The results of the $2 million study are detailed in “Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age."
Meanwhile in 1992, Herbert J. Gans, a Columbia University sociologist, published an influential essay suggesting that members of the post-1965 second generation might do worse than their parents, refusing to accept low-level, poorly paying jobs and adopting negative attitudes toward school and work.
But the authors of the new study found that Professor Gans’s fears have not been realized. Most of the young people studied worked in white-collar clerical or service jobs in retail and major financial services and most had achieved “real, if modest, progress over their parents’ generation.”
One important reason why, according to the authors, is that even poor, uneducated immigrants have often “shown that they have the drive, ambition, courage and strength to move from one nation to another,” and transmit their determination to their children. And the new second generation is able to take advantage of civil rights programs, including affirmative action policies, in applying to universities and for jobs.
The authors acknowledged that it was hard in some cases to explain why some of the five groups studied appeared to do better than others. The relative success of Russian Jews seemed clear: They immigrated with high levels of education, benefited from government programs because they came as refugees and received aid from established Jewish organizations.
The authors said it was more difficult to explain why “Chinese youngsters have achieved the greatest educational and economic success relative to their parents’ often humble origins.” The Chinese have a fairly cohesive community with “a high degree of social connection between its better- and worse-off members,” the book argued, while ethnic newspapers, churches and media served as a link between middle- and working-class immigrants and helped share “cultural capital,” like information on how to get into the city’s best schools.
Finally, Chinese parents were less likely to divorce, and they encouraged their children to put off marriage and children until their education was completed.
May I add that the Asian's capacity for good Math understanding seems to be innate, while the Filipinos, who are educated in English and are American-oriented, often do well in assimilating in the culture. I noticed that Filipinos have a higher standard when it comes to finishing college, unlike Americans who do okay after just high school.
Parent-child involvement and communication is key in the success of adjusting to life in the States. In Manila, we take this for granted as we have trusted nannies and relatives to leave our kids with. Here, I have seen teens so lost and without direction simply because their parents work two jobs each to meet their expenses.
As a mother, I am very choosy about taking a job. In fact, I have been quite reluctant about accepting full-time jobs, keeping my choices to several part-time jobs. I have to be able to touch base with my children and guide them not only in homework but in adjusting to our new lives as well.
My eldest has practically put himself through Junior College by working a part-time job in food joints, and because of his grades, lots of grants and financial aid from the State. He was accepted to University of Davis but chose to go to San Jose State because Davis does not offer a strong Accounting (his major!) course. I tell the rest of my children that they have to go to College by hook or by crook, but preferably by scholarship.
Now, I know what the parents who sell their carabaos in the province feel like when they send their kids to college.
It excites me to think that we have made the right decision in providing our children with more opportunities in terms of education and employment. But wherever we are, I know that armed with strong and positive family-ties, drive, and ambition, I would like to think that we will find opportunities and seize them.
No comments:
Post a Comment