Whose Mainstream? Untangling Privilege and Adaptation Among White European Immigrant Youth

• In Event: Voices From the “New American Mainstream”: Lessons for the Teachers of Today’s Immigrant Youth

Abstract

Understanding the diversity of experience within broader categories remains essential in working with immigrant youth and thus in the preparation of teachers—we need to explore both commonalities and distinctions of immigrant youth adaptation, including that in schools (Suarez-Orozco, C., 2001). Existing research has contributed in important ways to this knowledge, yet some groups still remain marginal in the process. Through documentary analysis of current literature and interviews with immigrant students, this part of the symposium highlights the need to address the experience of such groups and the implications this has for the preparation of teachers. Though the example of Eastern European immigrants, I draw attention to the paradox of White privilege and “noticeability” when it comes to meeting these immigrant students’ needs.

Post-1965 decline in European immigration to the U.S. led to very limited attention to their adaptation, despite the fact that current literature on immigrant youth acknowledges the heterogeneity of this population and its defiance of generalizations. In fact, the post-1965 immigration wave has already been labeled “non-European” in order to contrast it with previous waves (Massey, 1995). While this is technically correct—in terms of numbers—I argue that such labels may inadvertently contribute additional forms of marginalization, as the foci of our attention—both as researchers and as educators—are directed to some groups alone. Additionally, this can contribute to perpetuating the notion—reflected in the popular imaginary and, at times, present in the literature and in classrooms—that equates immigrant status with ‘color.’ Considering ethnicity and race is very important in trying to understand immigrant student experience, yet repeated patterns of employing “whiteness” generically synonymous with “privilege” (e.g. Contreras, 2002; Kincheloe, Steinberg & Chennault, 1998) can become problematic—it obscures the needs of students who fit this phenotype yet may be, through the impositions of immigration and other social locations, less privileged members of this generic White group.

Existing research—although not focused on immigrant students—has already shown that whiteness, while often a form of cultural capital in educational settings (Lareau and Horvat, 1999) is also mitigated through perceptions of class and status on the part of teachers and through the teachers’ own histories and experiences (Morris, 2005). As a result, whiteness does not always lead to positive perceptions of students or a privileged status. Conversely, I argue, assuming privilege and easy adaptation based on (white) phenotype alone may obscure the students’ hidden needs in classrooms.

Author

• Ramona M. Fruja, Bucknell University