Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education

Studies of Migration, Integration, Equity, and Cultural Survival

ISSN: 1559-5692 (Print) 1559-5706 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hdim20

Confronting School: Immigrant Families, Hope,

Education

Mara Florencia Amig

To cite this article: Mara Florencia Amig (2016): Confronting School: Immigrant
Families, Hope, Education, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, DOI:
10.1080/15595692.2016.1238356

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2016.1238356

Published online: 13 Oct 2016.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 2

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=hdim20

Download by: [Macquarie University] Date: 16 October 2016, At: 23:55

DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2016.1238356

Confronting School: Immigrant Families, Hope, Education

Mara Florencia Amig
Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT
While children remain at the center of families decisions to emigrate, the
global contexts and technologies that allow diasporas to remain connected
to their cultures have influenced families aspirations in relation to their
childrens education. This article presents data from a qualitative study on
how immigrant families negotiate the schooling of their children in
Australia. Findings highlight there are incongruencies between immigrant
parents understanding of education and what the Australian public school
system offers. This clash is combined with parents determination to rein-
force their culture at home, which is usually overridden by schools stan-
dardization of practices and values. The study suggests there is a need to
better understand the range of experiences and expectations that immi-
grant families bring to schools for educational institutions to be more
attuned with an increasingly diverse, mobile, and mediatically intercon-
nected population.

While children remain at the center of families decisions to emigrate, the global contexts and
technologies that today allow diasporas1 to remain intimately connected to their cultures have
influenced migrant families aspirations in relation to the education and socialization of their
children in the host country. Much research has delved into the academic performance and school
adjustment of children in immigrant families, but an understanding of how immigrant parents
experience the education of their children by unfamiliar school systems, and of the frictions that can
take place between immigrant parents aspirations and public schooling agendas, is still limited.
The Australian context is, in particular, an interesting one in which to study the connection
between immigration and educational aspirations. About one third of the current Australian
population was not born in the country, and the particularly highly skilled immigrant population
that Australia has attracted over the past three decades (see Colic-Peisker, 2011) has meant that the
emphasis on childrens success is greater than ever before. This article will present data from a
qualitative study on how recently immigrant families belonging to two different language groups
Spanish and Indonesiannegotiate the primary schooling of their children in Australia, and will
offer a contribution to our understanding of how immigrant parents experience the education of
their children in a foreign environment and the challenges this poses to their hopes for the
development of their childrens identity and education.

Diasporic public spheres and multicultural education

In the 1990s, Arjun Appadurai marked a breakthrough in the anthropology and sociology of
globalization by linking the interconnectedness of global immigration projects and modern mass

CONTACT Mara Florencia Amig Maria.amigo@mq.edu.au Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, North Ryde,
NSW 2109, Australia.
1
I understand the concept of diaspora as the dispersal of migratory groups originating from a common territory, that share the
same ethnic, national, or religious background (multipolarization), but that also maintain emotional, economic, political, and
sociocultural links not only with the original territory, but with other diasporic groups of the same origin (see Ma Mung, 2005).
2016 Taylor & Francis
2 M. F. AMIG

media. Building upon Benedict Andersons imagined communities, he introduced the concept of
diasporic public spheres to refer to the growing conversations between those who move and those
who stay (Appadurai, 1996, p. 22) and to account for the deterritorialized or long-distance cultural,
identity, and political practices of diasporic communities. His conceptualization of how the mediatic
circulation of diasporic sounds and images lead to communities of sentiment seems today more
relevant than ever before. According to Appadurai, these diasporic communities of sentiment feed a
sense of belonging, inspiring practices, and aspirations which may intersect or even conflict with
those of the nation-state (Appadurai, 1996).
One starting point when studying immigrant families and schools is to establish a contrast
between this highly dynamic environment generated by the mobility of people, images, finances,
sounds, ideas, across the globe, and what appears as relatively rigid educational institutions that host
immigrant students. In their review of the education of children in immigrant families, Arzubiaga,
Noguern, and Sullivan (2009) refer to the contradiction between the increasing demand for cultural
competence due to the deterritorialization of economies, and debates around immigrants being a
source of concern in the education system. Speaking of the United States, these authors argue that
despite the array of cultural capital in their students, schools mostly privilege specific knowledge, not
surprisingly the one that is aligned with the dominant groups. (See also Sharan, 2010; Portes & Salas,
2010; Christopoulou & de Leeuw, 2004; Tseng, 2002, for the United States, and Barea et al., 2010, for
the European context).
Multicultural education scholars have engaged in lively discussions in relation to the role of
schools in culturally diverse settings. The approach began in the 1970s as a response to the civil
rights movement, and as a contestation to assimilationist ideologies. Its major goal was to reform
educational institutions so that students from diverse backgrounds would have equal opportunities
to learn (Banks, 2009). Multicultural education approaches promote the acknowledgement of, and
engagement with, diversity within learning institutions; however, critics have pointed at the fact that
it avoids discussions of class, institutionalized racism, power, and capitalism (Banks, 2009), and that
it essentializes cultures by ignoring the postmodern fractured identity (May, 2009). I would add my
own critique in that it concentrates on what happens or should happen within schools themselves
but overlooks immigrant families own projects in relation to the education of their children, and in
particular, how diasporic public spheres affect parental aspirations in relation to educational pro-
cesses. Multicultural education scholars have also overlooked the overriding influence schooling has
on immigrant families as a socializing and acculturating institution. (For studies of the influence
school exerts on immigrant children see Amig, 2012; Devine, 2009; Surez-Orozco & Surez-
Orozco, 2001.)

Everyday multiculturalism in Australia

To contextualize how immigrant families in Australia engage with the education system, it is
important to understand first how broader (educational) policies shape their everyday experi-
ences. In Australia, there has been debate into the contradictive, tokenistic, and inconsistent
education policies impacting on the meaning of multicultural education in the country (e.g.,
Cahill & Desmond, 1996; Inglis, 2009; Liddicoat, 2009). For example, Liddicoat describes the
evolution of multicultural education policies in Australia from the 1970s up until the 2000s. He
explains how in the 1970s the policy focus revolved around tolerance and acceptance of other
cultures, while in the 1980s it shifted toward the maintenance of diversity as beneficial to an
increasingly international economy. The focus on policies in alignment with the globalized
economy deepened in the 1990s, but in the 2000s Liddicoat suggests that policy on education
was centered around assimilationist ideologies, concluding that education and multicultural
policies in Australia still maintain the monocultural mainstream as reference point for
Australias linguistic and cultural identity . . . without at the same time being seen to undermine
multiculturalism as a national agenda (Liddicoat, 2009, p. 201). In a similar vein, Hage (1998)
 DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 3

had disputed a decade earlier that multiculturalism in Australia has been constructed for
tolerating, rather than for appreciating or engaging with, difference or non-White Australia.
But besides understanding how multiculturalism is constructed as state ideology, for the purpose
of this article it is important to explore how multiculturalism is lived and experienced. Wise and
Velayutham (2009) have pointed out at how multiculturalism as a concept has traditionally been
discussed from a top-down perspective that considers the policies, legislation, and service delivery
that underpin a culturally diverse society. But these approaches do not properly explore the everyday
multiculturalism, which they define as the everyday practice and lived experience of diversity in
specific situations and spaces of encounter, and which are, clearly, molded by the dominant political
discourses, ideologies, and policies (Wise & Velayutham, 2009, p. 3).
Against this framework of everyday multiculturalism few recent studies in Australia have looked
into immigrant families and school, and have, in some way, emphasized that cultural diversity in
educational settings is in fact tolerated but certainly not embraced and incorporated. Dockett and
Perry (2005) for example, studied the transition to school of families and children from six different
cultural and language backgrounds in Sydney, and found that parents were concerned about
schoolteachers not being aware of the challenges involved when their children are instructed in a
new language; these parents were also concerned about their own limited understanding of
Australian schools and expectations, as their homeland schooling was vastly different. Also
Sanagavarapu (2010) conducted a small study on how Bangladeshi families experience the com-
mencement of their childrens schooling and found that parents felt there is not enough acknowl-
edgement in schools about their childrens diverse backgrounds, abilities, and experiences; these
parents wanted teachers to be nonjudgmental about their childrens coping and learning abilities.
Millar (2011) studied the transition to primary school of South Korean children in South Australia
and also highlighted the difficulty these children and their families face when having to adjust to the
language of instruction and face new cultural practices. Matthews (2008), on the other hand, focused
on the schooling of African refugees in South Australia and called for considering postdisplacement
issues in school such as racialization, acculturation, and resilience, which were observed in the
population studied. What all these studies have in common is their emphasis on the cultural and
educational clashes between immigrant families and schools. And although valuable, they dont delve
into these confrontations. There has not been much discussion, for example, on the way Australian
families experience how school affects the aspirations for their childrens education, or the identity
formation processes immigrant parents and their children undergo.

Aligning identity and aspirations

In the late 1990s Zhou (1997) referred to the acculturation gap between immigrant parents and their
children in terms of consonance versus dissonance. Zhou explained that a consonant acculturation is
when parents and childrens adjustment to the new setting moves at a similar pace, whereas a
dissonant one is when it does not, generating a significant cultural distance between the two
generations. In line with a consonance approach, Isik-Ercan (2014) showed how immigrant parents
and children display their agency to jointly shape third spaces (Bhabha, 1994) or hybrid identities
that align with the impact various cultural, institutional, and social contexts have on identity
formation in the host country. The factors that determine whether the acculturation is consonant
or dissonant, in Zhous terms, are various, but in this article I will argue that what happens at school
and the relationships immigrant parents establish with the institution are central to the process.
In a similar vein, I will suggest that in Australia immigrant parents educational aspirations for
their children are challenged when confronted with schools. Aspirations in relation to high educa-
tional achievement and subsequent economic success, have been discussed as the most accessible
path to immigrant families accomplishments (Louie, 2004; Waters, 2009). Louie (2004) for example,
discusses how, in the United States, second-generation Chinese childrens sense of obligation to
succeed at school is deeply influenced by their parents aspirations, and also by childrens sense of
4 M. F. AMIG

responsibility in acknowledging their parents sacrifice to emigrate. Kao and Tienda (1995, 1998)
suggest second-generation immigrant youth academically outperform their native or third-
generation immigrant peers, partly due to their mothers high aspirations, and to their parents
optimism in relation to their socioeconomic prospects. Also, speaking of the United States, Cheng
and Starks (2002) explore the impact of parents, teachers, and friends expectations on educational
achievement of minority students from Asian, African-American, and Hispanic backgrounds, also
emphasizing how parental aspirations affect performance. Despite this handful of studies, immi-
grants aspirations as one of the dimensions affecting social mobility have been understudied, with
even more limited research in Australia (Coates, 2007). And, in particular, the shaping of immigrant
parents aspirations for their children by global communications as well as by the foreign contexts
they encounter is mostly an unexplored area, and one to which the present study wants to
contribute.
The study I am presenting, which is based on information shared by two different immigrant
communities in Sydney, wants to shed light on how the socialization and acculturation processes of
Spanish-speaking and Indonesian-speaking immigrant families intersect with the broader contexts of
diasporic public spheres and the practices that revolve around multiculturalism and school in
Sydneys multicultural society. Also, the study explores how immigrant parents educational aspira-
tions are challenged and resignified during their childrens transition into the Sydney schooling
system. My study will offer an example of how schooling affects the thoughts, feelings, actions, and
decisions of immigrant parents whose children are being socialized, acculturated, and educated in an
unfamiliar environment. I will contribute with an insight into these experiences, including the
coping strategies parents develop in order to adjust to a new system and reformulate the dreams
for their children.

The study
Between 2009 and 2011 I conducted a small-scale qualitative study in metropolitan Sydney aiming to
explore the socialization and acculturation issues involved when immigrant families come into
contact with public schools, and how these influenced the aspirations these families had for their
children when they migrated to Australia. I focused on families belonging to two language groups
(Spanish and Indonesian) who had arrived in Australia within the previous five years and who had a
child born overseas and younger than age 8 enrolled in a primary school in metropolitan Sydney.
Families participating varied in socioeconomic status and came from a range of geographical
locations: Half lived in the wealthier Eastern and Northern suburbs while the other half lived in
the less affluent Western suburbs.
Besides the opportunity to compare two very different cultural groups, I concentrated on Spanish-
and Indonesian-speaking families because the research assistant and myself are fluent in these
languages and acquainted with their cultural backgrounds, which greatly assisted in the recruitment
and collection of data. There has been limited research into these two specific immigrant commu-
nities in the Sydney area. In a previous work (Amig, 2012) I refer to the fifth wave of Spanish-
speaking immigrants to Australia happening from the turn of the 21st century, and distinguishing
itself from previous waves of Spanish-speaking immigrants who came to Australia for economic or
political reasons. Spanish-speaking immigrants coming to the country in the 2000s are highly skilled
and are after a safer and more promising environment for themselves, but especially for their
children. They choose Australia for its skilled migration scheme that enables certain professionals
within a specific age range, and with a good command of the English language, to apply for
permanent residency. Argentineans, Chileans, Colombians, Peruvians, and Venezuelans are the
larger groups. Most of them are middle class, hold one or more university degrees, and had a
good standard of living in their home countries at the time of migration.
Being a neighbouring country, Indonesians have also been migrating to Australia for decades. In
recent years, many of them have come as sponsored international students who end up staying
 DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 5

permanently, also under the skilled migration scheme (see Hawthorne, 2010), and this was the case
for some of the Indonesian informants in this study. But the sharper cultural contrast between
Indonesians and mainstream dominant Australian culture in such areas like religion and assumed
gender roles has meant, perhaps, that this immigrant community experiences more isolation and
detachment from the Australian society (see Frost, 2008; Nilan, Donaldson, & Howson, 2007),
especially if compared to the Spanish-speaking communities.
I acknowledge that findings from this study cannot be extrapolated to other immigrant groups
and more research into the experiences of other ethnic communities should be conducted before
drawing broad conclusions. However, the qualitative study aimed at generating understanding on a
slice of life (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005), and identifies issues that are likely to be relevant to other
immigrant groups.
I planned the collection of data in two stages, each of six months. The first stage consisted of
ethnographic fieldworkbecoming intimately involved in the culture being studiedand the second
one of semistructured interviews. During the fieldwork stage, the research assistant and myself
frequented the settings where newly arrived families gather. In particular, we attended two different
language specific playgroups (Spanish and Indonesian) once a week during six months, where we
gathered data through participant observation. Common immigrant issues such as language, settle-
ment, and the education of their children were informally brought up among mothers and the
occasional father. At these encounters we were informed of other immigrant gatherings (meetings or
celebrations), and invited to attend. These would take place at community centers, private houses,
churches, or mosques, and gave the researchers the opportunity to gain an understanding of the
dynamics in the lives of these recently arrived groups. At the end of this six-month period we had
attended nine different immigrant gatherings, some of them lasting a whole day.
During this first stage of data collection we recruited 20 families (10 from each language back-
ground) who had arrived in Australia within the last five years, and who had children enrolled in a
NSW government primary school. The second stage of the research consisted of interviews with the
parents and children in these families, as well as with some of the childrens teachers and school
principals. This article focuses on the data obtained from immigrant parents only. This group
included 15 mothers and 8 fathers belonging to 20 different families. All except four interviews
were conducted in families native language (either Spanish or Indonesian). Interview questions
revolved around the reasons for immigrating, their expectations in relation to their childrens
education, their appreciation of the Australian education system, and their perception of their
childrens identity formation.
In qualitative research the analysis of the information gathered and the interpretative process are
grounded in the evidence captured in the data. Following the procedures first suggested by the
developers of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) in this study the collection
of data went hand in hand with its interpretation through an iterative process that intended to refine
analytical categories during and after each stance of collection. In the end, together with the research
assistant, we developed a conceptual interpretation of the data in light of the research questions.
Nvivo software was used to organize field notes and transcripts from interviews, develop codes,
themes, and categories. We strived to be reflective and made explicit our preconceptions about the
research questions, as well as about the communities involved, in order to become aware of, and
acknowledge, their influences while analyzing and writing up the information gathered. The research
assistant and myself translated the quotations included in this chapter.

Destination: Australia
That was the main reason, our childrens future. Because I knew that in Australia I would not be able to
continue with my professional career because of the language barrier. The same for my husband. But we
knew that as soon as we arrived in Australia, our children would have a greater chance to succeed.
(Peruvian mother)
6 M. F. AMIG

I came here because I wanted to be reunited with my husband, but the dream is to have a better education for
my child. (Indonesian mother)

The above vignettes from the study being reported epitomize middle-class immigrant parents
hopes and aspirations in making the decision to leave ones homeland. Several parents in this study
recounted having moved to Australia as a way of providing their children with a better life in terms
of security and opportunities, even if this meant a huge sacrifice for them.
In Appadurais terms (1996), these families would fall within his diasporas of hope: those
diasporas that occur not because of persecution or despair, but because of aspirations that are
grounded in mass-mediated imaginary. Providing a better future for their children has always been a
driving force in immigrant families agendas, but the middle-class, highly educated, and mediatically
connected population that Australia has received in recent years calls for a deeper analysis around
immigration, aspirations, education, acculturation, and socialization.
In my study, education in general and schools in particular encapsulate for immigrant families the
dreams and desires that constantly remind them of the meaning of their diaspora. Immigrant
parents, however, rarely come prepared to face an education system that may have different work
ethics and ideas of success, or that immerses their children in a range of cultural practices that may
be foreign and unwelcomed at home.

High academic expectations and parental involvement

When any child starts school it is only natural for her parents to refer back to their own school
years and have expectations that relate to how education was imparted then. For middle-class
immigrant families this is not different, except perhaps in that they translocate those past
experiences into educational settings they were never part of. Schools all over the world have
more similarities than differences in terms of routines, practices, celebrations, the organization of
human resources, and ways of legitimizing knowledge. But beyond these structural similarities
there are important differences that only become visible to immigrant parents when their
children start school.
All parents interviewed claimed that providing their children with high-quality education was
their priority. And despite the linguistic and cultural challenges, parents coming from contexts as
diverse as Venezuela and Indonesia showed no apprehension in relation to how their children would
adjust to the academic requirements of their schools. Being part of a multicultural middle class
(Colic-Peisker, 2011), and having come to Australia as successful professionals in their homelands,
parents concerns revolved more around the fact that Australian schools might not challenge their
children enough, or offer a transparent and measurable way of assessing their childrens perfor-
mance. Qualitative data that referred to the more relaxed and less academically rigorous modality of
Australian public schools was recurrent and surprisingly similar for both ethnic groups. In both
interviews and informal conversations, parents referred to their countries where the school day
revolves around more work and less play and the demands continue after school with the homework
load being much heavier than the one in Australia.
Here in Sydney we feel schools have lower academic expectations than in Mexico. When Ana does her
homework she tells me, This is silly mom, its too easy. She finishes her homework in a few minutes and
thats it. (Mexican mother)

In Argentina there are weekly checks to assess how children are progressing. This doesnt exist here. There are
like minitests from year 1 on, to look at their progress. And on top of these exams, the report card came back
home every 2 months. . . . This puts pressure on the kids but you get to know where they stand. (Argentine
father)

There is not too much pressure compared to Indonesia. The education is slower, more relaxed. In Australia
there is a lot of time in a school day, but the quality is not that good. They want children to have fun, art. In
Indonesia there is more emphasis on learning, there is more pressure on children. Here the basics are different,
 DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 7

they want children to have fun. Here there is less competition amongst peers, in Indonesia much more. There
are higher standards and students compete more. (Indonesian mother)

Interestingly, however, immigrant parents in the study communicated their apprehension in

relation to the expectations schools in Australia have on parental involvement. Parents expect
schools to impart academic rigor, unambiguous marking and ranking systems, discipline, and
clear boundaries in their childrens schooling, with little or no contribution on their behalf. While
referring to how school systems operate in their home countries where the responsibility for
childrens education lies with the educators, immigrant parents in both language groups expressed
surprise and confusion in relation to the expectations placed on them as participants in their
childrens formal education. Parents believe their role is primarily to inculcate respect and good
behavior in the home, but assume the school is the one responsible for reinforcing these values and
for all academic matters.
In Argentina the educator is the teacher, and the parent just observes what the child learns. Here there is much
more participation, parents spend much more time at school, they do reading with their kids at school . . . that
doesnt exist in my country (Argentine mother).

This is different from Indonesia, in Indonesia you are not encouraged to be involved, not really, they dont
encourage it, you just leave the children in the classroom . . . you just remind them to follow instructions and
do the homework as teachers say (Indonesian mother).

It seems as if the family is integrated to the school in Australia, its different to what I know . . . In Venezuela
there is no time for that; in Venezuela the father brings the kid to school, leaves him at the door and leaves. . . .
There is no time for school; in Venezuela families exist after 9 p.m. (Venezuelan father)

But even if immigrant parents were willing to adjust to the implicit expectations schools have on
them, they would find it practically very challenging. Immigrants in our study did not come with
extended family, and the pressure to work and make a living in the new country is very strong for
men and women alike. Long working hours and no help in the household makes it very difficult for
these parents to become involved in school activities. Parents in our study felt that although they
appreciate this model of parental involvement in schools and believe it provides them with the
opportunity to share more of their childrens school life, it also puts a lot of pressure on them, in
particular on those who work full-time.
For mothers that dont work or who have more free time, they obviously have more opportunities to develop a
relationship with the school. I work. My husband works. So it means we just go to the meetings, when they are
discussing the kids reports or something. We only go for that. And to be honest, you feel guilty when you dont
participate here. In Spain you would think, Look at that parent sucking up to the teacher, always in school
talking to the teacher. (Spanish mother)

Other works have also pointed out the difficulty immigrant parents face when asked to become
involved in their childrens schooling (e.g., Carren, Drake, & Barton, 2005; Olmedo, 2003). But our
analysis suggests it is not just lack of time but also of unfamiliarity with the system that made
immigrant parents in our study remain outsiders. Parents seem to struggle to understand underlying
issues about the systems rationale, and the information provided is not enough for them to learn
about the tacit practices that make up a particular schools culture.
You start learning things by word of mouth, but you dont get a real understanding. You look stupid at the
beginning. . . . You dont know what is expected from you. For example, in Spain I see the teacher and I know he
loves me to ask about my kid. Here I dont know if he thinks its okay for me to ask or if he is busy. (Spanish mother)

The specific ways in which Australian public schools approach academic instruction and integrate
parents into the education of their children are evidently unfamiliar for the immigrant families in
this study. This could point at a sense of alienation immigrant parents experience when they first
encounter the schooling system, but also speaks of a challenge to their high academic expectations,
and of the difficulty in understanding what the school values as success.
8 M. F. AMIG

Beyond the academic: acknowledging the broader curriculum

Interestingly, however, participants discourses in both language groups included positive reflections
on abilities and values that Australian schools aim to inculcate in its student population. Despite
parents concern about what they perceive as a hassle-free approach to education in Australia, they
clearly expressed their appreciation toward a system that, although less rigorous and regimented
than the one they know, offers their children the opportunity to develop dimensions of their
personalities that they themselves did not have the opportunity to develop. Participants acknowl-
edged that approaches to teaching in Australia have some remarkable advantages compared to the
one they know.
I think that the teaching style in Spain is not good. Its learning by heart. Children have to study like crazy and
they dont do any projects, they dont do any practical stuff. And here they have to apply things they learn, they
have to think, they have to think more. In Spain they have to memorize without thinking. (Spanish father)

Here they learn more things at school, I mean, they learn more things in relation to the environment, other
cultures, which I think are very enriching too; they make kids more well-rounded individuals. (Argentine
mother)

[In Indonesia] just the brain, they push the children to work the brain very hard, but when it comes to
communicating what they are thinking about . . . they really have a problem, but here the major thing is to
express yourself, what you think, what you feel, agree and disagree with people. Thats a major thing and thats
why Im happy about school in Australia. (Indonesian father)

Parents in this study appreciated Australian schools broader curriculum. They perceive them as
institutions that build well-rounded children by focusing not only on academic performance but also
on their development as moral and social beings, allowing them to think independently and free to
express their views.
They did a play in October and my kids were rehearsing since July. And it was lovely, and you could tell how
much effort they had put into it, with all songs from musicals. So here they put more emphasis on that, all kids
know how to act, all kids know how to speak in public because they need to give presentations. That, maybe, is
not really taken care of in Spain, because in Spain they are more concerned about formalities and academic
performance. (Spanish mother)

I see there are some differences between school in Indonesia and Australia. In Indonesia the students have to do
their best academically, and the teacher always monitors, records values, reports numeric values. . . . But here, I
see, its not only like that, but children are encouraged to develop their personality. . . . I heard from one of the
children of my friends, when he found a wallet and he gave it to the Principal, and the Principal gave him an
award, because of his good attitude. I think school in Australia has a better balance between academic and
personal development. (Indonesian mother)

Parents expressed how in their home countries the daily routine is more regimented and strict
and the teacher-student relationship is more hierarchical, with the teacher imparting the knowledge
and the student having a more passive role. Children in these countries are asked to remain sitting
down, listen more and speak less, and through repetition of tasks get to memorize a large number of
facts. Parents in both language groups found that, in contrast, in Australian schools children have
fun and the class environment is more relaxed. There was clearly a hint of ambiguity in parents
narratives, for although they expressed concern toward the apparently less academically rigorous
curriculum, they still acknowledged school in Australia was very beneficial for their childrens overall
development.

Beyond the curriculum: what children learn at school

Among the most interesting findings was parents awareness that school teaches their children much
more than what the curriculum stipulates. This happens of course in schools around the world, but
in cases where immigrant communities come from cultural backgrounds that are significantly
 DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 9

dissimilar to the one prevailing in the host country, parents may find aspects of what children learn
at school quite challenging. For example, a few Indonesian parents mentioned that because the
school is in their eyes quite relaxed and school relationships are not as hierarchical as they are back
home, their children adopt behaviors that could become inconsistent with the more structured
adultchild relationship prevalent in their culture.
Here people are more individualistic, egotistic. I dont care. Even my daughter says her friends say that. She
sometimes says that to me in English. Teachers are more open towards our children. They understand children.
In Indonesia they are more authoritarian. What teacher says, must be done. (Indonesian mother)

Sometimes they give children individual freedom because the essence is that every individual has the right to
say what they think. . . . Sometimes this is a bit too much, so . . . I see the authority of teachers and parents
sometimes reduced compared to what it is like in Indonesia. (Indonesian mother)

Interestingly, Isik-Ercan (2014) found Turkish-American families in her study felt similarly about
American schools compared to the system in Turkey, which encourages conformity with authority in
a much more overt way than American schools do. Both language groups also expressed concern in
relation to what they perceive as a quite relaxed attitude to personal appearance and manners. For
example, parents mentioned that since arriving in Australia their children have adopted some habits
that they describe as carefree, such as boys having long and uncombed hair, wearing informal clothes
for every occasion, or being willing to take their shoes off at any time, even during class-time.
He likes to walk without shoes, these sorts of things, he likes his hair messy. We dont use it like that in
Venezuela. When we communicate with his grandmother over Skype she tells him, Grandson, but your hair
. . . you cant use the hair like that. He likes that messy style, because that is how he sees the other children.
(Venezuelan father)

He lets his hair long and a bit shaggy, like his friends, like his peers at school. . . . He looks like an Aussie bloke.
(Indonesian mother)

Sometimes you go to the classroom and it is hard to tell whether they are during class time or recess. They are
all moving around, talking, with their shoes off. It is a bit too much. (Argentine father)

Also worth mentioning is that, even without being prompted, both groups were surprised about
childrens relationship with food and the mealtime routines at school. Spanish-speaking parents
complained about the lunch routine, arguing that it is incompatible with their cultures, where lunch
is an important meal, one that includes healthy warm food eaten with utensils on a table over a long
period of time. These parents found that because schools do not have refrigeration and heating
facilities, and because children eat on the floor with their hands, they are forced to have a light and,
in their view, not nutritious enough cold meal, which is eaten in a rush in order to maximize
playtime. Coming from cultures where meals and table manners are highly valued, Spanish-speaking
parents resented that the school does not have a role in reinforcing these manners. One of the
informants explained,
In Spain, lunchtime means going to the school canteen, each child sitting in his spot, with his tray, entre, main
course, dessert . . . and here they sit on the floor, in the playground; I find it surrealist. (Spanish mother)

But besides eating routines, the food itself was an issue mentioned in various interviews. Many
parents reported how surprised they were in relation to their childrens eating preferences, some-
times insinuating disappointment to realize that children were unwilling to bring to school food
prepared at home.
If I packed Indonesian food for lunch he wouldnt eat it. . . . And I once brought him Indonesian food and he
said, Why did you bring me that food? I want you to bring me a fruit bar, Australian food. (Indonesian
mother)

He always asks me to make him a sandwich for school, every day a sandwich, no noodles or rice. (Indonesian
mother)
10 M. F. AMIG

She prefers to bring to school carrot sticks and wants a vegemite sandwich every day. That surprises me; in that
sense she is more Australian than the Australian people. (Argentine mother)

These narratives highlight how diverse school cultures can be in different parts of the world and
the dissimilar expectations parents may have in relation to the education and socialization of their
children. And again, they invite reflection on how confused immigrant families may feel during the
early days of their childrens schooling in the new country, where their habits, customs, and
expectations are not reflected in the institution that socializes their children. Immigrant parents
realize soon after their children start school that the education of their children goes beyond the
academic and that schools have a paramount and overriding role in shaping their childrens
attitudes, preferences, and appearance. The biggest challenge for immigrant parents is how to
negotiate the introduction of these unfamiliar cultural traits in their homes, while at the same
time maintain and reinforce their own values, practices, and heritage.

Beyond school: parents teachings at home

The culture is very different here and I wanted her to know about differences. She can manage both cultures,
but she feels Indonesian in Australia. At home we are Indonesian, but I teach her that outside she is Australian.
But I emphasize that at home she is Indonesian. When out of home, she is more Australian. I teach her, You
are Muslim. We go to the mosque. (Indonesian mother)

One of the aspects I explore in this article is parents acknowledgement of the hybridization
process in the context of their childrens schooling, and their determination to not completely lose
their children to the host countrys mores. This determination goes against classic assimilation
theory, and brings us back not only to the multicultural middle-class ethos of immigrant families
that see a lot of value in maintaining their language and traditions, but also to the globalized, highly
dynamic, and mobile international context where these families maintain a frequent and meaningful
connection to their countries of origin be it through regular trips back home, mobile, or online
communications with relatives and friends, not to add those who may well return definitely to their
homelands.
Alonso and Oiarzabal (2010) point at the complex identity and political processes that are now
possible thanks to horizontal communications (satellite, Internet, and mobile technologies), which
allow deterritorialized communities to have a very active role in shaping their migratory projects.
Diasporeans re-create psychological or emotional communities that inhibit an interstitial space
between the land of origin and the land of settlement (Alonso & Oiarzabal, 2010, p. 9). These
authors coin the term digital diasporas (Alonso & Oiarzabal, 2010, p. 11) to refer to the online
networks that immigrants use to connect to their homelands and reinforce their cultures, even
influence policy both in their countries of origin and in their host country. This concept is
illuminating for the purpose of this article in that it helps us understand the ease with which
immigrant parents can evoke and reinforce images, sounds, and connections from the land left
behind and use them to embed their children in its culture. Data from this study suggests, in fact,
that an important dimension of these immigrant parents aspirations is to reinvigorate their culture
of origin in their children.
We had Mexican Independence day recently, and I explain to the children, Look, this is Independence day.
We watch the Mexican TV channel, and they show the Mexican presidents shout of approval for
Independence, which happens every year. And I tell them what that means. We also celebrate the day of the
dead. . . . In Mayan language it is Hanal Pixan, and you build an altar to your loved ones who passed away and
you put food offerings. . . . I have my altar which my mother in law sent to me from Mexico. We celebrate it a
lot, and the children dress up. (Mexican mother)

Appearing frequently in immigrant parents accounts is the effort they put into teaching their
children about the geography and history of their country of origin, even its patriotic days, and of
course religion. Families insinuated it was pivotal for them that their children learned about,
 DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 11

respected, and embodied their heritage. Many studies have shown that immigrant parents consider it
vital for their children to maintain closeness to the native culture (e.g., Archer, Francis, & Mau, 2010;
Devine, 2009; Isik-Ercan, 2014; Winarnita, 2008), but I argue that the intimacy and immediacy
offered by technology enlivens immigrants hopes of raising a family in their language and customs.
Appadurais diasporic public spheres and Alonso and Oiarzabals digital diasporas become again
helpful concepts to understand the aspirations and practices of these highly digitalized immigrant
communities that are dislocated but united to their homeland by media imaginary, and determined
to remain attached to their people and traditions.
Along the same vein, parents aspirations in relation to language maintenance is another case in
point. Parents mentioned how important it was for their children to learn their home language, as it
encapsulates the culture they do not want to lose or forget. But native language learning was also
mentioned as a necessary ability to communicate with relatives back home, as well as an economic
resource for childrens future professional lives, highlighting again parents frequent communication
with their families back home, as well as their aspirations for their childrens economic success.
I always try to maintain his Spanish. . . . I want him to speak good Spanish . . . because that will help him in the
future, which is something that as a kid one doesnt understand. (Peruvian mother)

Spanish is important because I have eight siblings, not all of them speak English, and my parents dont speak
English. (Venezuelan mother)

We always speak in Indonesian. . . . He still learns English but I read books in Indonesian, so if the book is in
English, we try to explain it in Indonesian. . . . the story in a book. . . . Sometimes he forgets Indonesian . . . and
Im really concerned. (Indonesian father)

The emphasis on reinforcing the culture of origin was counterpoised with parents narratives on
the array of habits, ways of being, and thinking that immigrant children incorporate through school
and bring home. Almost all parents interviewed were reflective about this process and understood it
as a natural outcome. But they also emphasized how they could not admit that their children might
lose the connection to, and understanding of, their parents culture. There have been studies around
the difficulties first-generation immigrant parents face in accepting and exerting influence upon their
childrens bicultural worlds (e.g., Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Zhou & Xiong, 2005). Isik-Ercan (2014)
has proposed, however, that children (and parents themselves), do not navigate bicultural worlds,
but hybrid ones. Her argument echoes my own findings, as I hold that the challenge for immigrant
parents is how to manage their childrens multiple belongings, and accept not only the hybridity in
their childrens lives, but also in their own. What became clear in this study is that, for parents,
hybridity is difficult to manage.
I believe while at school the teacher always teaches about sustaining good norms and good things, according to
Western culture. But we, as parents at home, also teach him the good things according to Eastern culture and
the Islamic norms. So I want him as he is, I mean, two cultures mixed together, at the end its okay, as long as
they are good for him. (Indonesian mother)

We have our own values and our own customs and traditions. And we live in Australia trying to maintain all
these, but we also have to accept our childrens new ways. . . . My daughter feels Australian, she loves to
celebrate Australia Day, display Australian flags and eat meat pies and fish and chips, but she was born in Peru.
She also feels Peruvian. I show her films and documentaries, and make her listen to our music, huayno, saya,
from Peru, and she says, Mum, that is really beautiful, isnt it? She knows she was born in Peru. (Peruvian
mother)

Many of these narratives evoke a deep and conscious involvement of parents in the education,
socialization, and acculturation of their children. Paradoxically, for parents who find Australian
schools approach of involving parents in school challenging, the determination to inculcate their
language and traditions into their offspring leaves them with no choice but to become intimately
attentive to what their children learn at school, and driven to educate them themselves into their
customs. The following quote from an Indonesian mother illustrates this point with great clarity:
12 M. F. AMIG

I have an agreement with my daughter, What you learn outside home, you need to tell me, share with me, and I
will direct you into whats best for you. For example, in relation to religion, Islam is very central to our lives.
Sometimes there can be conflicts with the school. . . . In relation to fasting, the teacher says they dont recommend
fasting during Ramadan for children of her age. But my daughter fasts since she was three; she knows how to do it.
She can do it. I tell her, you have to fast today, but her school doesnt support fasting for little children. I had to talk
to the teacher, because she still goes to school during the fasting month. (Indonesian mother).

The voices of immigrant parents in this study in relation to the education of their children are tinted
with ambiguity. They aspire for an academically rigorous education system, but they appreciate the well-
rounded and less regimented approach to learning. They feel uncomfortable with the systems philoso-
phy of intimately involving parents in the schooling of their children; however, they want to know exactly
what they learn at school, and discuss with school staff any teachings or practices that may conflict with
what their children learn at home. They yearn for their children to embed themselves into their
homelands values and traditions; however, they have to accept that the school has a superseding
influence on their acculturation and socialization against which they cannot fight. This ambiguity
becomes a constant component of their diasporic lives, which brings us back to a series of questions.
What really is multiculturalism? Havent the individuals in diasporic cultures (and hosting societies)
become multicultural themselves? How can multiculturalism be governed? What role do educational
institutions have in multicultural societies? What role should they have? What is the impact of digital
media used to connect with the culture of origin on the children of immigrants, and perhaps also on their
peers and teachers? What is its impact on the education of immigrant children? And last but not least,
how are immigrant parents aspirations shaped when confronted with schooling? I cannot yet answer all
these questions, but I pose them to insinuate that this is a research field with significant potential.

Concluding remarks
The data presented above has validated a substantial body of work that has looked at the cultural
negotiations (or consonant-dissonant adjustments) between immigrant parents and children soon
after migration. But it has particularly focused on the significance of schooling in this process, and
has made evident how diverse school cultures can be in different regions of the world, which adds to
immigrant parents disorientation and ambiguous discourses. The discussion above has highlighted
parents difficulty in conciliating their own ideas of educationin its broadest sensewith the one
they encounter in the new country, and it has also shown how immigrant parents aspirations for
their children are slowly molded so they can accommodate a different approach to education, where
their involvement is necessary, not only because it is expected from schools but because it gives them
a better chance to influence what they want for their children.
The findings discussed in this study could inform policy recommendations. For example, it is
paramount that schools become more aware of these complex and critical processes that immigrant
families go through, including the development of hybrid identities and immigrant parents drive to
maintain their heritage. Schools in particular and governments more broadly would benefit from
governing diversity in more engaged and inclusive ways so as to align themselves with the aspira-
tions of immigrant families who, in Australia, make up a third of the population. Schools should
become more attuned to the societies they serve, which are increasingly diverse, highly mobile, and
needful of individuals that are competent in languages and cross-cultural communication. If schools
better respond to this hyperconnected and highly mobile global scenario, they face an unparalleled
opportunity to engage in significant social change.

Note on contributor
Mara Florencia Amig is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University, Australia, and conducts
research in the areas of the anthropology and sociology of childhood and the anthropology and sociology of education.
 DIASPORA, INDIGENOUS, AND MINORITY EDUCATION 13

References
Alonso, A., & Oiarzabal, P. (2010). The immigrant worlds digital harbors: An introdution. In A. Alonso & P.
Oiarzabal (Eds.), Diasporas in the new media age: Identity, politics and community (pp. 115). Reno, NV:
University of Nevada Press.
Amig, M. F. (2012). Liminal but competent: Latin American migrant children and school in Australia. Child Studies
in Asia-Pacific Contexts, 2(1), 6175. doi:10.5723/csdc.2012.2.1.061
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis, MN: University of
Minnesota Press.
Archer, L., Francis, B., & Mau, A. (2010). The culture project: Diasporic negotiations of ethnicity, identity and culture
among teachers, pupils and parents in Chinese language schools. Oxford Review of Education, 36(4), 407426.
doi:10.1080/03054981003775293
Arzubiaga, A., Noguern, S., & Sullivan, A. (2009). The education of children in im/migrant families. Review of
Research in Education, 33, 246271. doi:10.3102/0091732X08328243
Banks, J. (2009). Multicultural education: Theoretical perspectives and issues. In J. Banks (Ed.), The Routledge
international companion to multicultural education (pp. 932). New York, NY: Routledge.
Barea, E. M. G., Torrico, M. G. C., Lepe, E. M., Garzn, F. R., Llorente, M. T. P., & Dietz, G. (2010). Transmigrant
families: Intercultural and bilingual competences development. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 8(3),
429442. doi:10.1080/14767724.2010.505106
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. New York, NY: Routledge.
Cahill, D. & Gundert, A. (1996). Immigration and Schooling in the 1990s. Canberra, Australia: Bureau of Immigration
and Multicultural and Population Research.
Carren, G. P., Drake, C., & Barton, A. C. (2005). The importance of presence: Immigrant parents school engagement
experiences. American Educational Research Journal, 42(3), 465498. doi:10.3102/00028312042003465
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd Ed.). London, England: Sage.
Cheng, S., & Starks, B. (2002). Racial differences in the effects of significant others on students' educational
expectations. Sociology of Education, 75(4), 306327. doi:10.2307/3090281
Christopoulou, N., & de Leeuw, S. (2004). Home is where the heart is: Family relations of migrant children in media
clubs in six European countries. Deliverables 11 and 12. Retrieved from http://www.chicam.org/reports/download/
home_is_where.pdf
Coates, R. (2007). The aspirations and status attainment of Australian children of immigrant parents: Lessons from the
U.S. literature. Paper presented at the TASA & SAANZ Joint Conference Proceedings, Auckland, New Zealand.
Colic-Peisker, V. (2011). A new era in Australian multiculturalism? From working-class ethnics to a multicultural
middle-class. International Migration Review, 45(3), 562587. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7379.2011.00858.x
Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (2005). The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.),
The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp. 132). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Devine, D. (2009). Mobilising capitals? Migrant childrens negotiation of their everyday lives in school. British Journal
of Sociology of Education, 30(5), 521535. doi:10.1080/01425690903101023
Dockett, S., & Perry, B. (2005). Starting school in Australia is a bit safer, a lot easier and more relaxing: Issues for
families and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Early Years: An International Journal
of Research and Development, 25(3), 271281. doi:10.1080/09575140500251889
Frost, N. (2008). Strange people but they sure can cook! An Indonesian womens group in Sydney. Food, Culture &
Society, 11(2), 173189. doi:10.2752/175174408X317552
Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). Discovery of grounded theory. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
Hage, G. (1998). White nation: Fantasies of white supremacy in a multicultural society. Sydney, Australia: Pluto Press.
Hawthorne, L. (2010). How valuable is two-step migration? Labor market outcomes for international student
migrants to Australia. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 19(1), 536. doi:10.1177/011719681001900102
Inglis, C. (2009). Multicultural education in Australia: Two generations of evolution. In J. Banks (Ed.), The Routledge
international companion to multicultural education (pp. 109120). New York, NY: Routledge.
Isik-Ercan, Z. (2014). Third spaces: Turkish immigrants and their children at the intersection of identity, schooling,
and culture. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 8(3), 127144. doi:10.1080/15595692.2014.897222
Kao, G., & Tienda, M. (1995). Optimism and achievement: The educational performance of immigrant youth. Social
Science Quarterly, 76(1995), 121.
Kao, G., & Tienda, M. (1998). Educational aspirations of minority youth. American Journal of Education, 106,
349384. doi:10.1086/444188
Liddicoat, A. J. (2009). Evolving ideologies of the intercultural in Australian multicultural and language education
policy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 30(3), 189203. doi:10.1080/01434630802369429
Louie, V. (2004). Compelled to excel. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Ma Mung, E. (2005). Diaspora, spatiality, identities. In W. Bosswick & C. Husband (Eds.), Comparative European
research in migration, diversity and identities (pp. 3348). Bilbao, Spain: University of Deusto.
14 M. F. AMIG

Matthews, J. (2008). Schooling and settlement: Refugee education in Australia. International Studies in Sociology of
Education, 18(1), 3145. doi:10.1080/09620210802195947
May, S. (2009). Critical multiculturalism and education. In J. Banks (Ed.), The Routledge international companion to
multicultural education. New York, NY: Routledge.
Millar, N. (2011). Korean childrens cultural adjustment during transition to the early years of school in Australia.
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 36(3), 1018.
Nilan, P., Donaldson, M., & Howson, R. (2007). Indonesian Muslim masculinities in Australia. Asian Social Science,
3(9).
Olmedo, I. (2003). Accommodation and resistance: Latinas struggle for their childrens education. Anthropology
Education Quarterly, 34(4), 373395. doi:10.1525/aeq.2003.34.4.373
Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
Portes, P. R., & Salas, S. (2010). In the shadow of stone mountain: Identity development, structured inequality, and the
education of Spanish-speaking children. Bilingual Research Journal, 33, 241248. doi:10.1080/15235882.2010.502801
Sanagavarapu, P. (2010). Childrens transition to school: Voices of Bangladeshi parents in Sydney, Australia.
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 35(4), 2129.
Sharan, Y. (2010). Cooperative learning: A diversified pedagogy for diverse classrooms. Intercultural Education, 21(3),
195203. doi:10.1080/14675981003760390
Surez-Orozco, C., & Surez-Orozco, M. (2001). Children of immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Tseng, Y.-H. (2002). A lesson in culture. ELT Journal, 56(1), 1121. doi:10.1093/elt/56.1.11
Waters, M. C. (2009). Black identities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Winarnita, M. S. (2008). Motherhood as cultural citizenship: Indonesian women in transnational families. The Asia
Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 9(4), 304318. doi:10.1080/14442210802506412
Wise, A., & Velayutham, S. (2009). Multiculturalism and everyday life. In A. Wise & S. Velayutham (Eds.), Everyday
multiculturalism (pp. 120). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan Basingstoke.
Zhou, M. (1997). Growing up American: The challenge confronting immigrant children and children of immigrants.
Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 6395. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.23.1.63
Zhou, M., & Xiong, Y. S. (2005). The multifaceted American experiences of the children of Asian immigrants: Lessons
for segmented assimilation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28(6), 11191152. doi:10.1080/01419870500224455