Segmented assimilation in the Netherlands? Young migrants and early school leaving

There has been ongoing debate in the Netherlands in recent years about second-generation immigrant youth, a debate fuelled by two, rather persistent phenomena: high school dropout and unemployment among migrant youth. Fear exists that migrant youth will become marginalized. This raises the question to what extent the position of migrant youth can be viewed as manifesting downward mobility, leading to a form of segmented assimilation? This article examines the problems of education and dropout, and discusses the significance of the many statistics which either prove or refute the assumed gravity of the problem. Then follows an outline of the policy landscape and the concomitant ethnifying effects to complete the picture. We conclude that downward segmented assimilation is not the dominant trend, and end with a discussion of new forms of ethnic exclusion that lay the blame for not integrating well into Dutch society at the foot of migrant youth themselves

Crossing boundaries : acts of citizenship among migrant youth in Melbourne

This paper focuses on how migrant youth in Melbourne with experience of direct or indirect migration negotiate cross-cultural engagements and tensions between family, community and the greater society in which they are supposed to participate as political subjects. It examines whether the meaning and interpretation of citizenship in Australia allows migrant youth to act as full and active citizens with all the contradictions and difficulties inherent in acting as “a bridge between two worlds”. By voicing the personalised journeys of young people dealing with uneasy questions of dis-placement, identity and belonging, this paper examines the complex ways through which migrant youth negotiate and in some cases bridge intercultural tensions within a multicultural society

Career Development Program for Refugee and Migrant Youth

The Career Guidance for Refugee and Migrant Young People project is an initiative of the South Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre funded by the Department of Education and Training. It aims to develop, pilot and evaluate a career development and planning program that specifically meets the learning levels and needs of refugee youth with low levels of education, cultural life skills and English language ability

Transnational youth mobility trajectories:an ethnography of young people with a migration background between Ghana and Germany

This thesis investigates the ‘transnational youth mobility trajectories’ of migrant youth, meaning all the moves that young people make in their lives, including migrations but also family visits, holidays, internships, and transitions between different school systems. An increasing proportion of young people around the world have a migration background, and recent research shows that many migrant youth in Europe travel regularly to their country of origin. Nevertheless, we know very little about the way mobility affects their lives. As part of the ‘Mobility Trajectories of Young Lives’ project (www.motrayl.com), this thesis focused on Ghanaian-background youth (15-25 years) living in Hamburg. It shows that migrant youth are very mobile, that the frequency and reasons for their mobility change over time, and that mobility has important effects on their lives in the country of residence. Experiences in the country of origin – including schooling, family environments, and other important relationships – can provide valuable resources, like confidence and motivation, and other forms of support that help migrant youth navigate schooling and life in the country of residence

Meeting the Needs of Central American Migrant Youth in Schools

The goal of this qualitative inquiry was to explore the barriers that Central American migrant youth face in California education settings while using the power of participatory action research to harness the direct voices of this unique and rapidly growing population. The current study examined narratives from 12 former students (ages 17-23) who migrated from Central America and enrolled in U.S. public schools during their adolescence. Participants were recruited by former staff and their peers using social media. Qualitative inquiry about their educational experiences was conducted via semi- structured interviews with the support of peer researchers using a questionnaire focused on themes of students’ educational history, country of origin, age of arrival, socioeconomic status, mental health, and school supports. Interviews were transcribed and coded thematically. Results showed that the developmental timing of migration, country of origin, family history, and reason for immigrating all had an impact on adjustment to school and mental health. Most notably, results indicated that the effects of mental health permeated all themes explored in this study suggesting that behavioral health care and social-emotional support services are an unmet need in this population. The research team has concluded that the diverse needs of this population require comprehensive efforts and supports in the school setting and have direct implications for social work in developing supports, policy, and best practices in direct service to support the complex needs of this population

Review of \u3cem\u3eMigrant Youth, Transnational Families, and the State\u3c/em\u3e. Lauren Heidbrink. Reviewed by Laurie Melrood

Lauren Heidbrink, Migrant Youth, Transnational Families, and the State. University of Pennsylvania Press (2014), 208 pages $49.95, cloth

An exploration of the socio-cultural factors influencing condom use intentions and behaviours of migrant youth in South Africa

Migrant health has become a critical issue in current HIV intervention discourses as this particular cohort has an increased vulnerability to HIV infection. The purpose of this study is to explore socio-cultural determinants influencing condom use intentions and behaviour of young migrant youth residing in Cape Town South Africa. This qualitative study employed purposive and snowballing sampling techniques to explore with migrant youth their intentions and behaviour towards condoms use within their socio-cultural contexts. The interviews were in-depth open ended questions and conducted in English. The sample were drawn from 20 single respondents from Sub-Saharan Africa, notably from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Congo, Cameroon, Kenya and Malawi. The mean age was 23 years with a range of 20 years to 25 years, the gender distribution was even with 10 males and 10 females. The research findings indicate that young migrants have a good understanding of the functions of condoms and the positive preventative tool it is for pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted disease prevention. However the use of condoms, even when freely available, is a contested issue as socio cultural influences have an impact on the intentions and behaviour towards condom use among young migrant youth. Findings indicated that traditional norms on sexual behaviour prohibits young migrants to freely discuss safer sexual options and methods of safer contraceptive choices. Traditional gendered norms in sexual relationships and gendered expectations of condom use are current issues that migrant youth are grappling with. The nexus between socio-cultural norms and safer sexual choices such as condoms use places young migrants' at-risk cohort as they are currently outside of the realms of socio-cultural contexts, with higher education expectations and delay of marriage customs. As the results cannot be generalised to the entire migrant youth population due to the small sample size of only 20 young migrants' narratives, the need for further research on a larger sample might provide more insight into current realities of transitioning young migrants who lives outside of the boundaries of current socio-cultural paradigms

Ethnic Identity and Migrant Youth

This study sought to examine the relationship between ethnic identity and the grade and gender of the subjects. Changes in ethnic identity over time were also analyzed. Students attending grades four through eight of the Nyssa Migrant School summer program participated in this study. One hundred twenty-four participants completed the pretest, eighty-nine completed the posttest, with a total of seventy-nine completing both the pretest and posttest. Students responded to the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, which examined the subcategories of belonging and exploration to comprise the overall ethnic identity level. Scores were compared by grade and by gender at pretest and at posttest. Scores were also examined in those same subgroups for a change over time in the 79 subjects completing both the pretest and posttest. Though not statistically significant, results indicated a trend for males as a whole to show a greater increase in overall ethnic identity over the course of the summer school program than their female counterparts. Results also showed an increase (although not statistically significant) in ethnic identity for the group as a whole over the course of the six-week program, warranting further investigation into the summer program\u27s effectiveness for enhancing ethnic identity. This aforementioned increase was more pronounced in children in the older grades, supporting a developmental progression of ethnic identity. At both the pretest and posttest, adjusted means for belonging were statistically significantly higher than those for exploration, F(l, 77) = 171.03,p = .000; F(l, 77) = 141.12,p = .000, respectively. Implications of these findings for future programs and future research are discussed

Health Coverage Expansion for the Undocumented and Potential Impacts for Unaccompanied Migrant Youth and Families in California

The objective of this article is to identify areas for future study that have the potential to close the gap in knowledge about the health needs of unaccompanied migrant youth

Digital Passages: Migrant Youth 2.0. Diaspora, Gender and Youth Cultural Intersections

Increasingly, young people live online, with the vast majority of their social and cultural interactions conducted through means other than face-to-face conversation. How does this transition impact the ways in which young migrants understand, negotiate, and perform identity? That's the question taken up by Digital Passages: Migrant Youth 2.0, a ground-breaking analysis of the ways that youth culture online interacts with issues of diaspora, gender, and belonging. Drawing on surveys, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, Koen Leurs builds an interdisciplinary portrait of online youth culture and the spaces it opens up for migrant youth to negotiate power relations and to promote intercultural understanding