United States. Upon further exploration, I came across this article about children of migrants within the school system in Germany.

The article states that students who have at least one parent not born with German citizenship are 4x as likely to be impacted by “education-related risk factors” (Lawton, 2021). This includes many of Germany’s public schools not being set up for migrant families, delegating part of the learning to parents. This can negatively impact education access if parents speak a different language or have to work during those hours.

Another article by the same author, “New Study Sheds light on Discrimination in the German Education System”, focused specifically on Sinti and Roma people throughout Germany. These groups are considered to be at a disadvantage, with a third of survey respondents leaving secondary school “without receiving a leaving certificate, and another 30% having a degree from a Hauptschule, the lowest track in the German education system” (Lawton, 2021). While Sinti and Roma people are not recent immigrants, it shows the difficulty and discrimination still experienced among populations in Germany that aren’t the “majority.”

These findings align with some of the information in the Thomas and Crul article, referencing second generation students. Looking at Germany, this article highlighted that many Turkish students “live in a parallel world detached from wider German society” (Thompson & Crul, 2007). Meaning that folks in the German school system, who aren’t a part of that majority, may experience a lack of support or adjustment to their needs and are missing out or experiencing an entirely different system altogether.

Resources:

Lawton, S. (2021, February 26). New Study Sheds Light on discrimination in the German education system. www.euractiv.com. Retrieved from https://www.euractiv.com/section/non-discrimination/news/new-study-sheds-light-on-racial-discrimination-in-the-german-education-system/

Lawton, S. (2021, March 29). German school system still holds back children of Migrants, experts say. www.euractiv.com. Retrieved from https://www.euractiv.com/section/non-discrimination/news/experts-criticise-inequality-in-german-schools/ Thomson, M., and Crul, M. (2007) The second generation in Europe and the United States: How is the transatlantic debate relevant for further research on the European second generation? In Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol.33

Thomson, M., and Crul, M. (2007) The second generation in Europe and the United States: How is the transatlantic debate relevant for further research on the European second generation? In Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol.33

The Realities of Immigration (Group 5, Allyson Brown)

March 12, 2022Uncategorizedallyson.brown

Most of the selected texts for this course have focused on the movement of people around the world and its impact on the education experience. So often, the story and details of why immigrants leave their homeland for new opportunities leaves out the nuanced sacrifices individuals make everyday. This particular article struck me as interesting because of the detailed account of what immigration looks like in reality. Nasema is not thinking about transnationalism or her contributions to globalization, but the safety of herself and children.

Houston, Texas has felt the impact of emergency immigration, at twice the normal rate this past fall (Lawrence, 2022). This influx of immigration is attributed to the end of the longest war in US history, where the American military has been present in Afghanistan for the last 20 years. We have read and discussed a good bit about what transnationalism and globalization look like in practice. This account from Nasema is an example of the transnationalism “from below,” meaning the individual effects of immigrants’ navigation. As we study and further consider transnationalism and this process of immigrant movement, we (America) are forced to think about the impact of immigration and its impact on education; for both Americans and immigrants students.

This article speaks to the assistance of resettlement agencies, those that aid in the transition for immigrants into the US and to access basic resources for living (i.e: housing, food, clothes, etc.). YMCA International Services of Greater Houston is led by director Dario Lipovac and he explains the process of working with each individual immigrant to set up their resources (Lawrence, 2022). This article doesn’t go into detail about the introduction of immigrant children to the US educational system but we are learning about the challenges that come with adequately supporting students in navigating successful language, social, and cognitive development.

The most significant takeaway from reading this article is better understanding the harsh realities that immigrants who are fleeing dangerous situations are doing so at the sacrifices of personal health, separation of families, and the large amount of trust in others to survive.

Reference

Lawrence, D. (2022, February 5). Afghan mom had to decide whether to forgo escape — or leave

some of her kids behind. CNN Politics. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/politics/afghan-refugees-us/index.html

Media Reflection 7.3 (Group 6, Angie Kingston) Many third-generation Hispanics don’t speak Spanish, but their parents do. Why?

March 11, 2022Media Reflections, Uncategorizedangelita.kingston

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/16/many-third-generation-hispanics-dont-speak-spanish-but-their-parents-do-why/#commentDiv

As written by San Antonio KSAT news reporter, Sarah Acosta, nearly 70% of second-generation Latinos in U.S. are bilingual and fewer than a quarter of third-generation Hispanics speak Spanish. In an interview with KSAT, an Our Lady of the Lake professor was quoted as saying, “The loss of Spanish between generations was generally a way of parents protecting their children from punishment or ridicule that they themselves had experienced.”

(Grosjean, 2010) writes about the myth of bilingualism having a negative effect on the development of children. She explains rationale supporting this negative view when she references linguist, Otto Jesperson, “The brain effort required to master two languages instead of one certainly diminishes the child’s power of learning other things which might and ought to be learnt.” Unfortunately, this view is still present today in certain circles and countries (p. 219).

Many third generation Latinos due not fluently speak Spanish due to the fact that their parents were punished in school for speaking anything but English. “It really is just a generation of people who had a language literally beaten out of them in our school system,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said. “And it’s so tragic and unfortunate because it was not only the loss of a language, but also partly the loss of a culture.”

As mentioned in the Patrick Proctor video, “First generation immigrants tend to be monolingual speakers in their native tongue, second generation children tend to be the most bilingual, and third generation children tend to be monolingual English speakers. The reasons seem clear, “When someone criticizes the way you speak or the way you say certain things,” Dr. Maribel Larraga, Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences at OLLU said. “They are criticizing you as a person.” When a child or adolescent feels criticized or shamed for speaking the language of their family’s culture, they are made to feel lesser. As educators, “We must encourage linguistic diversity while respecting the mother tongue, and foster the learning of several languages from the earliest age” (UNESCO, 2002). We must ensure that all school environments celebrate the cultural diversity and languages of their students.

References:

Acosta, S. (2021) Many third generation parents don’t speak Spanish but their parents do. Why. ksat.com. https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/16/many-third-generation-hispanics-dont-speak-spanish-but-their-parents-do-why/#commentDiv

Grosjean, F. (2010) Bilingual: Life and reality.Harvard University Press.

Proctor. (n.d.). Linguistic interdependence in bilingual education. Retrieved from Boston college.

Media Reflection 7.3 (group 6)

March 1, 2022Media Reflections, Uncategorizedmaia.padberg

In an article posted by Education Week, Cardoza (2019) highlights some of the experiences of migrant children in schools and how schools are attempting to support these children. Essentially, one of the prominent struggles behind schools’ ability to support these students is that many of the migrant children that are being enrolled, “…have large gaps in their schooling, meaning that many are well behind their grade levels in reading, even in Spanish.” The challenge then is that the schools need to have enough resources to provide the language support and instruction the students need in order to catch up.

Schools are constrained by budgets, finding bilingual teachers and the challenge of teaching students a new language in addition to keeping them on track with content. The question though is are the majority of schools approaching language learning and instruction the optimal way?

In the Module 7 text this week Grosjean (2010) explains that “…Cummins estimates that minority-language children require at least five years to catch up to their majority-language peers in literacy-related language skills” (p. 234). On top of that Grosjean also explains that research has shown how difficult it is to keep up with a regular school curriculum as a child or adolescent, while also learning the “language of instruction” (2010, p. 233).

As more schools experience an influx of migrant students the attention towards the structure of language instruction in schools across the US must shift. According to Grosjean (2010), schools that have found success in supporting the development of bilingual students are those that emphasize instruction in both languages and build off of students’ strengths in their dominant language. The Amigos School in Cambridge MA, is one example of a school offering dual language immersion where instruction is offered in both Spanish and English and eventually is split evenly throughout the students’ days (Grosjean, 2010). It would seem that not all, but many of our school systems in the US are not yet structured to match the research and best practices behind supporting migrant students in maintaining their native language while learning English and expanding their knowledge.

Resources:

Cardoza, K. (2019, April 9). How schools are responding to migrant children. Education Week.https://www.edweek.org/leadership/how-schools-are-responding-to-migrant-children/2019/04