EDUCATION POLICY AND
SOCIAL INTEGRATION:
Globalization, Migration, and the
Debate on the insignificance
of Race/Ethnicity
Globalization
• Zygmunt Bauman (1998): globalization is “annulment of
temporal/spatial distances.”
• Marshall McLuhan: “global village” – a world compressed
in time and space by new technologies of
communications.
• Ulrich Beck (2000): "Globalization…denotes the process
through which sovereign national states are criss-cross
and undermined by transnational actors with varying
prospects of power, orientations, identities and networks.“
International Migration
• At least 160 million people were living outside
their country of birth or citizenship in 2000 (Martin
& Widgren, 2002).
• Why move? World System Theory
• Structure of global markets: core vs. peripheral
• Economic penetration by multinational companies
• Cultural penetration of capitalist institutions (cultural link, life style)
• In the peripheral, raw materials and labor under global market
control  mechanization, cash crop farming
• Surplus labors are socially and economically uprooted people who
are prone to migration (push factor)
Immigrant Groups
• http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/200903
10-immigration-explorer.html
Contemporary Immigration
• Legal immigrants: about 2,200 daily (Martin & Medgley
1999).
• Since the Immigration Act of 1965, over 20 million legal
immigrants have arrived (Alba & Nee 2003).
• Unauthorized entries: about 5,000 each day
• Illegal immigrants: about 1,000 escaped apprehension.
• K-12 schooling: 20% are immigrants’ children.
U.S. Population by Race/Ethnicity
Hispanic
5%
Asian/other
1%
Hispanic
13%
Black
11%
Asian/other
5%
Black
13%
White
83%
White
70%
1970
2000
Asian/other
11%
Hispanic
25%
Black
13%
White
52%
2050
(projected)
Immigrant Student’s
Country/Region
European
immigrants
Asian restaurant worker
Mexican Farm workers
Immigrant Assimilation in the U.S.
• Acquired (not hereditary) nationality
• Common and equal participation in economic activities
• Citizenship and equal participation and political affairs
• Common and equal participation in social and cultural
activities
• Do immigrants assimilate?
What is Assimilation?
• Robert Park & Ernest Burgess (Chicago
school): Assimilation is “a process of
interpenetration and fusion in which persons
and groups acquire the memories, sentiments,
and attitudes of other persons and groups and,
by sharing their experience and history, are
incorporated with them a common cultural life.”
Social Assimilation
• the process by which peoples of diverse racial origins
and different cultural heritages, occupying a common
territory, achieve a cultural solidarity sufficient at least
to sustain a national existence.
• Acculturation refers to the process of minority group’s
adoption of the cultural patterns of the host society.
• Entrance of the minority into the social cliques, clubs,
and institutions of the core society at the primary
group level (cross-cultural friendship and
intermarriage).
Structural Assimilation
• the process by which immigrant groups achieve
parity with natives in socioeconomic and other
structural measures.
• Common types:
• Economic assimilation
• Educational assimilation
• Spatial assimilation
Classical Theory of Assimilation
• Sociologists in the 1940s-60s:
• Lloyd Warner, Leo Srole, Milton Gordon
• “Straight-line” assimilation
• Assimilatory change is largely one directional: the individuals who
are assimilating refashion themselves to fit into the mainstream,
discarding most aspects of their ethnic culture and replacing them
with their mainstream equivalents.
• An “unlearning” process by immigrants (Warner & Srole, 1945).
• The mainstream culture is the behavioral repertoire of the WASP
(white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant) upper-middle class (Gordon,
1964).
• Ethnic minorities “were mixing into the tomato soup, enriching the
taste, but not significantly altering the substance” (Hungtington,
2004)
Segmented Assimilation Theory
• Portes and Zhou (1993):
“Into what sector of American society a
particular immigrant group assimilate?”
Segmented Assimilation Theory
• Straight-line assimilation no longer valid because of
• The skin color of contemporary immigrants
• The new hour-glass economy
• Three paths to assimilation
• growing acculturation and parallel integration into white
middle-class
• Opposite direction to permanent poverty and assimilation
into underclass
• Rapid economic advancement with deliberate
preservation of the immigrant community’s values and
tight solidarity
Social Cleavage and Ethnic Cohesion
April 29, 1992, a jury
acquitted four white Los
Angeles Police
Department officers
accused in the beating
of black motorist
Rodney King.
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots
• It is also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest and
•
•
•
•
Rodney King Uprising.
Thousands of people in the Los Angeles area rioted over
the six days following the verdict.
Widespread looting, assault, arson and murder occurred.
Property damages topped roughly US$1 billion.
In all, 53 people died during the riots and thousands more
were injured.
Koreans in the riot
• During the riots, a call was put out on Korean-language
radio stations for volunteer security guards. Many
Koreans then rushed to Koreatown.
• Television images showed two Korean merchants firing
pistols repeatedly from a military stance, and Korean
guards firing AR-15s from store rooftops.
• There was a lot of activity to protect the Korean
businesses, especially in Koreatown.
Modes of Incorporation
Government
Policy
Receptive
Receptive
Societal
Response
Prejudiced
(PR)
Coethnic
Community
W
Immigrant
Group:
S
Indifferent
Indifferent
Nonprejudiced
(N-PR)
W
S
PR
W
Hostile
Hostile
N-PR
S
W
S
PR
W
N-PR
S
W
S
Major challenge to the
Segmented Assimilation Theory:
Which groups have followed
downward mobility?
Black Immigrants
• Immigrant- and native-Black relations
• Many from the Caribbean, not from Africa
• Similar neighborhoods
• Similar schools
• Black immigrants saw themselves as superior to African
Americans
• Self-identification & self-presentation
• Use language and accent to differentiate from black
Americans
• Create distinctive styles of dress; wear certain ornaments
• Identification involves fighting discrimination and unfair
treatment
Mary Waters, Black Identities
• Shelly was a 25-year-old woman from Barbados who
worked as a cashier in a 7-Eleven store
• A black American woman attempting to steal food said to
her, “Come on, you are my sister, you are from down
South, from Georgia too.”
• Shelly: “No, I am Caribbean.”
• The manager who was Jamaican: “No, you are a West
Indian, not a Caribbean.” “Caribbean included Spanish
people.”
Black immigrants, cont’d
• Black immigrant achievement (Douglas Massey, et al. 2007)
• Since 1960s, emphasis on diversity in college
admissions.
• In 1999, 13% of African Americans were 1st or 2nd
generation immigrants, but they made up 27% among
black freshmen entering selective colleges (e.g.,
Harvard).
• Education: African immigrants are the most educated
group.
• Henry Louis Gates pointed out at a reunion of black
Harvard alumni that the majority present were of West
Indian and African origin, not decedents of African
American slaves: “I just want people honest enough to
talk about it.”
Mexican Immigrants
• Cross-sectional analysis found Mexican students to
have the lowest educational performance of all groups.
• However, cohort analysis found educational progress
of Mexican immigrants (Smith, 2003).
Ethnic Boundaries (Alba, 2005)
• Fredrik Barth (1969): social boundary
• Ethnicity is conceived as a boundary with both symbolic
and social aspects. It is a distinction that individuals
make in their everyday lives and that shapes their actions
and mental orientations towards others
• Bright and blurred boundaries
• Depends on whether there is no ambiguity about membership.
• Minority-majority boundary
• The nature of the boundary affects fundamentally the processes by
which minorities gain access to the opportunity afforded by the
majority
Ethnic Boundaries, cont’d
• Boundary crossing
• By individuals, no effect in the boundary
• Boundary blurring
• Clarity of social distinction becomes clouded
• Boundary shifting
• Social relocation of boundary
• Former outsiders are transformed into insiders
• Sites for boundary construction
• Birthright citizenship – e.g., Turks in Germany; Mexican in U.S.
• Religion
• language
Boundary Shifting and Blurring in U.S.
History
• 1920s efforts by WASPs to exclude Jews from spheres of
privilege. For example, Harvard imposed a quota on
Jews, followed by other elite institutions.
• Italian children used to have the worse academic
outcomes, with high dropout rates
• The Irish were once portrayed with “a pug nose, an
underslung jaw,” and are always drunk.
• Washington Post: “Will Americans vote for a black man?”
Evidence of Receding Ethnic and
Religious Distinctions
• Name change
• Old generation:
• Margarita Cansino  Rita Hayworth
• Emanuel Goldenberg  Edward G. Robinson
• New generation:
• Robert De Niro, Al Pacino
• Barbara Streisand
Evidence of Contemporary Assimilation
• Language assimilation
• Socioeconomic position
• Residential change
• intermarriage
Speak a Language Other than English at Home
80
70
75%
60%
60
Foreign-born
50
40
30
20
10
0
3%
1995
US-born w imm
parents
Native
Educational Assimilation
• Educational Achievement
• 1.5 generation and 2nd generation often have superior education
attainment to natives
• Strict parenting / belief in education
• More years in America, more similar work habits to native
whites
• Oppositional identity may be a threat among some groups
• Human capital immigrants’ children
• surpass white children
• Labor immigrants’ children
• surpass their parents
Who is marrying whom?
• New York Times Report
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/29/us/2011013
0mixedrace.html?ref=us
Social Identities
“ An identity is a conception of the self, a selection of
physical, psychological, emotional or social attributes of
particular individuals.”
- Virgina Dominguez
“identity is a relational concept; it implies a relationship
between one group and an Other or Other, whether real
or imagined, whether clearly specified or not… In some
instances, the Other is clearly specified and the relation is
that of ‘us’ vs. ‘them.’”
- Kian Woon Kwok
Multiple Identities
1. Foreign National Origin - they recognize themselves as
part of their ethnic culture
Examples: Jamaican, Nicaraguan, Cambodian.
2. Hyphenated American Identity - they recognize a single-
foreign national origin (an acceptance of both cultures.
Examples: Cuban-American, German-American.
3. Plain American National Identity - without a hyphen.
Examples: American
4. Pan-ethnic Minority Group Identity - denationalized
identification
Examples: Hispanic, Latino, black, and Asian.
Ethnic Identity
• Race/Ethnicity Project by the University of Washington
(youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDz3BJDPXHA
• Rejecting the Color Lines (NYT slides)
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/01/30/us/20110130
_MIXED-9.html
• How a multiracial individual is counted
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/02/10/us/10coun
t-graphic-sub2.html?ref=us
How did assimilation occur?
• Structural change after WW II (Alba & Nee, 2003):
• Civil Rights legislation to outlaw discrimination and confer on
nonwhites equal rights of citizenship.
• Change in immigration law ending the national quota system and
opened legal immigration to non-Europeans on an equal footing.
• Integration of the armed forces, a mainstream institution.
• Integration in elite educational institutions
Education policies that facilitate social
integration
• Affirmative action in higher education
• Bilingual education
• Multicultural curriculum
• Inclusion policies towards undocumented children
Bilingual Education
• 1968 Bilingual Education Act provided funding for
instruction in students’ native tongue.
• 1974 Lau v. Nichols provided funding for bilingual
education for children of Chinese ancestry.
• Under the No Child Left Behind Act, parents are given the
choice to enroll their children in a Bilingual Education
program, with a three year "time-limit."
• After three consecutive years, English-only instruction
must commence, regardless of the student's English
speaking ability.
Lau v. Nichols (1974)
• In the San Francisco, California, there were 2,856
students of Chinese ancestry in the school system who did
not speak English. Only about 1,000 of them were given
supplemental courses in the English language.
• Possible solution:
• Teaching English to the students of Chinese ancestry who do not
speak the language.
• Giving instructions to this group in Chinese.
• Other, e.g., bilingual education
• Petitioners ask only that the Board of Education be
directed to rectify the situation.
• Supreme Court decision:
• “There is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with
the same facilities … for students who do not understand English
are effectively foreclosed form any meaningful education.”
• Application of the Civil Rights legislation.
Bilingualism in Higher Education
(Chronicle, 6/1/2010)
• The president of Kaplan College's campus in California,
7 miles from the Mexican border was fired over his
handling of an incident in which students were told they
could face academic sanctions if they spoke Spanish in
class.
• After the president was dismissed, the college's
language policy was clarified: "Our policy is that
instruction is in English but conversations can take place
in any language. We don't discipline students for
speaking other languages in class."
Proposition 227 in CA
• In 1998, California voters approved by an overwhelming
margin Proposition 227, the English for the Children
initiative.
• primary proponent, millionaire Ronald Unz
• Limit bilingual education to one year.
• Under the No Child Left Behind Act, the limit is three
years.
Education policies that facilitate social
integration
• Affirmative action in higher education
• Bilingual education
• Multicultural curriculum
• Inclusion policies towards undocumented children
Multiculturalism
• “a movement opposed to the monocultural hegemony of
Eurocentric values, which has generally resulted in the
marginalization of other ethnic and cultural values.” (J.C.
Early, 1995)
• The United States is not a society with a single national
culture. It is instead a mosaic, a salad, or even a “tossed
salad.”
Multicultural Education (Banks & Banks, 2004)
• Multicultural education grew out of the civil rights
movement of the 1960s.
• It had a significant influence on educational institutions as
ethnic groups demanded the schools reform their
curricula to reflect their experiences, histories, cultures,
and perspectives.
• Courses and programs in 1960-early 70s
• focusing on holidays, ethnic celebrations, and single-group studies.
• Feminists pushed for revision of textbooks
• mainstreaming of children with disabilities
Characteristics of the CA History-Social Science Framework
History-Social Science Framework, cont’d
Curriculum on National Identity
(see handout)
To understand this nation’s identity, students must:
• Recognize that American society is and always has been
pluralistic and multicultural, a single nation composed of
individuals whose heritages encompass many different
national and cultural backgrounds.
• From the first encounter between indigenous peoples and
exploring Europeans, the inhabitants of the North
American continent have represented a variety of races,
religions, languages, and ethnic and cultural groups.
• Teachers have an obligation to instill in students a sense
of pride in their individual heritages.
• Students must recognize that whatever our diverse origins
may be, we are all Americans.
Education policies that facilitate social
integration
• Affirmative action in higher education
• Bilingual education
• Multicultural curriculum
• Inclusion policies towards undocumented children
U.S. Supreme Court: Plyler v. Doe (1982)
• Texas denied undocumented children the right to a free
•
•
•
•
public education
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court invalidated the Texas
law as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th
Amendment.
14th Amendment: “No State shall deny ... to any person …
the equal protection of the laws.”
Students could not be blamed for the actions of their
undocumented parents
Denying access to education will create a permanent
underclass
Remaking the U. S. mainstream
• Racial and ethnic inclusion as a social value
• tolerance of visible cultural difference (e.g., Sikh
turbans)
The Role of the State
• Question: Both the United States and France
guarantee their immigrants equal citizenship
rights. How do these rights differ in educational
practice? (e.g., girls wearing head scarves)
The Role of the State
• Question: Both the United States and France
guarantee their immigrants equal citizenship
rights. How do these rights differ in practice?
• France
• All French citizens have equal rights
• The Republic places high value on the French culture.
• The state should not make any distinctions based on ethnic origins.
• Immigrants who embrace French culture are accepted as French.
• The principle of laicite in public education (“foulard” controversy)
• Immigrants have lower achievement than natives (PISA).