12 Immigrant-origin children and the education system
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Frances McGinnity
Abstract
International research has highlighted the crucial role of schools in the integration of children. Schools reflect and transmit dominant cultural norms both explicitly through the curriculum and implicitly. In this context immigrant students are found to often occupy an ambiguous position within the Irish educational system, whether as ‘outsiders’ or as the children of comparatively highly educated parents in possession of the kinds of social and cultural capital valued by the school system. The ‘mismatch’, or cultural distance, between home and school cultures may vary across nationalities or linguistic groups as well as by social class. The chapter specifically focuses on factors that determine whether or not immigrants are seen as ‘outsiders’, such as English-language fluency, country of origin, immigrant status, location, and so on. It evidences how some groups of young people are particularly marginalised and experience exclusion in the Irish education system and beyond.
Abstract
International research has highlighted the crucial role of schools in the integration of children. Schools reflect and transmit dominant cultural norms both explicitly through the curriculum and implicitly. In this context immigrant students are found to often occupy an ambiguous position within the Irish educational system, whether as ‘outsiders’ or as the children of comparatively highly educated parents in possession of the kinds of social and cultural capital valued by the school system. The ‘mismatch’, or cultural distance, between home and school cultures may vary across nationalities or linguistic groups as well as by social class. The chapter specifically focuses on factors that determine whether or not immigrants are seen as ‘outsiders’, such as English-language fluency, country of origin, immigrant status, location, and so on. It evidences how some groups of young people are particularly marginalised and experience exclusion in the Irish education system and beyond.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Traveller health inequalities as legacies of exclusion 22
- 2 Sectarian legacies and the marginalisation of migrants 33
- 3 Institutional responses to racism in both Irelands 47
- 4 African asylum seekers and refugees in both Irelands 58
- 5 African non-employment and labour market disadvantage 72
- 6 The lives of Filipino-Irish care workers 89
- 7 Polish spaces in a divided city 100
- 8 Experiences of racism in social housing 113
- 9 Roma rights and racism 126
- 10 Normalising racism in the Irish media 140
- 11 Children and young people on the margins 160
- 12 Immigrant-origin children and the education system 173
- 13 Young Muslims as insiders and outsiders 186
- 14 Brexit, borders and belonging 200
- 15 Hyphenated citizens as outsiders 213
- Conclusion 229
- Select bibliography 243
- Index 250
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Traveller health inequalities as legacies of exclusion 22
- 2 Sectarian legacies and the marginalisation of migrants 33
- 3 Institutional responses to racism in both Irelands 47
- 4 African asylum seekers and refugees in both Irelands 58
- 5 African non-employment and labour market disadvantage 72
- 6 The lives of Filipino-Irish care workers 89
- 7 Polish spaces in a divided city 100
- 8 Experiences of racism in social housing 113
- 9 Roma rights and racism 126
- 10 Normalising racism in the Irish media 140
- 11 Children and young people on the margins 160
- 12 Immigrant-origin children and the education system 173
- 13 Young Muslims as insiders and outsiders 186
- 14 Brexit, borders and belonging 200
- 15 Hyphenated citizens as outsiders 213
- Conclusion 229
- Select bibliography 243
- Index 250
