Introduction
Immigration is an arduous and complicated journey that affects not only adult immigrants but also their children, who have to face the challenges of continuing their social and cognitive development while being placed in an entirely alien environment. Therefore, focusing on the needs of immigrant-origin youth is an absolute necessity. Since the issues encountered by children of immigrants belong not only to the economic and political dimension but also to the sociocultural one, education represents a highly problematic area.
Background
The phenomenon of student disconnect from education has been observed in immigrant children for a while. Research shows that the observed issue should be partially attributed to the lack of consistency in educational policies, which tend to prioritize the needs of local residents (Cassar and Tonna, 2018). However, the core factors leading to immigrant students distancing themselves from education is much more nuanced and intricate.
Problem Statement
The process of immigrants’ children adjusting to the new sociocultural and academic environments is excruciatingly challenging due to the impact of multiple adverse factors. Immigrant children are affected by the necessity to transition to learning in a different language while also adjusting to a new sociocultural setting with complex traditions and rituals (Anguiano, 2018). Therefore, most immigrant children require active assistance and support in the process of transitioning from the sociocultural context of their home academic environment to that one of a foreign country. However, the strategies currently used by most educators for the specified purposes lack efficacy due to the failure to embrace the broad variety of factors affecting immigrant youth (Anguiano, 2018). Therefore, a framework for supporting the target population is urgently needed.
Thesis Statement
By creating a welcoming and supportive academic environment for the immigrant youth, with the focus on multilingualism as an opportunity and not a problem, as well as inviting immigrant parents to participate in the task of encouraging their children in the learning process, educators will be able to adders the current crisis of student disconnect from education observed in the immigrant youth.
Theoretical Frameworks
Since the immigrant youth is placed under the pressure of multiple factors in the present-day academic setting of their new sociocultural environment, an amalgamation of several theoretical frameworks will be needed to explain, examine, and address the observed issues.
Network Theory
The network theory as a tool for identifying, explaining, and analyzing the challenges that immigrant children are facing in relation to education opportunities is especially meaningful in the target context since it allows encompassing the complete range of issues affecting the target population. Specifically, the theory posits that social interactions play a critical role in transmitting and disseminating information, defining the extent to which media affects the target demographics’ development, and promoting changes in the identified population’s behaviors and attitudes (Bass, 2018). Namely, based on the tenets of the network theory, one can conclude that the exclusion experienced by immigrant children in the academic context shapes their interactions with peers, thus, locking immigrant children in the environment of their community and preventing them from gaining critical social skills and educational opportunities (Bass, 2018). Therefore, further assessment of the core sociocultural factors affecting the described phenomenon is necessary.
Ecological Theory
In turn, the ecological theory as the framework suggesting that the impact of the immediate environment defines one’s behaviors, attitudes, and the further patterns of interactions with others, confirms the supposition made with the help of the network theory. Specifically, the ecological theory points to the fact that a child’s development and, thus, the further emergence of opportunities for personal and professional growth is shaped by the immediate environment in which a child is planted (Tang et al., 2020). Consequently, the failure to integrate into the context of a new setting limits a child’s exposure to the opportunities that the new setting provides.
Moreover, the failure to be accepted into the new environment and the restriction in the range of relationship and interactions patterns that a child learns limits the further chances to become a functional part of the new community, which, in turn, is likely to lead to being excluded from the academic context (Tang et al., 2020). With the presence of biases toward the immigrant community in the target setting, the threat of being ostracized and, thus, being disconnected from education and the related opportunities, particularly higher education options, immigrant children are likely to remain deprived of essential resources unless a positive change is produced.
Acculturation and Assimilation Theory
Finally, the acculturation and adaptation theory as the framework for understanding the process of being integrated into a new environment for immigrant children should be brought up. Implying the development of similarities between two cultures over time, the theory in question suggests that two paths can be isolated in the specified process. Namely, the acculturation process implies the mutual sharing of traditions and philosophies to the point where two cultures merge (Friberg, 2019). The specified phenomenon is mostly inexistent for most immigrant communities, which follow the route of assimilation, namely, their culture being absorbed by the dominant one. The specified theoretical premise suggests that immigrant children face the choice of either allowing the dominant culture to take over their perceptions and philosophies, or being disconnected from the new community, including its education opportunities (Friberg, 2019). The observed conflict is likely to serve as another factor shaping the current problem of immigrant students’ disconnection from academic life.
Literature Review
Current Situation
Presently, the issue of student disconnect from education in immigrant youth has become quite noticeable. Reports reveal that the problem of students feeling disconnected from education and the related opportunities is prevalent in immigrant-origin children and youth (Bloemraad and Voss 2020). Remarkably, research also points to the multilayered nature of the problem and the fact that several facets of immigrant-origin youth need to be addressed in order to manage the situation. The language concerns as the core issue that represents a major problem for immigrant-origin youth, along with the issues of a cultural conflict and cross-cultural misunderstandings, need to be addressed first, as recent studies indicate (Bloemraad and Voss 2020). However, apart from the specified issue, socioeconomic concerns impede learners’ ability to develop the required language skills and build the necessary competencies also must be handled accordingly. Finally, technology issues and problems in policymaking, specifically, the failure to target the needs of the specified vulnerable group, should be taken into account as the foundational sources of concern (Bloemraad and Voss 2020).
Indeed, studies indicate that, for a range of reasons, immigrant-origin youth should be regarded as an at-risk group that is particularly prone to dropouts and a failure to gain the required academic skills needed for further advancement in their career. Namely, reports prove that the specified part of the U.S. population faces the risk of becoming a disadvantaged due to the challenges associated with gaining the needed education opportunities (Bloemraad and Voss 2020). Specifically, the failure to acquire the needed skills and competencies leads to immigrant youth being unable to become competitive in the U.S. labor market (Bloemraad and Voss 2020). Consequently, the problem of disconnect from the education system in immigrant-origin youth needs to be explored from sociocultural and socioeconomic perspectives closely.
Factors Affecting Education Quality for Immigrants’ Children
As emphasized above, the factors shaping the extent of educational opportunities for immigrant children are mostly linked to language and, by extension, culture issues. Specifically, the study by Suárez-Orozco et al. (2018) confirms that the failure to accommodate the language needs of immigrant students leads to them failing to build the necessary skillset. Namely, without an opportunity to develop a strong and clear understanding of specific subjects, learners cannot develop a robust knowledge base and gain the necessary cognitive skills (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018). At the earlier stages of childhood development, the specified issue is likely to lead to even more drastic outcomes, such as the failure in children to build the skills needed to process basic information (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018). Consequently, changes must be made to the present approach toward using language in a diverse classroom. Admittedly, the solutions that are currently available have been expanded significantly and are no longer scarce, yet their efficacy is still questionable. Specifically, the problem of learners’ disconnect from education remains high even with the introduction of digital tools that seemingly simplify the process.
Unresolved Concerns
When evaluating the current frameworks and pinpointing the problems within them, one must mention the absence of homogeneity in the approaches in question and the teachers’ inability to identify and address the needs of immigrant-origin youth. Indeed, research points to the problem of a cultural disconnect defined by the tendency among teachers to adopt the strategies that are linked to their personal perspectives on cross-cultural communication and education issues, which may suffer from personal biases (Jaffe-Walter and Lee, 2018). Arguably, the specified issue calls for revisiting the existing strategies for building cultural competency among teachers (Jaffe-Walter and Lee, 2018). However, the development of a homogenous framework for managing language- and culture-related concerns that immigrant-origin youth is currently facing in the academic setting appears to be more reasonable. Indeed, having a greater reach, a strategy encouraging the development of the required capabilities in teachers, including their skill of managing cross-cultural conflicts and misunderstandings in a diverse academic setting, should be prioritized.
Recommendations
Supportive Environment
To ensure that the needs of immigrant-origin youth are met in regard to the provision of educational opportunities and the means of minimizing the threat of their dropout, a supportive environment for the specified demographic must be created. Specifically, teachers will need to apply extra efforts to ensure that learners understand the information presented during the lesson and develop the necessary skills. Namely, it is highly advised that, in early education, language issues should be communicated to parents so that they could use the assistance of language experts (Rodríguez-Izquier et al., 2020). Furthermore, since a significant number of immigrant-origin students come from economically unstable backgrounds, the support of the state should be offered in the form of financial help for using the services of a language teacher for students (Rodríguez-Izquier et al., 2020). The proposed solution, while being admittedly challenging and putting an additional strain on immigrant-origin learners, will facilitate more effective learning in the future.
For older students, particularly in the higher education system, the language issue also needs to be addressed as a crucial point of concern. Given the increasing difficulty level at which students in higher educational settings must operate, the vocabulary and syntax are bound to become exceedingly complicated. Therefore, a robust framework for language-building skills is strongly needed. For this purpose, policies aimed at encouraging language diversity in higher educational settings and the promotion of different multicultural perspectives that some language learners may have in regard to specific issues need to be addressed. Specifically, teachers should play a distinctive role in language maintenance for immigrant-origin learners so that the latter could advance in mastering both language skills and the selected subject. Specifically, the focus on making the lecture material accessible and understandable must be maintained.
Parent-Teacher Connection
Furthermore, as a social worker, one must ensure that parents of immigrant-origin students are aware of the issues that their children face in the target context so that students could receive sufficient emotional support. Arguably, parental involvement facilitates strong disconnect from education only at the earlier stages of students’ development as learners (Steketee et al., 2021). However, while parental participation in their children’s school lives might seem to decrease as children grow older, the actual support system offered by parents is essential even for older learners (Steketee et al., 2021). Ranging from the encouragement to speak English in the home setting to the approval of excellent academic performance to financial support at the higher education stage, the presence of parental support is critical for ensuring that students remain connected to core academic processes and engaged in their education (Steketee et al., 2021). Therefore, parent-teacher communication needs to be reinforced so that parents could receive the necessary guidance concerning the support for their children struggling with their academic performance.
Multiculturalism: Language as a Resource, Not a Problem
Finally, it is strongly recommended that the current perspective on the multilanguage and multiculturalism issue needs to be managed as an opportunity as opposed to being regarded as a problem. Specifically, studies show that teachers who have to work in multilingual and multicultural settings tend to apply the frameworks that consider the very notion of multilingualism in the classroom to be a problem that needs to be eradicated (Rodríguez-Izquierdo et al., 2021). Specifically, the article by Rodríguez-Izquierdo et al. (2020) points out that out of the three existing approaches to constructing the relationship between the student’s native tongue and the one in which a subject is taught, namely, “language-as-problem, language-as-resource, and language as-right,” the former is typically selected (p. 2). As a result, a rather reductive framework for addressing the needs of students of an immigrant origin emerges (Rodríguez-Izquierdo et al., 2021). The specified issue termed by the authors as a “subtractive bilingualism” becomes a major impediment on the way to supporting learners of a multicultural origin on their journey to academic excellence (Rodríguez-Izquierdo et al., 2020, pp. 2-3). As a result, the problem of student disconnect from the academic setting and the educational process exacerbates.
In turn, the proposed framework involves focusing on the language-as-a-solution approach. Specifically, the opportunity to use certain signs, symbols, and vocabulary as a shorthand for students to develop a proper understanding of the subject should be actively encouraged (Rodríguez-Izquierdo et al., 2021). Thus, students will be able to make mental connections between their culture and the local one, thus, experiencing the process of acculturation in as mild a manner as possible (Rodríguez-Izquierdo et al., 2021). Consequently, the threat of a dropout as a result of a failure to build a connection with the new cultural environment and academic requirements will be handled accordingly.
The proposed measures are expected to address the sociocultural issues faced by learners from immigrant backgrounds. Specifically, the offered solutions will encourage acculturation actively while avoiding complete assimilation. As a result, immigrant-origin youth will be able to engage in academic activities and retain their enthusiasm, thus, avoiding dropouts and disconnection from the learning process. At the same time, the target population will retain its key cultural characteristics and legacy, therefore, keeping its identity. Overall, the offered strategy will allow the specified vulnerable population to remain socially functional and academically efficient in a new and challenging setting.
Conclusion
By ensuring that the academic environment in which immigrants’ children are placed is welcoming and supportive, with the focus on parental involvement, as well as building a multilingual setting where the presence of another language represents not a problem but an opportunity, one will address the problem of student disconnect from education. Specifically, teachers need to foster the atmosphere where students are guided and supported throughout their journey of developing the necessary language skills. Encouraging social interactions between immigrant children and local learners is also a vital step toward addressing the concern of distancing that the target demographic has been experiencing in relation to their academic progress. By viewing the issue at hand as t6eh product of a combined effect of multiple sociocultural factors, teachers will be able to shape the curriculum and offer learners the required support, while also engaging parents into the process, thus, building a robust support system.
References
Anguiano, R. M. (2018) ‘Language brokering among Latino immigrant families: Moderating variables and youth outcomes’, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(1), pp. 222-242.
Bass, T. L. (2018) ‘Immigration policy impasse as an actor: a matter of concern for educators’, Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, 7(1), pp. 1-10.
Bloemraad, I. and Voss, K. (2020) ‘Movement or moment? Lessons from the pro-immigrant movement in the United States and contemporary challenges’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(4), pp. 683-704.
Cassar, J. and Tonna, M. A. (2018) ‘They forget that I’m there: migrant students traversing language barriers at school’, IAFOR Journal of Language Learning, 4(1), pp. 7-23.
Friberg, J. H. (2019) ‘Does selective acculturation work? Cultural orientations, educational aspirations and school effort among children of immigrants in Norway’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(15), pp. 2844-2863.
Friberg, J. H. (2019) ‘Does selective acculturation work? Cultural orientations, educational aspirations and school effort among children of immigrants in Norway’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(15), pp. 2844-2863.
Jaffe-Walter, R. and Lee, S. J. (2018) ‘Engaging the transnational lives of immigrant youth in public schooling: toward a culturally sustaining pedagogy for newcomer immigrant youth’, American Journal of Education, 124(3), pp. 257-283.
Rodríguez-Izquierdo, R. M., Falcón, I. G. and Permisán, C. G. (2020) ‘Teacher beliefs and approaches to linguistic diversity. Spanish as a second language in the inclusion of immigrant students’, Teaching and Teacher Education, 90, 103035.
Steketee, A., Williams, M. T., Valencia, B. T., Printz, D. and Hooper, L. M. (2021) ‘Racial and language microaggressions in the school ecology’, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(5), pp. 1075-1098.
Suárez-Orozco, C., Motti-Stefanidi, F., Marks, A. and Katsiaficas, D. (2018) ‘An integrative risk and resilience model for understanding the adaptation of immigrant-origin children and youth’, American Psychologist, 73(6), p. 781.
Tang, F., Li, K., Rauktis, M. E., Chi, I. and Dong, X. (2022) ‘A Social-ecological approach to understanding activity engagement patterns among older Chinese immigrants’, The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 1, pp. 1-8.