Week 6:

The protective factors of immigrant

family and ethic community

Ming-Ying & Xuan

“ We did not come here the way other migrants came. They
came to paradise to realize their personal dreams. We
were like trees uprooted and planted in a foreign land.”
Phung Minh Tien
(http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/images/File/brief/Refugee
stoAmericans.pdf)

 Video clip: refugee dreams revisited

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwKwFUqdsgY
Need a community of their own!
Scattered or concentrated?
Something that the resettlement agency can’t help:
language difficulties, cultural barriers…
How the ethnic communities were
formed?
Three phases
Spatial regrouping, second migration are involved
Two examples: little Saigon (middle-class)
Versailles village (poor)
Versailles village case
Few human capital (low-income and low-skilled)
More social/cultural capital
1. their intact families
2. their ethnic community
What is your understanding of social capital and
cultural capital?
 Networks of social relations

How the networks are maintained?

1. respect for elders/peers/self
Q: Why the authors regarded “respect” as a crucial factor to
maintain Vietnamese ethnic community? What about other
key values in Confucianism? (Tian)
2. multiple levels of ethnic involvement
social/economic/religious/psychological
3. integration as a mechanism of control
sanctions/affirmation
The determinants of academic success
Social class
Family SES background
Family structure
Cultural influence
Ethnicity
What do you think about these determinants?
Alternative explanations
Relative functionalism
Q: Do you agree that other barriers to entry into the
American mainstream had Asian ethnic groups channel
their energies into education? (Emily)
Stereotype threat
Any comments?
The theory of ethnic social relations
 The kinds of social relations that ethnic membership
provides/ The types of behavior and attitudes produced by
those social relations
 Whether these types of behavior and attitudes fit the
opportunities for mobility that exist in the larger society
 Q: How does the theory of ethnic social relations carry over
to a black American (Obgu's involuntary minority)
community where it seems like the values are there, but
nonconformance may not be punished as severely?
(Alyson)
Asia Americans’ Educational Achievement
The cultural argument (Confucianism )
The structural argument (immigration selectivity)
The interaction of culture and structure
Q: Why are some cultures more likely or more able to
develop these social structures than others? Or if they have
similar social structures, why have other immigrant groups
not attained similar success in schools? (Katie Reed)
 The Ethnic System of Supplementary Education

 Ethnic-language school/ Ethnic afterschool institutions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HazwSYeHf3w
they promote integration by fostering ethnic culture,
heritage and identity/ provide tangible supplementary
service
Qs: Has the forced attendance in hagwans/community schools let
Chinese and Korean immigrants to reject Chinese/Korean language
in the second generation? (Wil)
I know that some American native-born children also attend Kumon
(which originated in Japan). Is this the case of diffusion of
immigrant culture to the mainstream American society? (Izumi)
Multiple Unintended Consequences of the Ethnic
System of Supplementary Education
To offer an alternative space for children to express
their feeling/ To help children form different peer
networks/ To help nurture children’s ethnic identity
Q: The above are positive consequences. Are there any
negative consequences you can think of ?
 Parachute Kids versus Immigrant Adolescents
 Parachute Kids
1. Must adapt to a new living arrangement on their own
2. To shoulder enormous day-to-day responsibilities

 Parachute Kids’ Antisocial behaviors

1. To lie to their parents
2. To smoke and drink

Q: what can be done to help “parachute kids” to adjust?

(James)
West Indian vs. Asian
Both of them have ethnic enclaves. Why the
former is mainly negative while the latter is
positive? What features of their ethnic enclaves
make the difference?
 What is the possibility of generating protective factors,
such as those discussed here, in other immigrant
communities? Might some of these protective practices
(such as the development of cultural institutions and
academic support centers) even translate into nonimmigrant
minority communities? (Sarah)
In-group solidarity and out-group derogation
Q1: How much of this is a conscious action/decision
and how is this process different for parachute vs.
immigrant children? (Katie Tenny)

Q2: Will they need to continue to employ this

strategy in the long-run, or will it hinder their
chances to incorporate into the mainstream?
(Emily)