published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

For many Latino immigrant children the transition from adolescence to adulthood and more specifically from high school to college or the workforce can be a daunting experience. Scholars have identified contextual factors such as family, culture, and access to academic and financial resources contribute significantly to the academic and career decision making of Latino immigrant youths (Chaves et al., 2004). Vocational psychology research literature has been criticized for the exclusion of diverse populations, particularly inner city youth (Medvide & Blustein, 2010) from career development theories. Using consensual qualitative research (CQR), the current study broadens the understanding of the career development of Latino immigrant youth by gathering 15 participant narratives from current NYC high school students. These interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using CQR methods (Hill, Knox, Thompson, Williams, Hess, & Ladany, 2005). The results of the study illustrate how culture, family support, access to financial and academic resources, and perceived barriers impact the career decision-making of Latino immigrant youth. More specifically, results indicate Latino immigrant youth highly value family relationships and teacher support in their career decision-making, and feel these supports are essential for their career success. Additionally, participants’ internalization of their social status and access to financial and academic resources critically influence their career decisions. Recommendations for research and clinical practice were presented with an emphasis on expanding multicultural competency and culturally responsive counseling interventions provided to students and families in order to reinforce students’ academic, social, and cultural strengths.

本論文探討來自中國內地和南亞國家的少年移民學生如何適應香港的教育和生活。他們是香港兩大移民群體，儘管他們的族群和文化背景截然不同，香港人一般都認為他們落後和貧困，與香港社會格格不入。本研究旨在了解他們的求學道路和身份建構過程。而在社會化的討論背景下，求學道路和身份建構是兩個相互關聯、相互重疊的概念。田野調查在香港四所收了大批移民學生的中學進行，時間由幾個月到一年多不等。 / 本研究發現，雖然兩組學生的背景不同，在香港的教育制度下，他們面對相似的限制及不利因素。本文指出，教師認為這兩組學生有類近的學習問題，但卻成因各異，教師亦對自己可以起的作用有不同看法。以上種種皆會影響青少年作為社會成員的身份認同。本文又指出，這兩組學生，在不同程度上自稱是香港的一份子。然而，他們的理由不一，理解也不盡同。 / 在學校層面發生的事情是重要的，因為它反映了在社會層面，大家如何界定誰是社會成員，如何在不同的歷史、文化和社經環境下，轉變想法和做法，以及社會和個人如何在過程中互動。在當前全球化的時代，人口遷移不斷影響世界各地的社會經濟和人口結構。本文提出一個新的角度，以重新思考移民和教育的理論。 / This thesis explores the immigration and schooling experiences of the teenage children of immigrants of the two largest incoming groups to Hong Kong: from Mainland China and from South Asia. Most people in Hong Kong think that both groups are culturally backward and economically impoverished, which means that both do not fit in, despite the fact that they have utterly different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I seek to understand the factors that are shaping their educational pathways and identity formation, which I consider to be two interrelated and overlapping concepts against the backdrop of socialization. Data are largely drawn from ethnographic fieldwork, from a few months to more than a year, in four secondary schools in Hong Kong which admit a large number of immigrants. / I argue that despite their different backgrounds, both groups of students face very similar structural constraints and disadvantages in Hong Kong’s education system. I also argue that teachers perceive very similar learning problems in these two groups of students, but they see the problems to have stemmed from different causes, and have different understandings how much teachers can do. This has implications on the teenagers’ identities as members of society. I further argue that both groups, albeit to different extents, claim their belonging to Hong Kong in terms of their identity. However, they seem to base their claims on different grounds, and have different understandings of their belonging to Hong Kong. / What goes on in the classroom is important because it reflects in the larger society how people understand and practice who they include and who they exclude; how the ideologies and practices at work change in different historical, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts; and how individuals negotiate the shaping and the inclusion or exclusion. My thesis adds a new perspective for us to rethink theories of migration and education in an era of globalization when the mass movement of people is defining and redefining the socioeconomic and demographic landscapes in many parts of the world. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Chee, Wai Chi. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 383-415). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iii / Abbreviations --- p.v / Language, Name, and Currency --- p.vi / Tables and Graph --- p.vii / Chapter 1. --- Introduction / Introduction --- p.1 / Research Questions and Objectives --- p.1 / Immigrant Students in Hong Kong’s Education System --- p.6 / Significance of Research --- p.9 / Literature Review --- p.15 / Methodology --- p.54 / Some Ethical Concerns --- p.63 / Chapter Overview --- p.67 / Chapter 2. --- Immigration Motivations, Trajectories and Predicaments: Positioning Teenage Immigrants in Hong Kong / Introduction --- p.74 / Ebbs and Flows of People from Mainland China into Hong Hong --- p.77 / Emergence of Hong Kong Identity --- p.79 / Situating Mainland Chinese Teenagers in Hong Kong’s Immigration Context --- p.82 / Situating South Asian Teenage Immigrants in Hong Kong’s Immigration Context --- p.87 / Immigration Motivations and Predicaments --- p.96 / Conclusion --- p.113 / Chapter 3. --- On the Threshold of the Mainstream: Initiation Program and its Completion Ceremony / Introduction --- p.115 / Initiation Program and Its Completion Ceremony --- p.119 / Form, Content, and Meanings of the Completion Ceremony: The Case of Lily School --- p.126 / Form, Content, and Meanings of the Completion Ceremony: The Case of Peony School --- p.141 / Dramatized Epitome of the Initiation Program --- p.159 / Conclusion --- p.166 / Chapter 4. --- Entering the Mainstream: From Initiation Program to Mainstream Education / Introduction --- p.169 / Looking for a Place in a Mainstream School --- p.172 / Entering the Educational Mainstream --- p.182 / Out of the "Greenhouse" --- p.191 / Future Educational Pathways --- p.198 / Conclusion --- p.208 / Chapter 5. --- Ideologies and Practices of Inclusion/Exclusion: Immigrant Students in Hong Kong’s Education System / Introduction --- p.211 / Perception, Inclusion, Exclusion: Mainlanders and South Asians in Hong Kong --- p.214 / Adapting to Education and Life in a "Greenhouse" --- p.229 / Educational Greenhouse Effect --- p.246 / Conclusion --- p.258 / Chapter 6. --- Socialization and Citizen-Making: The Role of Educators / Introduction --- p.260 / What an Ideal Student Should be Like --- p.264 / The Making of “Ideal Students --- p.267 / Double-Edged Teacher-Student Relationships --- p.300 / Paradoxical Effect of the Attempt to Create "Ideal Students" --- p.305 / Conclusion --- p.313 / Chapter 7. --- The Politics of Belonging: What Does It Mean to Be a Teenage Immigrant Student in Hong Kong? / Introduction --- p.318 / (Re)Evaluating Hong Kong --- p.323 / Positioning Hong Kong in Immigrant Children’s Migration Trajectories --- p.329 / Identity and the Politics of Belonging --- p.341 / Conclusion --- p.352 / Chapter 8. --- Conclusion / Introduction --- p.356 / Theorizing "Envisioned Belonging" --- p.358 / Theorizing the "Educational Greenhouse Effect" --- p.368 / Rethinking Theories of Migration and Education --- p.372 / More Supportive Educational Policies for Immigrant Students --- p.377 / Hong Kong and Immigration --- p.380 / References --- p.383

This paper provides analysis of a series of email correspondences between secondary newcomer immigrant students and Latino business professionals within the same urban community. The author, using James Gee's discourse theory (1990, 1996, 1999, 2004) contends that school-based discourses and structures have historically operated as barriers to academic success and societal acceptance for the vast majority of secondary English Language Learners, indicating the systemic perpetuation of a racist, classist, xenophobic social order through the public schools. When an attempt is made to sidestep these school-based discourses and put students in direct contact with mature, successful practitioners of English outside of the education community, the students encounter "mentor talk," a set of discourses that uncritically embrace the notions of a neutral, meritocratic, knowledge-based socioeconomic order. At the same time, students encounter language that can be appropriated for their own creative constructions of identity as they seek to position themselves in a new society. Even when there exists a strong alignment between the student's socially-situated identity presentation and the ideological thrust of "mentor talk," many societal barriers stand in the pathway of social and educational advancement. More often, the student identities express resistance, often subtle, to the standard, hegemonizing guidelines for success they have been offered. / text