The Common Integration Issues that Immigrant Minority Youth Faced in the US and Canada

• In Event: Integration and migration

Proposal

1. How is the topic relevant to comparative and international education, sustainability, or a SIG?

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the educational and lived experiences of immigrant minority youth in the United States and Canada, specially identifying and discussing some common integration issues that this population faced across national borders. The integration of immigrants and their descendants is an ongoing concern in the US and Canada. Immigrant minority youth who grow up in these countries may provide a truer reflection of problems associated with long-term integration (Reitz & Somerville, 2004). However, most studies on integration narrowly focus on one country. In an age of increasingly dynamic transnational migration, a broader comparative perspective will identify similar and different integration issues, influencing factors and policy implications across different social contexts (Alba & Waters, 2011). The study on integration of immigrant descendants is of crucial significance, especially given that many immigrant parents may judge their experiences in the host country in terms of their children’s success. On this point, the topic of this paper is closely related to comparative and international education as well as the conference theme of sustainability.

2. Is there a strong theoretical framework that uses theories to guide questions? Which theories?

The study is framed by a critical approach for understanding the integration of immigrant minority youth in the US and Canada. From a critical perspective, racism, sexism, and class privilege act not only as systemic barriers that affect racialized minorities’ access to societal material resources (e.g., educational opportunities), but also function as dominant discourses, values, and beliefs that discursively shape their expectations, perceptions, and habitus of what is deemed as reasonable and feasible integration strategies and outcomes (Bourdieu, 1990). More specifically, Bourdieu’s theory of practice (1990) provides a valuable theoretical tool to analyze how immigrant minority youth’s educational aspirations, life goals, and identity construction are based on the dynamic interactions between their dispositions (habitus) and their positions (capital) in a particular field. Their sense of what is a reasonable or unreasonable choice and practice is not automatic, but rather conditioned by their internalization of social structures (habitus), their understanding of the rules of the game, and the specific historical and relational context.

3. How are sources of information used to inform choices about data collection and analysis?

Grounded theory was used as the main research methodology for its bottom-up approach to theory construction (Charmaz, 2005). This methodology emphasizes that theory development should be grounded in solid empirical data which foregrounds the voices and experiences of participants, thereby making the generation of new knowledge possible. The study was conducted in California in the US, and in British Columbia and Ontario in Canada. Participants were also recruited through social media and local communities. The sampling strategies includes maximum variation sampling, snowball sampling, and theoretical sampling. In this way, we recruited 205 participants aged 18–37 (mean age = 24 years). Two-thirds of the participants were based in the US (n = 138) and one-third based in Canada (n = 47). Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. First, participants were asked complete a 53-item online survey. For those who agreed to participate in a follow-up interview (indicated on their survey questionnaire), we scheduled a 1-1.5 hour individual interview (e.g., face-to-face, phone, skype) which permitted an in-depth exploration of their lived experiences. We have completed 32 interviews at the U.S. site and 20 interviews at the Canadian site. The interviews were immediately transcribed and analyzed informed by grounded theory approach. We used triangulation, rich data, thick description, and member checks to ensure validation and credibility.

4. How do the research methods and results support the conclusions drawn from the data?

Our research questions cover a wide spectrum of life stages and topics related to integration (e.g., from high school to university to workplaces). In this presentation, we chose to focus on findings related to the common integration issues based on race, gender and class that were encountered by immigrant minority youth in the US and Canada. Take “the race-related issue” as an example. In response to the question, “I was once discriminated against by peers because of my race/ethnicity,” 41.5 % participants chose Strongly Agree whereas 28.3% chose Strongly Disagree. Interview data indicated that contemporary forms of racism are more subtle, implicit, and difficult to tackle. It could be a manifested in a teacher’s low expectation on a Chinese student’s performance at a creative writing class. Or it could be marginalization and exclusion of those who are labeled as “Fresh off the Boat” (FOB) among Asian groups. Most importantly, we argue that racism is not only maintained and reproduced at systemic and institutional level, but also manifested as a system of internalized dispositions, that is, racialized habitus, which further frames participants’ ways of thinking, doing, and being. We will also discuss the gendered and classed struggles of immigrant minority youth in both countries.

5. How original is the contribution? What do we learn that we did not know, and why is it important?

In examining educational and lived experiences of immigrant minority youth in the United States and Canada, our study highlighted some common integration issues based on race, gender and class across national borders. Despite decades of social justice research and social movements, social inequality and racial hierarchies have been maintained, reproduced, and reinforced in the North American contexts. It poses a big challenge for education for sustainability. Theoretically, our study contributes to Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts by theorizing “racialized habitus” across different national contexts. Pedagogically, it highlights the importance of teacher training and curriculum development in diversity and social justice issues in secondary and higher education. By highlighting the suggestions for change made by immigrant minority youth, our study also calls for attention from different stakeholders to address the deeply rooted discrimination, marginalization, and exclusion towards minorities and the disadvantaged people.

Authors

• Dan Cui, Brock University

• Frank Worrell, University of California Berkeley