Do I belong?
Psychological
perspectives
and
educational
considerations of immigrants’ school experiences
Presentation of M.Psy dissertation (works in progress)
Juan Camilleri
M.Ed., P.G.C.E., B.A. Psy (Hons)
2007
Some statistics
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Between 1992 and 2001, some 600,000
asylum applications per annum in EU
countries
At the beginning of 2005, there were close
to 4.5 million people of concern to the
UNHCR in EU and 20 million worldwide
(UNHCR, 2006).
30-40% of these people were below age 18
Around 4000 ‘klandestini’ arrived in Malta
between 2004 and 2006 (both years
included)
Effects of immigration on
children
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Immigration is widely acknowledge as
a profound life transition demanding
extensive adaptation (Rumbaut, 1997)
Indelible scars of war, conflict,
persecution, trauma in children
PTSD and depression are common
effects (Mjones, 2002)
Most remain in precarious conditions
after migration (Jacox et al., 2002).
…for adolescents
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Besides the usual physical and
psychological adjustments,
adolescents are especially exposed to
disturbances of the psychosocial
maturation process (Mjones, 2005)
Causes include poverty, insecure
future prospects, uncertainty, and the
experience of racist abuse and/or
xenophobia
The reality of cultural diversity
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Today’s classrooms are a faithful
reflection of the multi-ethnic societies
that constitute modern societies
Schools are in a favourable position to
implement prevention and intervention
programmes that address the inclusion
of newcomer immigrant children and
their adjustment to a new social reality
(Hodes, 2000; Suarez-Orozco &
Suarez-Orozco, 2001)
In school…
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Students not grounded in the mainstream
culture, such as immigrants, frequently
struggle to get along in school settings that
are institutionalised according to the moral,
social and cultural dimensions of society
(Roberts & Locke, 2001).
School adjustment is a function of a number
of factors such as student’s prior
achievement, risk factors, stress
accompanying migration, language
proficiency, and support received
A fear of the foreign
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Report of events in the media that
discriminate against foreigners lead to
xenophobia and ethnocentrism and
eventually to segregation and/or violence
This is a universal but not a natural
phenomenon
Our fear and rejection of the foreign is
caused by the fear of what is ‘dark’ and
‘foreign’ within ourselves and is
unconsciously perceived as threatening and
therefore suppressed (Kristeva, 1990)
The concept of ‘assimilation’-1
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Assimilation is a result of segregation
It is the process whereby a person
adopts the language, habits and
patterns of behaviour of a second
culture and rejects or refrains from the
use of the primary language, habits
and patterns of behaviour (Fennes &
Hapgood, 1997)
The concept of ‘assimilation’-2
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Classical or linear assimilation (Gans,
1997): the ethnic and cultural traditions are
lost to be permanently replaced by new
social norms and practices learnt in the new
country (Portes, 1996; Zhou, 1999)
Psychological confusion and uprootedness
Segmented assimilation (Portes et al.,
2004): here the person does not absorb and
incorporate the new culture, and manages
to preserve his/her original cultural identity
Immigrant minors
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First-generation migrants
Second-generation migrants
Unaccompanied minors
School experience
Intercultural education – appreciating and
celebrating cultural diversity
Role of family literacy programmes to help in the
process of inclusion of migrant families in the
mainstream society – examples in the US (Latinos,
Chinese), Germany, PEFaL in Belgium, UK,
Romania (Roma people)
Relevant research studies
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Studies in Italy e.g. Bosisio et al. (2005);
Schimmenti et al. (2002); Secchiaroli and
Mancini (2002)
Tapped narratives of minor immigrants
Issue of ‘ethnic identity’ – “one’s sense of
belonging to an ethnic group and the part of
one’s thinking, perception, feelings and
behaviour that is due ot ethnic group
membership” (Rotherham & Phinney, 1987).
Identity formation and
inclusion
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Schimmenti (2002) states that the path of inclusion
in society is closely linked to the process of identity
formation
The immigrant adolescent is frequently compelled
to adopt modes of thinking and behaving that are
potentially alien to self-concept
Difficulty to establish significant relationships and
develop a healthy self-identity
Mancini (2002) talks about immigrant youths taking
on the identity of the host country at their own
‘convenience’ – segmented assimilation process or
adaptation
Research on school
experience
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Research has looked at academic
successes and failures as a measurement
of student adjustment
Gradually, research in the US began to tear
down the image of the immigrant family as
helpless and responsible for its own failings
Student voice can be an organising force to
negotiate and construct new ways of
experiencing school in new and effective
ways (Roberts & Locke, 2001)
Rationale & structure of my
research study
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This study seeks to address the school
experiences of immigrant youngsters aged
11-16
Purposive sample: 3 minors who are
‘klandestini’; arrival by boat post-2002
Narratives of three children:
- Tesfai*, aged 15, Ethiopian
- Metin*, aged 13, Kurdish (Turkey)
- Elize*, aged 11, Congolese (DRC)
*Names fictitious
methodology
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Semi-structured interviews to youngsters,
parents and teachers - triangulation
Narratives regarding the experience of
displacement and initial adaptation, school
experience, cultural/ethnic identity, future
Phenomenological approach and IPA
analysis
Individual and commonly emerging themes
Main findings – overarching
themes
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Experience of intense fear of death and
trauma
Loss and humiliation
Hard to ‘fit’
Inclusion as a function of self-acceptance vs
shame
Negotiation of a new self-identity
Experiences of verbal racial abuse
Instability and insecurity regarding future
Tesfai…
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Positive experience of schooling
Regards self as included at school, in
neighbourhood – confirmed by parents and
teacher
Mature stance
A determined will to belong
Excellent grasp of the Maltese language
Included more due to his own personal
resources and resilience
what Tesfai said…
“I used to say, I’m going to start school.
I don’t know many friends. I don’t know
much Maltese. I don’t know. I don’t
have friends. I used to think, how am I
going to go to school? However, as
soon as I went in the Headmaster took
me to my class. The children all asked
my name. By the end of the day I knew
the whole class. It was all right.”
what Tesfai said…
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“When I don’t understand something,
now, I call my teacher and he comes
straightaway to explain everything and
help me.”
“They are real friends… I meet them
even out of school. We go camping
together and so on!”
Teacher: “ghalija qisu Malti!”
what Tesfai said…
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“How did you arrive?” I tell them that I came
through the desert and then the sea. They
tell me you must have had a problem to
arrive then, and I tell them ‘yes, I had many
problems’ ”
“I have everything. I feel just like them. I do
not mind that I am Maltese. I feel Maltese
because I have the same things they have. I
have the same education they have. I have
the same friends they do.”
Metin…
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fear to trust
Evident shame of being a ‘klandestin’
lack of ‘fit’ – school perceived as
stigmatising
passivity and ‘learned helplessness’
chronic insecurity
what Metin said…
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“I don’t like talking about Turkey and how we
got to Malta, and so on….”
“Form I was very difficult for me…. Very
often they used to pick on me… they would
say things like ‘go back home’…. Or at times
they would pick on me for my religion,
saying things like ‘Mohammed is a pig’… or
at times they would pick on me because of
my skin because my skin in very dry and it
sort of flakes.”
what Metin said…
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“Form 2 was a hard year for me because my
peers used to taunt me and writing was too
difficult for me...then in Form 3 everyone
was ok with me”
“His guidance teacher sees him well
included with his peers: ‘Today, he has
friends like everyone else and he could be
considered like any other of his peers’”
Elize…
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Fear in relation to the experience of
escape & displacement
Difficulty to adapt in new culture and
insufficient self-confidence
Shame – school perceived as
stigmatising
Insecurity regarding present and future
possibilities
what Elize said…
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“In the school with other children it was
difficult. I was lost…Some children were
nice…and others a bit bad…if when they
saw me another was playing with me, they
don’t want to play. They say ‘I don’t want to
play with you because you are black.’”
“It’s a bit hard. I manage English well but
Maths and Maltese are difficult. Sometimes
someone helps me at school…sometimes
another child and sometimes a teacher [or
support teacher/facilitator].”
what Elize said…
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[about her country of origin and how
she arrived in Malta]: “I don’t like to
say it”.
Overwhelming sense of shame: “She
told me that if they ask you ‘where do
you live?’ she tell me ‘don’t tell them
you live in Hal-Far. Tell them
something else like’…”
Implications of this study
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Seemingly satisfactory levels of inclusion
However it seems a casual process rather
than the result of planned intervention
Immigrants in schools perceive themselves
as ‘different’
Schools often adopt a deficit view – danger
of stigma and rejection
Tesfai’s case: Lack of shame to be himself
led to better chances of successful inclusion
Implications for teachers
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Key responsibility to facilitate and empower
immigrant students
A commitment to carry out inclusive programmes
that enhance the appreciation of diversity
Multicultural education and inter-cultural learning
Evidence of success (Fennes & Hapgood, 1997;
Secchiaroli & Mancini, 2002; Quierolo Palmas,
2004).
Provide practical support in schools, e.g. helping
them cope with trauma, supporting academic
adjustment and establishing positive parent-teacher
relationships
Salamanca Statement (1994)
“Regular schools with this inclusive
orientation are the most effective means of
combating discriminatory attitudes, creating
welcoming communities, building an
inclusive society and achieving education
for all; moreover they provide an effective
education to the majority of children and
improve the efficiency and ultimately the
cost-effectiveness of the entire education
system.” (p.ix)
Above all…let’s heed the
children’s voices
“…simply listen to the children speaking
their own voices about issues and events
that are important to them. There is a great
deal to be learned and appropriated from
their narratives. They teach us the value of
listening to children on their own terms
without judging them so that their internal
voices will become louder in our time.”
Bearison (1991, p.26)