Citizenship education: are children coming from immigration well integrated or not in the host countries?

Résumé du document

Migration is a world-wide phenomenon, and many people are constantly on the move. There are 130 million people of immigrating in the world. This topic is often in the news, particularly at the border Mexico-United States and at the border between Africa and European Union (Strait of Gibraltar). In almost all European countries the percentage of foreigners has increased dramatically since World War II, and Europe is becoming a place in which immigrants and their descendants play an important economic, social, cultural and political role. Indeed, many people from developing countries want to go to rich countries. They often envision these countries as paradise. However, when they succeed in entering, they face several difficulties. That's why, it is important to help their children integrate in the new country (of course, adults also need similar help, but my essay deals with children).

Extraits

[...] Education must be oriented towards the global citizen who needs to live with others within a compact of mutual tolerance and respect in diverse and often conflictridden real and virtual public spaces (Huckle, 2001). The aims of education are to promote student's physical, social, ethical and emotional growth in a constantly changing world. So, education must help develop students' autonomy, critical thinking, and solidarity with others through tolerance and respect towards other people and the environment as well as self-respect. [...]

[...] Immigrant students are just one small part of that process. While World Citizenship Education may indeed be a lofty ideal, teachers, can start today by creating diversity-positive environments in classrooms. Bibliography Talib, M-T. (2006) Diversity : a Challenge for Educators. Finnish Educational Research Association, Turku. Ross, A. (2003) A Europe of Many Cultures. A CiCe publication, London. Issa, T., Dinvaut, A., Petrucijova, J. (2006) Citizenship Education: Identity issues in a time of Diaspora, Migration and Settlement. A CiCe publication, London. [...]

[...] Teachers must develop their pedagogical and didactical skills to understand the learning styles and challenges of each of their students. The didactics of teaching immigrant children, as with all children, is based on knowing the child, their background, their culture, what they know and what they have experienced. This can all be taken into consideration when planning their lessons but teachers need to overstress the "foreign" dimension of the child. It is important to focus on the child's personality and learning style rather than on his or her immigrant status. [...]

[...] The objectives of the students' work were : To analyse feelings about migration, especially those related to the change of cultural and familiar environments, by exploring family memories. To look at similarities and differences between past and present migratory processes by learning about the life stories of new migrants and approaching them from their own family experience. To explore the social change undergone by schools in the previous five years as a consequence of migrations, and to learn how they are facing the new challenges that this represents : academic, administrative and management issues, such as late entrance pupils, cultural issues, communication with the families, etc. [...]

[...] Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Huckle, J. (2001) Global Citizenhip in Initial Teacher Education http.//john.huckle.org.uk/publications.htm Levin, S (2003) Social psychological evidence on race and racism. Stanford University Press, Stanford. Harachi, T., Catalano, R., Hawkins, J. (1999) The nature of school bullying. A cross national perspective. Routledge, London. Sullivan, K. (2000) Racist bullying : creating understanding and strtaegies for teachers. Falmer Press, London, New York. [...]