blog assignment #4

“When you are an immigrant, many doors are closed. Well, yes, some, some are open – but they are hidden. Without help, I can’t find them.” Edgar

Consider what doors are open and closed here in Italy for immigrants and for youth in general in terms of education? How do you compare these to the doors in the united State? What are you basing your opinions and perspectives on?

When speaking of contemporary Italy, immigration is a relatively new phenomenon, as its occurrence has only been happening for just over two decades. With this, immigration’s youth come into play as they are changing the Italian education system. Just like the United States, Italy has “doors” that are open and closed for immigrant students. As there are commonalities and differences between the two nations, it is well known that the opportunities for a migrant student are marginalized.

The main difference is the way school is taught in both countries and how students in general are treated. By high school, an Italian student should know the path he or she would like to take career wise as high school is tracked into certain categories. In America, high school is where a student should consider a pathway and it is more a means of preparation for higher education, where there, he or she will pursue the selected pathway. Though the choice for the student to opt out of pursuing higher education is present in both countries, as a college education isn’t pursued by all. Another similarity is that both countries have an age where the student themselves has somewhat a choice to continue schooling in general. The age for compulsory education in Italy is 16 and in the United States the age is 18, after this the obligation of the decision for school is up to the student. Although in the United States, it is required by law for a student to attend school until 18. But enforcement of this is different in all areas, as a student could opt out before 18 but is just considered deficient of the requirements for a diploma. The reasons for one the stop schooling can be similar or different for both countries but they are both present as the rate of high school graduates is never 100% of the class.

But the problem for immigrants was having a student in the American or Italian education system; there were problems about the student’s background, language and integration of the student into the dominant society. For student’s immigrant backgrounds it wasn’t until 1994 when a law was passed requiring all students, whatever their documentation, must go to school in Italy. Later in 1998 another law was passed where it protected language and culture, as it had to be respected by the school system. In the United States a similar law was passed after the Ply v. Doe case in 1982 that made it so all undocumented students have the right to an education and no one is allowed to question their legal status. In both countries these laws gave an opportunity for immigrant families to send their children to school to obtain an education. Although the difference with this is that in Italy the student must go. But in the United States, the student has the right, meaning they can but don’t have to go. Which could be for a variety of reasons.

In both countries there is an effort to teach the primary language, as there is English second language classes and Italian language classes for immigrants. Something that comes up with this is that in America, ESL teaches only English and do not incorporate the student’s original language. There were classes that do integrate the student’s language and were called bilingual classes but the with the diversity of the immigrant students, there wasn’t enough help offered for each separate native language integration. This problem is also in Italy as there isn’t enough help for all the different races of immigrant students.

What brought this issue of bilingual education instruction was the Lau v Nichols (1974) case, where in San Francisco, students of the Chinese community were not being offered an equal education as they were only given a hour for extra of help with their English and some didn’t get any. They didn’t speak English and were required to continue their education in English, even though they didn’t know it. On the basis of violating their civil rights under title VI of the civil rights law of 1964, the case was brought up to the Supreme Court and ruled that a student not understanding English in American schooling will have a different experience than of one that does.

  

A very recent issue that happened in Italy is when the minister of education, Gelmini made a new decree that rattled the education system and student immigrants by slashing funds and segregating classes for immigrant students. This had a major impact on schools with a high number of immigrant students because it made the demography of classes to not exceed 30% of immigrant students. This affected a number of schools in Italy, as there were schools that were close to 90% immigrant students. This resulted in a number of protests.

The “doors” in both countries are very comparable as they are both have open ones and closed ones, for immigrant students. although within these commonalities there are differences as policies from each country differ regarding immigration and education. Even though there looks like there’s an opportunity, it’s only to a certain extent for a immigrant student as there are limitations, glass ceilings, and all in all a social othering of the students.