Practice with Immigrants and Refugees

Abstract

Immigrant clients and their social workers can provide useful insights regarding elements of productive practice. Thirteen social workers and 19 clients were interviewed about their experiences. Two major themes were derived: Multifaceted Perception of Self and Other, as revealed in multiple connection pathways, multiple levels of cultural incorporation, and multiple communication avenues, and Proactive Service Provision through cultural bridging, brokering for services, and advocacy for system sensitivity. Practice implications are discussed.     

透视阿拉伯移民在欧洲社会的历史嬗变

阿拉伯裔穆斯林早在中世纪就已在欧洲存在,而今穆斯林族群已成为欧洲社会第二大族群。“9·11”事件使欧洲传统多元文化体系受到冲击,世人将目光聚焦伊斯兰和穆斯林。“3·11”、“7·7”、法国“头巾法案”、丹麦“亵渎伊斯兰教先知漫画”等一系列事件又使阿拉伯裔穆斯林移民问题成为国际关注热点。是同化吸纳还是割裂分离是欧洲各国政府当前移民政策中的最大困惑,是封闭自我还是融入当地社会也成为阿裔欧洲穆斯林当前的艰难抉择。妥善处理阿拉伯移民和欧洲主流社会的关系,已成为欧盟各成员国政府和穆斯林移民团体面临的重要问题。     

论唐代长安西域移民的生活环境

西域移民进入长安后生活环境随着时代变化而有所变化,由初唐的胡汉融合到盛唐的大国心态,逐渐变化为中唐“屈辱”的社会心理与晚唐的受排挤、被压制。作者从唐人对待藩将、胡商、胡艺、胡俗等的态度具体阐述了这一变化。     

Communicative competence and the facilitating and perturbing factors in the socialisation of immigrant students

This work analyses the communicative competence and the factors that facilitate and perturb the socialisation of immigrant students in primary education. It provides greater knowledge concerning the relationship between the immigrant student's social and linguistic competence. It also analyses the presence of difficulties in the different language components (morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics). The sample is made up of a total of 326 immigrant students between 6 and 12 years of age, attending 10 different schools. The study demonstrates that immigrant students possess a low level of linguistic dominion. All the linguistic components analysed are affected, although greater difficulties are evident in morphology and syntax than in semantics and pragmatics. The relationship between linguistic competence and the factors that facilitate and perturb socialisation is underlined. This work concludes that there is a significant relation between semantics and pragmatics and several socialisation factors (leadership, aggressiveness–stubbornness and anxiety–shyness). The educational centres should be aware of the complicated learning process that immigrant students have to go through.     

中华民族一体多元与民族区域自治制度的历史依据

本文主要从历史地理、经济文化、政治和人口流动等方面探寻中华民族一体多元与民族区域自治制度的历史依据 ,进而证明中华民族强有力的凝聚力 ,和我国现行的单一制的国家结构及民族区域自治制度的合理性。     

Why bother with testing? The validity of immigrants’ self-assessed language proficiency

Due to its central role in social integration, immigrants’ language proficiency is a matter of considerable societal concern and scientific interest. This study examines whether commonly applied self-assessments of linguistic skills yield results that are similar to those of competence tests and thus whether these self-assessments are valid measures of language proficiency. Analyses of data for immigrant youth reveal moderate correlations between language test scores and two types of self-assessments (general ability estimates and concrete performance estimates) for the participants’ first and second languages. More importantly, multiple regression models using self-assessments and models using test scores yield different results. This finding holds true for a variety of analyses and for both types of self-assessments. Our findings further suggest that self-assessed language skills are systematically biased in certain groups. Subjective measures thus seem to be inadequate estimates of language skills, and future research should use them with caution when research questions pertain to actual language skills rather than self-perceptions.     

进步时代“美国化”的公民教育与反思

20世纪前后,大量东欧、南欧新移民涌入美国城市,受到本土主义者的强烈排斥。＂新＂、＂旧＂移民团体之间的对立,导致美国社会面临撕裂的态势。社会各界广泛参与,共同确立了公民教育的＂美国化＂目标,有效地促进了新移民子女对城市主流文化的了解、对民主思想观念的认同以及对美国主流生活的融入,保障了美国城市化的快速发展及长治久安。进步时代＂美国化＂公民教育的举措,引发了对目前我国农民工及其子女如何融入城市的反思。     

Psychosocial risk factors and processes impeding adaptive capacities and contributing to psychosocial distress among later-life Egyptian immigrants

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explores and describes the transactional and cumulative psychosocial stressors that later-life Egyptian immigrants encounter upon coming to the United States, and how they impede their adaptive capacities, hinder their adjustment efforts, and impact their psychosocial well-being. Such stressors are more pronounced among those who immigrated to the United States from Egypt after reaching the retirement age of 60 for two reasons. First, they experience pre-immigration stressors that force or expedite their departure from Egypt under duress, thus incurring numerous financial and symbolic losses. Secondly, in the last developmental stage, when age-related losses are triggered, they are concomitantly exposed to a starkly different lifestyle, language, cultural norms, living and financial arrangements, roles, and relationships. All such circumstances contribute to a sense of confusion, guilt, shame, and being a burden on others, which culminate in withdrawal, isolation, and distress. The findings of this study can be used to inform psychosocial and therapeutic interventions and guide the development of appropriate social work programs, services, and policies for later-life Egyptian immigrants in particular and older Arabic-speaking immigrants in general.     

Immigration and Immigrants

Abstract

Public opinion polls conducted from 1964 to 1999 found that Americans' desire to reduce immigration increased dramatically, but there existed a wide variation regarding which nationalities were to be restricted. Furthermore, the majority believed that many immigrants wind up on welfare and raise taxes for Americans and, hence, cause problems for the United States. This article reports on these findings and their implications for current political attitudes toward immigration and recent change and proposed changes inimmigration laws and programs.     

Family matters: the role of the family in immigrants' destination language acquisition

Studies of immigrants' destination language acquisition to date have focused on the individual. In contrast, this paper is concerned with the relationships among family members in the determinants of destination language proficiency among immigrants. A model of immigrant language proficiency is augmented to include dynamics among family members. It is tested using data on a sample of recent immigrants. Children are shown to have a negative effect on their mother's language proficiency, but no effect on their father's. There is a substantial positive correlation between the language skills of spouses. This is due to the correlation between spouses in both the measured and the unmeasured determinants of destination language skills, even when country of origin fixed effects are held constant.