Immigration Studies at NYU

Pathways to Immigrant Opportunity

After-school Activities for Children & Youth

School-based efforts to support immigrant children’s adaptation, language acquisition, and overall academic progress are critical to ensuring their successful integration and educational achievement.  Students spend only part of their time in schools, however, and school-based programs and activities must be complemented and bolstered by additional initiatives to provide immigrant-origin children with academic (Pittman, Irby, Yohalem & Wilson-Ahlstrom, 2004), social, (Roffman, Suárez-Orozco & Rhodes, 2003) and emotional support (Rhodes, 2004) outside of school hours. Given the diverse range of immigrant children’s needs and interests, a variety of government agencies and non-governmental and community organizations may be called upon to provide after-school activities for youth.  School-community collaborations in the development of after-school programs represent one way to ensure continuity of instruction and support.  Locally-sponsored athletic activities and cultural groups constitute another potential avenue.  In fact, the realm of possibilities for engaging youth in after-school activities is endless.  The key is paying attention to the critical need for youth services during after-school hours and not squandering the vast opportunity for skill development, identity development, and growth that this time provides.

Youth Academic Supports

Many, though of course not all, immigrant youth arrive with strikes against them. Students who live in high poverty neighborhoods, have parents with limited education, attend less than optimal schools, have limited literacy, have had interrupted education, arrive in adolescence, or must learn a new language while taking the usual academic courses must play catch-up in school to keep up with their more privileged peers. Further, immigrant students often do not have parents who can help them with their homework. They also often do not have a computer hooked up to a printer or to the Internet — which increasingly are requisites for completing homework assignments. They may have responsibilities at home to take care of siblings or may not have a quiet place to do homework. Thus, after-school hours can be an invaluable time period in which to receive extra academic support. Space, dedicated time, and a helpful teacher to answer questions can make all the difference in academic success or failure.

Comprehensive Development, Inc (CDI), is a community-based organization that runs the Student Life Center (SLC) inside the building of Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School, a school serving non-traditional students ages 17 to 21, many of them immigrant and specifically students with interrupted formal education (identified as SIFE.) Operating in collaboration with the school’s guidance department, the SLC offers students a range of free, critically-needed services from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily, including tutoring, counseling, college/career prep, health care, legal services, and homelessness prevention.  Students are encouraged to drop in any time, and CDI staff work closely with school personnel to identify and address issues in students’ lives and to refer them to outside agencies for additional support and services when necessary. For further information, see http://cdi-ny.org/about.html

The Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth has developed a partnership with the Calgary Public Library to set up a drop-in Homework Club at several locations in Calgary. Bilingual staff and volunteers meet immigrant youth in grades one through twelve at the library and assist with them with homework in various school subjects. The program creates an academic and social space where students can simultaneously strengthen academic skills and build friendships. For further information, see www.calgarybridgefoundation.com

The Stichting Witte Tulp (Witte Tulp Foundation) provides homework support, subject tutoring, and intensive training to prepare for the nation-wide CITO high stakes exam, and counseling about educational pathway decisions to 600 immigrant origin youth, with the help of 150 volunteers. For further information, see http://www.stichtingwittetulp.nl/

Extra-Curricular Activities

Extra-curricular activities have long featured prominently in the daily routines of the middle class and the privileged. They are, in fact, crucial to the college application process in the United States.  These activities are thought to develop character and to round out the skill sets of individuals.  Such activities are often out of reach financially to the less privileged. Further, there is simply no cultural frame to explain the necessity of participating in such activities for some immigrants (though certainly some immigrant groups heavily program their children.) Sports are a typical extra-curricular activity as are arts like music and dance. Researchers have also argued that after-school programming provides opportunities for developing engagement in learning “beyond” basic skills (Noam & Tillinger, 2004; Pittman et al., 2004). This can include skills such as website design and filmmaking, or involvement in civic engagement and community organizing. “Blurring the lines” between the kinds of learning that is done in after-school programming can benefit youth by fostering their curiosity and love of learning, increasing the relevance of their experiences, and ultimately more deeply engaging them in the process of learning (Pittman et al., 2004). After-school programming focused on extra-curricular activities also allows immigrant kids to keep busy, develop skills, participate in activities that begin to level the playing field with their more privileged peers, and foster constructive relationships around shared interests.

The YMCA-YWCA of Canada runs a Newcomer Youth Integration Program that works with newcomer immigrant youth ages 13-17 who have arrived in Canada within the last two years.  This recreational program is designed to help these youth integrate into a new society and learn to make healthy and positive life choices by teaching them strategies to cope with the challenges of life in their new surroundings and culture. It also aims to equip newcomer immigrants with leadership skills and knowledge that they will use to assist their communities with integration.  The program consists of workshops and activities that build bridges between youth and their community resources, introduce them to volunteer opportunities, and develop their job search skills. For further information, see http://www.kwymca.org/Contribute/immigrant/program_newcomer.asp

The Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre, based in Australia, uses athletic activities as one means to engage immigrant youth in positive developmental activities that support their adaptation and integration.  The Refugee Youth Basketball Program isa basketball league with five teams comprised of youth of Somali, Tongan, Vietnamese, Samoan, and Sudanese backgrounds.  Playing on a basketball team is the first experience that many of the program’s participants have had with organized team sports — which are taken for granted by many children in Western, post-industrialized nations.  The program provides equipment, uniforms, and transportation to participants and has shown promise in combating some of the loneliness and stress that many of these youth experience in the course of the migration and integration process. For further information, see http://www.spectrumvic.org.au/youth_services/refugee_youth_basketball_program

Risk Behavior Prevention

Some programs are specifically designed to target at-risk populations. These programs typically identify designated “at-risk” populations, setting up collaborations with a wide range of community organizations to help meet their diverse need.  Often these programs focus on reducing behaviors like gang participation, dropping out of school, as well as pregnancy.

Programa Escohlas is a program sponsored by the Portuguese government aimed at promoting the social inclusion of disadvantaged children and young people ages 6 to 24, with a particular focus on immigrant youth from impoverished backgrounds. Currently, there are over 120 projects being run in 71 districts across the country. Each project is led by a coordinating institution that directs a consortium of partners ranging from schools and training centers to community associations.  Each consortium develops and implements projects in four main areas: (1) school inclusion and non-formal education; (2) professional training and employability; (3) civic and community participation; and (4) digital inclusion.  As a result of this collaborative model, over 770 institutions are currently involved in Programa Escohlas.  For further information, see http://www.programaescolhas.pt/index.php?newlang=english

The Newly Arrived Youth Support Service Initiative is a federally-funded program sponsored by Australia’s Department of Families, Housing, Communities and Indigenous Affairs that provides culturally-appropriate support and intervention services to newly-arrived immigrant youth between the ages of 12 and 21 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.  Providers across the country are contracted to offer a variety of services to the at-risk youth population, including counseling, family mediation, and skills training. The initiative seeks to help these immigrant youth improve their engagement with family, work, education, and their new host society.  For further information, see http://www.cmy.net.au/NAYSS/NAYSSHome

Cultural Identity

The immigrant journey requires that youth navigate the culture of both their parents’ homeland and their new homeland. In order to successfully adapt, immigrant youth must understand the rules of engagement of their new country, know the new language, and develop a sense of belonging and loyalty; at the same time, it is important that they not feel alienated from their parents’ cultures and their own roots. When youth are not well grounded in their own culture, parental authority can become weakened and their sense of self out of kilter. For second-generation youth and immigrant children who left very young, the parental homeland may be little more than an abstraction. Native language skills may be rudimentary and native cultural traditions and practices unknown. Thus, after-school activities that support cultural heritage and cultural identity serve an important function.

The African Youth Program at the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia works with African youth ages 14 to 24 to assist in their social, cultural, and academic adjustment to life in Canada. The program consists of a range of activities designed to enhance these immigrant youths’ self-image, confidence, and identity.  In addition, the program strives to help African immigrant youth develop their own voice that they can use as leaders and role models in their communities.  The African Youth Program combines a focus on integration with cultural and ethnic identity formation and understands identity-building as a key element of successful youth integration. For further information, see http://www.issbc.org/services/family_youth/default.htm

The Ethnic Youth Council, facilitated by the Spectrum Migrant Resource Center in Australia, is comprised of young people ages 15 to 25 who seek to become community leaders and youth advocates to address issues in the lives of young Australians, particularly migrant and refugee youth.  The Council serves as a forum for young leaders to discuss issues and ideas, organize events, and advocate for changes to better meet the cultural and social needs of young immigrant and refugee members of their communities.  For further information, see http://www.spectrumvic.org.au/youth_services/ethnic_youth_council

College Pathway Knowledge

Immigrant families and students, as we have noted earlier, often know very little about how to navigate the college pathway systems of their new homelands.  There are a host of possible explanations for their limited college pathway knowledge, and these include the varying degrees of complexity of the college/university system (depending upon the host country), language factors, and unfamiliarity with university education (depending upon the educational attainment of the family members.)  Schools, the most likely information site, often fail dismally to provide information to immigrant parents and students. Thus, a promising site for intervention is partnerships among community organizations outside of schools. While we found few examples of after-school programs targeting immigrant youth that focus on developing college pathway knowledge, there are a number of innovative college-readiness programs for low-income and minority youth that may offer ideas for ways to work with immigrant youth to prepare them for college.

The Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program, run by the Junior League of Austin (Texas), was developed to support and empower Hispanic girls to achieve academically, graduate from high school, and pursue post-secondary education.  Girls are enrolled in a college preparatory program in sixth grade, and they receive tutoring, mentorship, and counseling through twelfth grade.  They also participate in joint events with their mothers such as college trips and community service activities. Through a partnership with the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work, college interns provide weekly counseling sessions for girls who are experiencing academic or personal challenges. This includes special counseling for pregnant teens. Beyond the individual counseling offered, students in the program also meet for a support group to discuss topics including self-esteem, conflict resolution, anger management, relationships between mothers and daughters, healthy romantic relationships, and study habits. In addition, female college students and professionals from the community serve as mentors, meeting with their protégés twice a month. For further information, see http://www.jlaustin.org/?nd=hmdp

Funded by the state of Florida to increase college attendance among low-income minority students, the College Reach Out Program (CROP) at Florida International University (FIU) helps at-risk students in the Miami area prepare for college. CROP runs a four-week summer camp for middle and high school students that provides academic preparation and classes geared towards the specific course work students will face in the fall. The middle school program takes place at FIU, giving students an opportunity to become familiar with a local college campus. The program also includes career exploration activities. Students work in mixed-age teams to research a specific career and gather detailed information about it, including the skills and credentials required. At the end of the program, students make formal presentations to an audience about the careers they have learned about. For further information, see http://www.fiu.edu/~fiupreco/crop1.htm

Youth Mentoring

Mentoring relationships begin with a foundation of intergenerational bonds of mutual commitment, respect, identification, and loyalty (Rhodes, 2004). For such relationships to form, however, time and sustained contact is needed (usually around a shared activity or interest.)  Too many immigrant youth lead sequestered lives with few contacts outside of their immediate homes. This is an important area of intervention, as research has shown that mentorships can be pivotal life-changing relationships for immigrant youth (Roffman, et al., 2003; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2008). These relationships provide not only invaluable information but also sustaining emotional support.

The Centre for Multicultural Youth in Australia created the Multicultural Youth Mentoring Project to provide culturally and linguistically diverse youth ages 16–21 with opportunities to develop leadership and advocacy skills that they can use to improve their communities.  Adult mentors, recruited from a range of professional, cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, are matched with young people, and they work together to achieve a set of goals that the protégé has identified as important in his or her life.  A peer support and self-advocacy group supplements mentoring relationships by offering the youth participants a chance to meet and discuss their experiences. For further information, see http://www.cmy.net.au/Mentoring