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This review has been accessed  times since June 10, 1998
Glenn, Charles L. with Ester J. de Jong. (1996) Educating
Immigrant Children: Schools and Language Minorities in Twelve
Nations. New York : Garland Publishing, Inc.
741 + xii pp.
ISBN 0-8153-1469-8
Reviewed by Leslie J. Limage
Paris , France
June 10, 1998
This volume on the education of immigrant children in
Western Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia has
taken up the challenge of providing as many viewpoints as
possible in country and cultural context on the thorniest of
educational issues. The term "immigrant children" in the title
is in some ways misleading. The authors of this volume in no way
reduce their subject matter to simplistic etiquettes or
transnational definitions without context-based meaning.
Indeed, the authors resolutely provide an historical, political,
sociological and, then, educational context for the discussion
of how the countries in question have responded to linguistic
and cultural diversity in their midst. Educating Immigrant
Children: Schools and Language Minorities in Twelve Nations
is certainly the most comprehensive review of its topic
available in English at this time.
The volume is comprehensive in ways most of the vast
literature on immigrants and their educational experience in
Europe, North America or Australia has not attempted. The
literature of international organizations (including OECD,
UNESCO, Council of Europe cited often by the authors) has
inevitably met with the self-imposed censorship of
intergovernmental bodies. They do not conduct independent
research as they are under the scrutiny of their member
countries/governments. Scholarly and activist literature
generally take rather firm positions and leave the multiple
perspectives on issues of respect for diversity aside. This is
to be expected and inherent in the genre. Also, much of the
literature is composed of "country" or "immigrant group" case
studies. Comparison on thematic issues while maintaining the
complexity of internal differences of view within countries is
extremely rare.
According to the authors, the study "employs a comparative
perspective, showing how similarities and differences among the
policies of different countries and among the experiences of
different language minority groups illuminate the policy choices
"...with respect to education provision. But the study does
more than that. It examines on a thematic basis the
controversies surrounding the presence of culturally and
linguistically diverse populations of different generations in
highly-advanced industrial democracies and dwells on those
controversies to show that there are no simple answers to be
transposed without caution across national boundaries.
The book is divided into sections: the policy context;
minority groups and their languages; program models and
conclusions. The reader is provided with a comprehensive and
extremely timely review of internal debate on what is meant by
participation in society at different times in the same country
and common themes for reflection for the future. The authors
are particularly adept at presenting alternate and conflicting
views on the nature of participation in the societies studied
and demands for different sorts of recognition of diversity,
integration, assimilation.
As a reviewer, I am particularly impressed with the handling
of Western European migrant/minority issues and France
especially. The authors have successfully placed the discussion
of first, second and third generation immigrants in the complex
current context of rising unemployment, increased xenophobia,
racism and anti-semitism, and fear of outright violence (be it
through terrorist attacks by so-called fundamentalist islamic
groups growing out of the conflict in Algeria and other Arab or
Muslim countries or through the rise of extremist groups of
youths from disadvantaged minority suburbs and inner cities).
While delving into changing attitudes of "countries of origin"
and "host countries" towards immigrant populations, the authors
have focused on the great difficulty education systems in Europe
have had in providing any meaningful response to the larger
problems of contemporary society. At the French end of the
spectrum, two important concepts frame the equality of
opportunity debate: "laicité" or secularism and the historic
separation of religion from schooling. Equality means the same
education for all. While the German continuous overt hostility
to the integration of immigrant workers and their families , the
euphemistically-called "guest workers" or Gastarbeiter results
in the same inability to acknowledge diversity within the
educational system albeit not in the name of "equality of
opportunity."
The discussion inevitably focuses on debates around
languages of instruction and the role of bilingual and
multilingual education. Once again, the authors successfully
present a full range of perspectives on these issues in each of
the countries studied. There is no attempt to gloss over
internal conflict to provide a "national" position on unresolved
and ongoing issues. And for that tension to be maintained in a
volume over 700 pages in length requires skill, sensitivity and
the best of comparative scholarly efforts. The book is strongly
recommended for courses on immigration and education, social
foundations of education, bilingual and multicultural education
and comparative education. It is also a valuable contribution to
a very large international literature on education and
minority/migrant issues for its consistent presentation of
complex issues in all their complexity.
About the Reviewer
Dr. Leslie J. Limage has
research interests in literacy and basic education policies and
practices, immigrant and minority education, labor market
prospects; gender issues in education. Professional background
as staff member of Education Sector of UNESCO, consultant to
OECD-CERI on immigrant and minority education and labor market
issues; teacher in the United Kingdom, France and the United
States. An American graduate of the University of California,
Santa Barbara, University of Paris, University of London
Institute of Education in Comparative Education, Sociology of
Education. Economics of Education. Resides for the past twenty
years Dr. Limage in France.
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