Somali youth in the context of schooling in metropolitan Helsinki

A Framework for Assessing Variability in Educational Performance

Bibliographic Data

ID7843845
AuthorsAnne Alitolppa‐Niitamo
Year2004
Volume30
Issue1
Pages81-106
Publication date2004-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183032000170187
OpenAlexW2079904881
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited32

This article presents a framework that emphasises the multiplicity of factors explaining the educational performance of second‐generation immigrants. The framework is illustrated by an example taken from the Somali‐speaking population of metropolitan Helsinki. The multivariate framework, which is probabilistic rather than deterministic, acknowledges a multitude of factors that interact in a complex manner and affect the school performance of students. Each factor may prove to be a resource or a challenge for educational performance. The various combinations of variables are claimed to produce segmentation in the acculturation paths both within and between ethnic groups. Judging from ethnographic data, many challenges are present in the case of Somali‐speaking students. Keywords: ImmigrantsRefugeesSecond GenerationSchool PerformanceSomalis Notes Anne Alitolppa‐Niitamo is a project manager at a multicultural family counselling centre at the Family Federation of Finland, and is completing a doctoral thesis on Somali‐speaking youth in the context of education at the Population Research Institute in Helsinki. Correspondence to: Anne Alitolppa‐Niitamo, The Family Federation of Finland, PO Box 849, FIN–00101 Helsinki, Finland. E‐mail anne.alitolppa‐[email protected] ‘School performance’ is indicated by, for example, test scores, grade point average, and repeated grades, but also by such indicators as school drop‐out and achieved qualification or completed educational programmes. McDermott (1987: 363) criticises the term ‘school failure of ethnic minorities’ and maintains that ‘school failure is an institutionalised fabrication’. The term ‘Somali’ is here used interchangeably with the term ‘Somali‐speaking’, indicating people who arrived as asylum‐seekers or through the family reunification process in Finland in the 1990s and who originate from Somalia or who belong to ethnic Somalis in other countries in the Horn of Africa. The framework is based partly on the conceptual framework of Marcelo and Carola Suárez‐Orozco (2000) and partly on fieldwork data. The author has reorganised the Suárez‐Orozcos' model into four categories and added some new variables found in the ethnographic data. The categories represent the popular perspectives often used separately to explain the educational achievement of minority children, i.e. their human and social capital (emphasis on micro variables) and the characteristics of the receiving society (macro‐level variables) (see Portes and MacLeod 1999). The inclusion of the category of human agency challenges the deterministic view by emphasising the fact that individuals actively and creatively reshape the social system and resist the patterns and structures of domination and power. More on the community‐level fieldwork among the Somali‐speaking population of metropolitan Helsinki in Alitolppa‐Niitamo (2000), and on school ethnography in Alitolppa‐Niitamo (2002). An earlier phase of ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in Helsinki over a three‐month period in 1993. It focused on the formation of inter‐ and intra‐ethnic networks within the emerging Somali community. Strong divisions according to clan lines were found to disrupt the cohesion of the ethnic group (see Alitolppa‐Niitamo 1994). Families with five to seven children were common, but families with more than ten children also existed. Some of the children in the families were not always the parents' biological children. The ‘coping capacity’, according to the definition by Ahearn et al. (1999), mediates between demanding life experiences and level of well‐being. Portes and Zhou (1993, see also Portes and Rumbaut 2001) introduced the term ‘segmentation of assimilation’. In this article the concept of ‘acculturation’ is preferred to indicate the process, a winding path, that immigrants go through in a new socio‐cultural setting. The concept presented has a wider focus than the concept of ‘segmentation of assimilation’. It emphasises the broad heterogeneity among immigrants and the variability in their opportunities. Unlike ‘segmentation of assimilation’, which distinguishes three forms of adaptation outcome (integration into the white middle‐class, assimilation into the underclass, and rapid economic advancement coined with the preservation of values and solidarity to ethnic group), segmentation of acculturation emphasises the processual nature and indeterminacy of the outcome. The metaphor of a path indicates a process that, due to the undetermined combination of circumstances, may take various turns and directions over time, particularly characteristic of young developing persons. The concept of segmentation of acculturation is not limited to the receiving society solely, but acknowledges even diasporic and transnational activities and intentions that further diversify acculturation options among immigrants. Bureaucratic procedures seemed to be partly due to a strict policy based on the perception of immigration as a threat, and the detection of cases in which legal entrance was misused. Extreme violence and starvation in Somalia made some look for ways—even illegal—to get their countrypeople out of the country. The appreciation of formal education among adult Somalis was reflected by the clear distinction made between the ‘educated’ and ‘uneducated’. Those with a high educational level usually had a high status among their countrymen and women and a self‐identification of belonging to the ‘educated’. Hence, formal education had an instrumental and symbolic value. Knocke and Hertzberg (2000) also report on the diasporic orientation of young Turkish women in Sweden who, by choosing tourism as their future occupation, kept the door open to their homeland. Schierup and Ålund (1987) describe how Yugoslavian parents in Scandinavia tried to channel their children into occupations which they believed could be used in the villages of origin. On the specific challenges encountered by unaccompanied minors, see Helander and Mikkonen (2002). For the definition, see Alitolppa‐Niitamo (2002). The generation in‐between typically undergoes many transitions within a short period of time (change of socio‐cultural setting, passage from childhood to adulthood and from comprehensive to post‐comprehensive education or to employment/unemployment). Finland is officially a bilingual country with a Swedish‐speaking minority of around 5 per cent. On ‘hybridity’, see Çag ̆lar (1997). On cultural construction and ethnic reconstruction among young Somalis, see Alitolppa‐Niitamo (2001). In the course of the fieldwork, some alternative options of identity were identified. Rather than being ‘just a Somali’, some male adolescents adopted the identity of an Afro‐American hip‐hop culture, and some educated men the identity of a cosmopolitan intellectual. For more on ‘new racism’ see, for example, Macleod and Durrheim (2002). In 1991, Somalia's North‐Western region declared itself independent Somaliland, and the North‐Eastern regions became the semi‐autonomous Puntland State of Somalia in 1998. On the meaning of religion for the Somali‐speaking population of Toronto and London, see Berns McGown (1999) and in Finland, see Tiilikainen (1999) and Marjeta (2001). Since ‘ethnicity’ has remained a strong explaining variable in school achievement when a large number of background characteristics were controlled in quantitative studies, it is suggested by Rumbaut (Citation1997) that ethnicity may be a proxy for a set of variables consisting of the culture, history, and collective memory of an entire group and, as Portes and MacLeod (1999) suggest, of a manner of reception of certain ethnic groups. Contrary to widespread assumptions, women, and particularly mothers, are highly appreciated among many Somalis. Teenage girls and women are bearers of the ‘honour’ of the family and are guarded from adventurous behaviour. Girls are expected to be modest and ‘pure’ in their behaviour (Nisula et al. 1995). The concept of ‘social capital’ has been developed from somewhat different perspectives by many sociologists, economists and political scientists, the best‐known perhaps being Pierre Bourdieu, Glen Loury, James Coleman and Robert Putnam (see Portes 1998). During the time of its conceptual development, many unrealistic expectations have been made of its explanatory power (Campbell 2001). For example, Campbell points out that caution is needed when the concept is applied across disciplines and across countries and cultures. According to Maxine Molyneux (Citation2001), social capital is not ‘an innocent appropriation’ and she emphasises the need for a critical gender perspective and for attentiveness to how the concept may serve to conceal structural issues, inequalities in the distribution of power and assets. Fine (Citation2001) also emphasises Bourdieu's initial point on the social construction of the content of social capital that is attached to class stratification. The division of the ethnic group is reflected by the fact that in 2000 there were around 50 registered Somali associations in Finland. In the case of the Somali‐speaking population in London, Griffiths (Citation2000) claims that among the explaining factors for their weak internal organisation were low economic integration, no tradition for independent public activity, the lack of educated personnel, and a surrounding negative local political setting. The negative representations of the mainstream society as regards Somalis were manifested in the rhetoric and propaganda in debates in Parliament (Lepola Citation2000) and in the media (Pietikäinen Citation2000), as well as in urban stories that circulated among young people (Virtanen Citation1999). The very term ‘Somali’ generally had negative connotations attached to it (Tervonen Citation2001). David Griffith's (Citation2000) research among Somalis in London also reports their difficulty of establishing networks among representatives of the receiving society. The term comes from the title of a book by Aallas (1991) in which the author vividly describes the awkward reception of the first Somali asylum‐seekers in the early 1990s. At the time of the school ethnography, the unemployment rate of Somali nationals had gone down, but was still as high as 68 per cent (Statistics Finland Citation2000). According to Portes and Rumbaut (Citation2001), the reception policies may vary from exclusion as a form of denial of legal residence status, to semi‐inclusion in the form of granting legal status with passive acceptance, or real inclusion that consists of legal status and active encouragement to become a fully‐fledged member of the society. The latter option would consist of anti‐racist, equality and equal opportunity principles, in which the diverse needs of a diverse population are acknowledged. ‘Structure’ is here understood as used by Anthony Giddens (Citation1984: 23), i.e. as rules, resources and reproduced social systems that are ‘recursively organised’. Additional informationNotes on contributorsAnne Alitolppa‐Niitamo Footnote Anne Alitolppa‐Niitamo is a project manager at a multicultural family counselling centre at the Family Federation of Finland, and is completing a doctoral thesis on Somali‐speaking youth in the context of education at the Population Research Institute in Helsinki. Correspondence to: Anne Alitolppa‐Niitamo, The Family Federation of Finland, PO Box 849, FIN–00101 Helsinki, Finland. E‐mail anne.alitolppa‐[email protected]

Context (archaeology · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Immigration · Metropolitan area · Political science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Somali · Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub