Immigrant Youth Adaptation in Context: The Role of Society of Settlement

In this work, we attempt to examine the role of strategies like arts sponsorship and culturalism in the solution of immigrant youth issues around a specific immigrant place. This is a case study that focuses on the NaunynRitze Youth Centre in Berlin-Kreuzberg, which was presented as a successful example by policy makers and the public in the 1990s when the footsteps of the crisis of multiculturalism had begun to be heard in Germany. Our research shows that the social engineering strategies shaped around a multikulti production base are not permanent or sustainable as long as these institutions are also given the responsibility of eliminating the cycle of crime and violence in addition to promote individual artistic development and subcultural entities. As long as political figures and the public opinion continue to generally see the immigrant youth as a danger to the secure and untarnished development of society, it does not appear possible for the multiculturalism and the immigrant youth work system to develop.

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Nepantlera Pedagogy in an Immigrant Youth Theater Project: The Role of a Hmong Educator in Facilitating the Exploration of Culture and Identity

Teachers College Record ◽

10.1177/01614681211051979 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 016146812110519

Author(s):

Bic Ngo ◽

Diana Chandara

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Second Generation ◽

Research Question ◽

Immigrant Youth ◽

Boundary Crossing ◽

Community Based ◽

Youth Theater ◽

Community Based Organization ◽

Hmong American

Background/Context: Community-based youth theater programs afford youth opportunities to explore and “author” new identities by “performing writing.” Yet, we know much less about the ways in which immigrant youth are exploring struggles and changes within their families and ethnic community. We particularly lack research about the roles of immigrant adult educators in youth programs, and the significance to the pedagogical process of their experiences, being, and modes of interacting with young people who share with them a common ethnicity. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose of the study is to explore the role of a community-based Hmong immigrant educator as a “nepantlera,” or boundary-crossing “guide” in Hmong youth’s negotiation of culture and identity. It is guided by three questions: (1) How does nepantlera pedagogy move beyond self–other dichotomies? (2) How does nepantlera pedagogy facilitate rewriting the self to construct new visions of ethnic identity? and (3) How does nepantlera pedagogy entail risking the personal? Setting: The research setting was a Hmong community-based arts organization in an urban center in the Midwestern United States. Population/Participants/Subjects: Three 1.5-generation Hmong American adult staff of a community-based organization, one Korean American teaching artist from a local theater company, and 11 second-generation Hmong American adolescents participated in the study. Research Design: The study draws from a critical ethnographic investigation of the culturally relevant practices of a youth theater project within a Hmong coethnic organization. Data Collection and Analysis: Ethnographic data collection occurred over the 4-month program cycle of the theater project. Data sources include field notes from participant observations, semi-structured interviews, audio and video recordings of the activities, work products, and documents about the program and organization. The data were analyzed with thematic analysis techniques. Findings/Results: The findings suggest that the nepantlera pedagogy of the Hmong immigrant educator fostered opportunities for Hmong youth to (1) disrupt binaries between first-generation and second-generation immigrants by exploring not only differences but also commonalities; (2) imagine new ethnic selves by exploring and rewriting a Hmong edict against same-last-name relationships; and (3) experience the vulnerability of their Hmong educator through disclosure about his personal life. Conclusions/Recommendations: The nepantlera pedagogy of an immigrant educator within a coethnic community-based organization brings a perspective from the nepantla, or “in-between,” of culture and identity that provides immigrant youth with a deeper level of cultural knowledge and connectedness to navigate their multiple worlds.

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Silencing Invisibility: Toward a Framework for Black Immigrant Literacies

Teachers College Record ◽

10.1177/016146812012201301 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 122 (13) ◽

pp. 1-42

Author(s):

Patriann Smith

Keyword(s):

Social Adjustment ◽

Immigrant Youth ◽

Black Americans ◽

The United States ◽

Black American ◽

Black Immigrants ◽

Black Immigrant ◽

Racial Literacy ◽

The U.S

Purpose In this conceptual essay used to introduce the special issue titled “Clarifying the Role of Race in the Literacies of Black Immigrant Youth,” I argue for centralizing race in research that examines Englishes and literacies of the largely invisible population of Black immigrant youth in the United States. My rationale for this argument is based largely on the increasingly divisive rhetoric surrounding Black immigrants and Black Americans, exacerbated by current racial tensions and further amplified amidst a politicized landscape and COVID-19. This rhetoric has erupted from often implicit and negative connotations associated with Black immigrants as a “new model minority” when compared with their “underperforming” Black American counterparts and evolved into the use of dichotomous intraracial ideologies that continue to pit one subgroup against the other. Beyond this, race continues to be present as a key part of conversations in the Englishes and literacies of Black American students. And the notion of race, as seen through constructs such as “critical race theory,” “racial literacy,” “linguistic racism,” and “a raciolinguistic perspective,” remains central to the conversations about how Black Americans’ language and literacy use is understood and evaluated in U.S. schools. Yet, we know little about how Black immigrant literacies and Englishes refect racial tensions that affect literacy instruction and assessment because data surrounding their academic performance across the U.S., more often than not, remains subsumed within the data of Black students overall. As they are immigrants of color who are subjected to similar forms of linguistic and racial discrimination often faced by Black American youth, and who also often undergo tremendous difficulty in adjusting to the cultural and linguistic differences faced in the U.S., why is race not central to the distinct, varied, and unique Englishes and literacies of Black immigrant youth? Theoretical Perspectives To address this gap in the field, I examine affordances from the lenses of diaspora literacy, transnational literacy, and racial literacy, which hold promise for understanding how to foreground race in the literacies of predominantly English-speaking Black immigrant youth. I demonstrate how each of these lenses, as applied to the literacies of the invisible population of Black youth, allows for partial understandings regarding these students> enactment of literacies based on their Englishes and semiotic resources. In turn, I illustrate how these lenses can work together to clarify the role of race in Black immigrant literacies. Implications Based on these discussions, I present the framework of Black immigrant literacies to assist researchers, practitioners, and parents who wish to better understand and support Black immigrant youth. I invite researchers who work with populations that include Black immigrant youth to consider how race, when central to research and teaching surrounding the literacies and Englishes of these youth, can provide opportunities for them to thrive beyond the perceptions of them as “academic prodigies” while also facilitating relationships with their Black American peers. I invite teachers to consider ways of viewing Black immigrant literacies that foster a sense of community between these youth and their Black American peers as well as ways of engaging their literacies in classrooms that allow them to demonstrate how they function as language architects beyond performance on literacy assessments. I invite parents to provide spaces beyond school contexts where Black immigrant youth can use their literacies for social adjustment. Through this essay, it is expected that the dominant population can gain further insights into the nuances that exist within the Black population and be cognizant of these nuances when engaging with Black immigrant youth.

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Education Outcomes of Immigrant Youth: The Role of Parental Engagement

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/0002716217730009 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 674 (1) ◽

pp. 27-58 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Zhen Liu ◽

Michael J. White

Keyword(s):

Test Scores ◽

Immigrant Youth ◽

The United States ◽

Parental Engagement ◽

Generational Status ◽

School Level ◽

Dropping Out ◽

Lower Probability ◽

Academic Trajectories

Using the 2009 to 2012 waves of the High School Longitudinal Survey, this article examines the role of parental engagement in academic achievement in the United States. Specifically, we examine the influence of parental engagement while also investigating the academic trajectories of racial/ethnic and immigrant groups, controlling for other standard factors. Results suggest that the progression of students’ academic performance varies substantially by race/ethnicity and by immigrant generational status. After controlling for ninth-grade test scores and family and other school-level characteristics, we find that first-generation immigrant youth generally have higher eleventh-grade test scores and lower probability of dropping out compared to native-born students who are second or third generation. Greater levels of parental engagement predict superior test scores and lower rates of dropout for youth of various racial and immigrant generation backgrounds, even in the presence of a variety of controls.

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