Absorption of CIS Immigrants into Israeli Schools: A Semipermeable Enclave Model

National ideology, institutional arrangements, and immigrant community self-image should be taken into account in order to understand the way immigrant students insert themselves into their host society. We found that immigrant students from the CIS (the former Soviet Union) adopted a "semipermeable enclave" mode of integration into the Israeli education system in the 1990s. CIS immigrants' high self-esteem along with the schools' so-called "pluralistic ideology" and ineffective arrangements to apply the official assimilationist national ideology produced this new absorption pattern. Because immigrant children's integration into schools is a dynamic and dialectic process resulting from the interaction between immigrants and the host society, its analysis must take into consideration not only educational policies, but also social conditions such as power relations between different ethnic groups, as well as the characteristics of the specific immigrant community.     

Some blood genetic markers of selected tribes in Western Saudi Arabia

A total of 292 randomly selected subjects belonging to two indigenous Arab tribes (Harbi and Ghamid) and two immigrant tribes (Mograbi and Mowallad), residents in Western Saudi Arabia, have been tested for genetic variants of six blood groups, four serum proteins, and five red cell enzyme systems. The distribution of the polymorphic systems was different between indigenous and immigrant tribes, and the present Arab population shows a considerable degree of admixture from the surrounding countries, in particular Africa.     

"Our Child Doesn't Talk to Us Anymore": Alienation in Immigrant Chinese Families

Drawing on ethnographic data on two Chinese immigrant families over a five-year period, I illustrate how and why growing alienation occurred in these families. My analysis shows that a host of developmental, immigration-related, and cultural factors lead to growing alienation in parent—child relations. Social class also plays an important role in shaping family relations after migration. This article complicates understandings of the Chinese American home context and provides educational anthropologists with a useful framework to understand changing dynamics in immigrant families.     

Swimming: On Oxygen, Resistance, and Possibility for Immigrant Youth under Siege

In this article, we consider the ways in which educational policies and institutions today enable or obstruct young people who are immigrant English-language learners as they seek to cross cultural and educational borders. Contrasting a class action suit in California protesting high stakes testing that will significantly limit graduation rates, and an ethnographic analysis of the international high schools in which immigrant youth engage with cultural and educational depth and support and graduate at exceptional rates, this article challenges the current policy climate in which immigrant youth are increasingly under siege and at risk of being multiply undocumented. In the spirit of protest, we trace the many sites of resistance and possibility dotting the nation, in which educators, communities, families, advocates, and youth are demanding educational access and justice.     

Having Arrived: Dimensions of Educational Success in a Transitional Newcomer School

This article examines a program for newly arrived, non-English-speaking immigrant children in a major California city. Focusing on students of Mexican and other Latino origin, I explore the local model of success and ask, How is student success defined and fostered? This study lays the ethnographic foundation for a comparison between settings for first-generation students. The research demonstrates how a nurturing setting, a culturally flexible teaching approach, linguistic and cultural validation, and a valued spatial environment can contribute to newcomer students' success and educational confidence. Further, it addresses both the personal and political tensions that can arise when such programs are physically separate and distant from the "home" or neighborhood school.     

The Acculturation and Adaptation of Turkish Adolescents in North-Western Europe

The present study explores the process of cultural and psychological change that follows intercultural contact (i.e., acculturation) and the wellbeing and social adjustment of 736 Turkish immigrant adolescents aged 13–18 living in six countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Perceived discrimination was the strongest negative predictor of their adaptation outcomes, whereas a combined orientation to the ethnic culture and the national culture was conducive to adaptation. One's country of origin clearly had an impact on the acculturation orientations of the immigrant and on his/her perceived discrimination. The actual cultural diversity characteristic of countries is indicative of a broad context in which the impact of acculturation experiences on adaptation outcomes is invigorated or weakened. Practical implications are discussed.     

Integration and religiosity among the Turkish second generation in Europe: a comparative analysis across four capital cities

Drawing on recent cross-national surveys of the Turkish second generation, we test hypotheses of secularization and of religious vitality for Muslim minorities in Europe. Secularization predicts an inverse relationship between structural integration and religiosity, such that the Turkish second generation would be less religious with higher levels of educational attainment and intermarriage. The religious vitality hypothesis predicts the maintenance of religion in the second generation, highlighting the role of religious socialization within immigrant families and communities. Taking a comparative approach, these hypotheses are tested in the context of different national approaches to the institutionalization of Islam as a minority religion in four European capital cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and Stockholm. Across contexts, religious socialization strongly predicts second-generation religiosity, in line with religious vitality. The secularization hypothesis finds support only among the second generation in Berlin, however, where Islam is least accommodated.     

Contesting the Politics of Culture, Rewriting the Boundaries of Inclusion: Working for Social Justice with Muslim and Arab Communities

This article calls on anthropologists of education to assert a more public voice attacking the ideological purposes to which the concept of "culture" has been deployed following the September 11 attacks. We must support schools, communities, and the media to address the power and politics of race and religion in contemporary social and political contexts, rather than focus primarily on multicultural education about Islamic and Arab "culture." Finally, this article urges us to expand our knowledge of the processes of social incorporation for Muslim and Arab immigrant youth to include a deeper understanding of how global politics contribute to young people's sense of emerging identities.     

DIASPORIC GENERATIONS. MEMORY,POLITICS AND NATION AMONG CUBANS IN SPAIN

Both national and international studies of education often show that the performance of immigrant students is substantially lower than that of non-immigrant students. This article investigates the contribution of socio-economic, sociocultural and school factors to the relative performance of first- and second-generation immigrant students in twenty countries using data from the OECD's 2000 Program for International Student Assessment. In most countries, socio-economic factors substantially account for the weaker performance of immigrant students, whereas sociocultural factors contribute little and school factors are important in only a limited number of instances. Altogether, these factors account for the bulk of the difference in achievement between immigrant and non-immigrant students in almost all the countries examined.     

Human Evolution and Education in Slovene Schools

This article discusses the importance and benefits of providing lower secondary school students with some knowledge of human evolution and its educational context. The author surveyed science teaching in secondary and upper secondary schools in Slovenia and concluded that evolution in general, and human evolution in particular, do not feature prominently in the curriculum and so are not represented by many teaching contact hours. Neither are popular, well-designed, and up-to-date books on the subject--whether by Slovene authors or in translation--readily available to interested students. And yet, paleoanthropology??the study of human evolution in its wider context??is a rapidly developing, high-profile branch of science with major popular appeal. Recent discoveries??many of them spectacular??have provided a much more detailed picture of human evolutionary history, significantly modifying earlier ideas about our ancestry. The subject not only attracts much public interest but also has major educational benefits: human evolution exemplifies many general evolutionary principles, illustrates the synergy of focused multidisciplinary approaches in the life sciences, and reinforces teaching of environmental conservation, human relations, and social responsibility. Because of the subject??s importance, the author provides some suggestions on how the teaching of human evolution might be incorporated into the school curriculum and considers some of the educational resources available to support its teaching.     

Neighborhood socioeconomic status and BMI differences by immigrant and legal status: Evidence from Utah

We build on recent work examining the BMI patterns of immigrants in the US by distinguishing between legal and undocumented immigrants. We find that undocumented women have relative odds of obesity that are about 10 percentage points higher than for legal immigrant women, and their relative odds of being overweight are about 40 percentage points higher. We also find that the odds of obesity and overweight status vary less across neighborhoods for undocumented women than for legal immigrant women. These patterns are not found among immigrant men: undocumented men have lower rates of obesity (by about 6 percentage points in terms of relative odds) and overweight (by about 12 percentage points) than do legal immigrant men, and there is little variation in the impact of neighborhood context across groups of men. We interpret these findings in terms of processes of acculturation among immigrant men and women.     

Does family language matter? The role of foreign language use and family social capital in the educational achievement of immigrant students in Germany

The role of ethnic resources in the educational success of immigrants is highly disputed. Combining arguments of segmented assimilation and Coleman's concept of family social capital, this study investigates whether speaking one's language of origin at home relates to achievement by facilitating the mobilization of resources or their transmission from parents to children. Mediating and moderating mechanisms are disentangled and empirically questioned in regression models that predict the mathematical competences of immigrant students from Turkey, Poland and the former Soviet Union. Based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study, the results contradict the assumption that foreign language use will contribute to education through mechanisms of social capital. Regardless of parental human capital or the group of origin, the language used at home does not affect the students’ learning when German language proficiency is accounted for.     

Stepping beyond Sí Se Puede: Dichos as a Cultural Resource in Mother—Daughter Interaction in a Latino Family

This mother—daughter case study focuses on a key feature of discourse within a Mexican immigrant family that links oral traditions to resilience and motivation. I combine observations from a previous ethnographic study with recent follow-up interviews of a Mexican immigrant student building on a funds of knowledge framework and an ecological perspective. Expanding on current mother—daughter pedagogic theory, I map "dichos" as they are emblematic of cultural funds of knowledge and how they assume a relationship to resistance and academic attainment for a young Mexican immigrant. The findings challenge the notion that working-class Latino families do not care about the educational fortunes of their youth and lack knowledge and resources to guide their children academically.     

Organizational life and political incorporation of two Asian immigrant groups: A case study

Civil society is the foundation of a healthy democracy but its immigrant element has received little attention. This paper is a case study of immigrant organizations of highly skilled Asian Indians and Chinese immigrants in a suburban town of Edison, New Jersey. I find that civic participation of Asian Indian immigrants spills over into political incorporation while Chinese immigrant organizations remain marginalized. I argue that local processes of racialization are central in explaining differences in political incorporation of immigrants. In the local context, the Chinese are seen as successful but conformist model minorities and Asian Indians as invaders and troublemakers. The racialization of Asian Indians has resulted in more political activity and higher levels of political visibility of their organizations. The results highlight shortcomings of current assimilation theories, which give little space to civic and political incorporation and view human capital in an unqualifiedly positive light.     

Immigration and the cost of ethnic subordination: the case of Israeli society

This study focuses on earnings disadvantages experienced by three ethnic groups of Jewish immigrants in Israel. Data were obtained from the 2011 Income Survey gathered by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. The findings reveal that when compared to Israeli-born, all ethnic groups are disadvantaged in earnings attainment in the first generation. The earnings disadvantages of immigrants as compared to Israeli-born decrease with the passage of time and become negligible in the second generation. To disentangle the impact on earnings penalty of ethnic origin from that of immigrant status, a procedure for decomposing mean differences between groups is introduced. The analysis reveals that earnings disadvantage among Ashkenazim and Soviet immigrants can be attributed to immigrant status but not to ethnicity. By contrast, earnings penalties among Sephardim immigrants can be attributed to both ethnicity and immigrant status. The implications of the long-lasting effect of ethnicity versus the short-term effect of immigrant status are discussed.     

Colonialism and ethnicity: A theory and comparative case study

This article explores Arab American "invisibility" as a central theme in the historical narrative of Arab immigrants and their descendants in North America. "Invisibility" is primarily addressed in terms of Arab Americans' paradoxical positioning within the US racial/ethnic classification system. The article argues that four central paradoxes shape Arab American identity. The first paradox is that Arab Americans are a complex, diverse community, but are represented as a monolith in popular North American media images. The second paradox is that Arab Americans are simultaneously racialized as whites and as non-whites. The third paradox is that Arab Americans are racialized according to religion (Islam) rather than biology (phenotype). The fourth paradox involves the intersection between religious forms of identity that Arab immigrants bring to the US and racial forms of identity that structure US society. Overall, the article claims that each paradox of Arab American identity reinforces the difficulties associated in classifying this population.     

How family,immigrant group,and school contexts shape ethnic educational disparities

Scholars have long questioned why average educational attainments among children of immigrants vary greatly by country of origin. Immigrants’ children from the same country share similar contexts of exit and reception and often similar school and family contexts. What is the relative importance of these factors in explaining ethnic differences in educational attainment? Using cross-classified multi-level models, this study shows that family contexts and immigrant group educational selectivity, but not school contexts, help explain ethnic differences. Immigrant selectivity is more decisive in shaping the second-generation’s educational attainment than other group characteristics related to immigrants’ contexts of exit and reception. While school socioeconomic status (SES) only influences the attainment of immigrants’ children from high-SES families, immigrant group selectivity matters regardless of the SES of the family or school, thus shedding light on why members of some national-origin groups tend to complete more education than others despite similar family and school contexts.     

An Exploration of Cultural Identity Patterns and the Family Context among Arab Muslim Young Adults in America

While many studies have explored cultural adaptation and development and its correlates among adult Arab immigrants to the United States (U.S.), little empirical work has focused on Arab youth who were raised in the U.S., particularly Arab Muslim young adults. The present study explores cultural identity patterns and the sociodemographic and family contexts of 150 Arab Muslim American young adults ages 18–25 who completed an Internet study. The participants fell into three cultural identity groups: High Bicultural, Moderate Bicultural, and High Arab Cultural. Although all three groups demonstrated positive general family functioning, the Moderate Bicultural group was distinct in that they were less likely to be engaged or married, and they experienced less family support and more family acculturative stressors. The results highlight the importance of the family context in contributing to a stronger sense of cultural identity for young adults who fall at the intersection of Arab and American culture and Muslim faith.     

Ethnic background,social class or status? Developments in school attainment of the children of immigrants in The Netherlands

In the field of education and children of immigrants we are confronted with a peculiar clash of opinions. Some believe that the differences in school attainment between indigenous children and children of immigrant families can be explained in terms of social class. Others seek the differences in terms of status groups. Empirical research was carried out in one of the bigger cities of The Netherlands, which attempted to further this theoretical debate. The results indicate that the influence of an immigrant background on school attainment is largely mediated by both social class and status. Ethnicity, however, also has a specific effect on education, independent of social class and status. It is argued that the characteristic of ethnicity is a sociological kind of motivation. The educational motivation of immigrant families can have a ‘positive’ effect in the sense that ‘black’ schools perform reasonably well, and a ‘negative’ effect in the sense that immigrant children at schools with a high level of aspiration perform less well than their indigenous Dutch schoolmates.     

Secular and Religious Nationalism among Young Turkish Women in Belgium: Education May Make the Difference

In this article, I examine the role that education plays in influencing Turkish immigrant girls' choice between a more secular and a more religious nationalism. Their choice can be linked to the existence of strong forms of nationalism within their country of origin and to the concrete reality of the immigrant context. Education proves to play a decisive role for immigrant girls in defining their places within a specific nationalistic worldview and, as a result, within Western society.