Every day children of Guatemalan Maya immigrants balance two cultures. They reside in The United States and attend American schools but are being raised by their Guatemalan Maya parents. They continually navigate between the two and are faced with challenges daily. Since these children are influenced by two cultures, my interest was primarily on the cultural perspectives of these children, more specifically: what effects does the new culture have on the old? Through volunteering at a Guatemalan Maya after-school program, interviewing and administering the Children's Apperception Test, results showed these children to be influenced by American culture. The biggest indicator, play, was reported to be an important aspect in their lives, which is not considered essential in Maya culture. At the same time, these children keep close ties to their cultural heritage through their strong family ties. Overall, these children are influenced by American culture, but at the same time, keep their heritage. / by Tara Sprague. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Ce travail s’intéresse à la notion de « nouvelle minorité » surgie dans les années 2000 et traitée initialement par l’OSCE. Ce nouveau concept repose sur deux notions : celle de minorité et celle d’immigré. Ces deux concepts sont à l’origine de la naissance d’une nouvelle catégorie : la « nouvelle minorité issue de l’immigration », incluant les immigrés, leurs descendants et les réfugiés en Europe. Cependant notre travail se concentre sur les deux premiers groupes, c’est-à-dire les immigrés et leurs descendants et sur la relation de ces groupes avec la société d’accueil ainsi que avec l’Etat dans lequel ils vivent. Pour ce faire, après clarification du concept de minorité et comparaison entre nouvelles minorités et minorités nationales, en passant par un aperçu historique pour montrer l’évolution de la notion de minorité, nous arriverons à la question de la protection des « nouvelles minorités » et à celle de son intégration. / This work focuses on the concept of « new minority » which surfaced in the 2000s and wasinitially analysed by the OSCE. It is a new concept hinging on two notions, minorities and immigrant, which are the factors driving the emergence of this new category: the « new minority from immigrant backgrounds », which includes immigrants, their descendants and refugees in Europe. Our study concentrates more specifically on the first two of these groups, immigrants and their descendants, and on these groups' relationship with the host society as well as the State in which they live. After clarifying the notion of minority and drawing comparisons between new minorities and national minorities, then tracing out a historical overview showing how the notion of minority has evolved, we will arrive at the questions of the protection of the « new minorities » and their integration.

Due to the ever growing numbers of immigrants entering this country, school districts are faced with ever greater challenges for educating newly arrived immigrant students. Often these students arrive with little to no English ability and little to no school experience. Several educational program models, including ESL and bilingual education, have been popularized in school districts experiencing immigrant population growth. Recently, a supplemental model, the newcomer center/program, has gained popularity. The newcomer model seeks to educate and nurture newly arrived immigrant students with little to no English ability in the social and school expectations of the United States. Due to difficulties in conducting research and the relative newness of the program, there is a lack of quantitative research on the effectiveness of the newcomer model. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the newcomer program in one city school district by comparing students who had completed the newcomer program to students who had been unable to attend and were instead directly mainstreamed into their regular assigned schools. The study used a questionnaire design in which the mainstream teachers were asked to rate the students using a Likert scale. Students were rated on their social and school adjustment. In addition to comparing students by program model group (newcomer and pre-beginner), statistical analyses were also used to determine any possible differences among gender, language groups and student ages. Although no significant difference was found between the group of students who successfully completed the newcomer program and the group of students who were directly mainstreamed, there were a few significant findings among gender, age and language comparisons.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

A history of growing up in Vancouver with immigrant Portuguese parents was constructed by interviewing seventeen adults who were teenagers in Vancouver between 1962 and 1980. Sixteen emigrated as children or adolescents from a variety of social and economic backgrounds in the Azores and Continental Portugal and one was born in Vancouver. This thesis examines aspects of their adolescence in the family, at school, at work, in friendship and courtship, as well as at church. Their lives in Vancouver often differed considerably one from another, a diversity that was already apparent in Portugal. In Vancouver, many parents attempted to maintain or even intensify control over their children who resisted to varying degrees. Other parents allowed their children much more social freedom. As adults, many of these subjects retain an interest in Portuguese culture and traditions. Some limited comparison is made with other subjects in Kitimat, Penticton, and Toronto.

This thesis examines the recent emergence of Astronaut and Satellite family forms in Vancouver, British Columbia. Evident in several cities around the Pacific Rim, these transnational arrangements, among economic-class immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan, involve one or both adult members of the nuclear family returning to the country of origin to pursue a professional career or business. In the Astronaut arrangement, it is usual for the woman to remain in Vancouver - taking charge of all domestic and childcare tasks. In the Satellite situation, children are left without parental guidance for most of the year. Dominant media and academic representations point to two contrasting interpretations of these phenomena. Recently, academics have emphasised the financial vulnerability of these assumed 'wealthy' immigrants. Migrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan are understood to be "reluctant exiles," and the Astronaut situation reflects a failure to find work in the new country. A second, more common portrayal conceives of these migrants as part of a larger, "hypermobile" cosmopolitan elite, who utilise migration as a strategy of economic and cultural accumulation. Particular forms of capital are achievable at particular global sites; the Astronaut and Satellite arrangements epitomise the placement of different family members in different locations to this end. Through in-depth interviews with members of 42 such fragmented families residing in Vancouver, I established the generally strategic nature of these circumstances. Overwhelmingly, migration had been sought primarily for the education of the children, and the transnational arrangement was planned before migration. I was interested also in how the lone spouse and the Satellite children experienced their situation. A different body of academic literature has emphasised the way in which migration negatively impacts the female of the family, and also how the Chinese family remains significantly patriarchal after migration. For the female participants, practical and emotional difficulties were encountered during the first year of settlement - exacerbated by the loss of both the spouse and old support networks in the new setting of Vancouver. Women undertook all domestic tasks and commonly experienced feelings of boredom, loneliness and fear. After a year, however, many women reported a sense of freedom, clearly linked to the absence of the husband and their own agency in the creation of new support networks and stable surroundings. The Satellite children presented an ambivalent picture of freedom and aloneness. In the command of their daily lives and in the subversion of parental control and expectations (for example, regarding their strategic acquisition of 'cultural capital') they demonstrated significant independence. Yet they had little control over their placement in Vancouver. The negative implications of this family arrangement for the emotional well-being of the children were clearly apparent, and school staff in particular stressed the need to regard Satellite status as a social problem. The empirical data challenge many assumptions concerning the flexible Chinese family in the contemporary era of transnationalism and globalisation.

This study examined how group work can provide a culturally-competent, gender and agesensitive model of social work practice with girls of colour. I developed and implemented a school-based girls' group program specifically designed to outreach to girls of colour between thirteen and eighteen years of age. Results from the program demonstrated that through purposeful efforts to develop collaborative, non-hierarchical relationships, adult facilitators played a significant role in creating an environment in which girls could speak about issues that were important to them, including those related to race and culture. During the group sessions, girls learned about each other and themselves, identified similarities in their experiences as immigrants to Canada, and created a sense of group belonging. Similarity in non-dominant cultural status and gender among participants and facilitators appeared to have contributed to the group's cohesiveness and countered structural barriers to addressing race and culture. This study highlighted the value of a group model of practice to provide girls of colour with their own space to freely explore individual experiences and a vehicle for community organizing.

Low achievement, low attendance, and high dropout levels characterize immigrant student populations in cosmopolitan Canadian schools. This thesis identifies the lack of understanding in the community in urban multicultural Alberta as the prime cause of the struggle encountered by new immigrant students in school. The thesis incorporates the experiences of six new immigrant students to promote an authentic curriculum of learning and teaching to meet the needs of these learners. It posits that an authentic curriculum is unlikely without input from learners. The method used Hans-Georg Gadamer’s approach to hermeneutics and phenomenology, with the researcher asking the six African participants to share their stories in the African storytelling fashion in which no one dominates the discussion. The conversations were analyzed and interpreted to provide insight into the life-worlds of the participants. Ted Aoki’s multilayered curriculum of curriculum-as-planned, curriculum-as-lived experience and the “zone of between” are seen as a beneficial practice inclusive of all students. / viii, 139 leaves ; 28 cm

A history of growing up in Vancouver with immigrant Portuguese parents was constructed by interviewing seventeen adults who were teenagers in Vancouver between 1962 and 1980. Sixteen emigrated as children or adolescents from a variety of social and economic backgrounds in the Azores and Continental Portugal and one was born in Vancouver. This thesis examines aspects of their adolescence in the family, at school, at work, in friendship and courtship, as well as at church. Their lives in Vancouver often differed considerably one from another, a diversity that was already apparent in Portugal. In Vancouver, many parents attempted to maintain or even intensify control over their children who resisted to varying degrees. Other parents allowed their children much more social freedom. As adults, many of these subjects retain an interest in Portuguese culture and traditions. Some limited comparison is made with other subjects in Kitimat, Penticton, and Toronto. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This study examined how group work can provide a culturally-competent, gender and agesensitive model of social work practice with girls of colour. I developed and implemented a school-based girls' group program specifically designed to outreach to girls of colour between thirteen and eighteen years of age. Results from the program demonstrated that through purposeful efforts to develop collaborative, non-hierarchical relationships, adult facilitators played a significant role in creating an environment in which girls could speak about issues that were important to them, including those related to race and culture. During the group sessions, girls learned about each other and themselves, identified similarities in their experiences as immigrants to Canada, and created a sense of group belonging. Similarity in non-dominant cultural status and gender among participants and facilitators appeared to have contributed to the group's cohesiveness and countered structural barriers to addressing race and culture. This study highlighted the value of a group model of practice to provide girls of colour with their own space to freely explore individual experiences and a vehicle for community organizing. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate