Divergent Family Strategies to Social Mobility: Variations on Educational Outcomes among Children of Contemporary Chinese Immigrants in North America and Southern Europe

• In Event: 171 - Thematic Session. Children's Work and Children's Play during Hard Times

Abstract

Chinese Americans are applauded as a model minority in America for their extraordinary educational achievement. Pundits attribute it to cultural traits innate to the ethnic group. However, the existing research on immigrant education has shown different school outcomes of the same ethnic or national-origin group in different receiving countries. For example, in both the US and Canada, the children of contemporary Chinese immigrants excel in the educational arena but the same does not hold true in Spain and Italy. While receiving contexts matter, how they matter has not been adequately examined. In this presentation, I dispel the myth of the model minority and discuss how immigrant selectivity and host-society reception intertwine to create different sets of challenges for immigrant families in different receiving countries, giving rise to distinct strategies and patterns of social mobility.

Author

• Min Zhou, Nanyang Technological University