Immigrant Background or Assertiveness? In the Search of Key Factors for the Academic Progress of Migrant Children
Keywords:
assertiveness, educational achievements, academic progress, migration, Yaroslavl, Russia
Abstract
After perestroika Russia became an attractive country for migrants, and many migrants with Russian roots returned to the motherland. They came with schoolchildren, which, according to the Federal Law “On education in the Russian Federation” have a right to general education together with the Russian citizens. But often in practice the educational achievements of these children are hindered by racism, intolerance, bad knowledge of the Russian language and other factors. Nonetheless, the results of empirical studies show that children of migrants demonstrate good academic progress, at least equal to the local students. The immigrant paradox hypothesis states that migrants are optimistic; they think and believe that in the recipient country they can fulfill their dreams and improve their living conditions. This optimism rubs off from parents to children, and as a result they study well in schools and their academic grades are high. But in the literature on academic progress there is no theory about influence of optimism on grades. In the psychological approach on academic progress recent empirical results especially stressed the role of assertiveness “grit”, that is, persistence and passion for long-term goals. Therefore, this article explores the influence of assertiveness on academic progress; mostly comparing assertiveness of migrant children and native children. Based on data gathered in the Yaroslavl region, and using descriptive statistics, tests of means and regression analysis the evidence suggests that children of migrants from the Caucasus have a higher level of assertiveness than the native children, which can explain their academic progress.
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References
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34. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D. (2017). Migration background and educational achievements in Russia. Migraciones Internacionales, 9(1), 69-93.
35. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D., & Alòs i Font, H. (2017). Bilingualism and educational achievements: The impact of the language used at home by Tatar school students in Tatarstan, Russia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(6), 545-557. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2016.1213847
36. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D., & Podmazin, E. (2018). The impact of socioeconomic status and population size on the use of the Tatar language at home. Intercultural Education, 29(1), 122-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2017.1404740
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39. Vaquera, E., & Kao, G. (2012). Educational achievement of immigrant adolescents in Spain: do gender and region of origin matter? Child Development, 83(5), 1560-1576. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01791.x
40. Zaionchkovskaya, Zh., Poletaev, D., Florinskaya, Yu., & Doronina, K. (2014). Migranty glazami moskvichei [Migrants through the eyes of Muscovites]. Demoskop Weekly, 605-606, 1-28. Retrieved from http://demoscope.ru weekly/2014/0605/s_map.php#1 (in Russian)
2. Alòs i Font, H., & Tovar-Garc3a, E. D. (2015). Factors affecting the knowledge of Chuvash language amongst school students in Russia. Sociolinguistic Studies, 9(4), 345-372. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v9i4.26771
3. Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education(pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood Press.
4. Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 95-120. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2780243
5. DiMaggio, P. (1982). Cultural capital and school success: The impact of status culture participation on the grades of U.S. high school students. American Sociological Review, 47(2), 189-201.
6. Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
7. Farkas, G. (2003). Cognitive skills and noncognitive traits and behaviors in stratification processes. Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 541-562.
8. Hanushek, E. A. (1996). Measuring investment in education. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10(4), 9-30. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.10.4.9
9. Hanushek, E. A., Lavy, V., & Hitomi, K. (2008). Do students care about school quality? Determinants of dropout behavior in developing countries. Journal of Human Capital, 2(1), 69-105. https://doi.org/10.1086/529446
10. Hao, L., & Woo, H. S. (2012). Distinct trajectories in the transition to adulthood: are children of immigrants advantaged? Child Development, 83(5), 1623-1639. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01798.x
11. Kamaev, A., & Tovar-GarcRa, E. D. (2016). Educational achievements of migrant schoolchildren in Moscow (SSOAR No. 0168-ssoar-46748-7). Moscow. Retrieved from http://nbnresolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-46748-7
12. Kao, G. (2004). Parental influences on the educational outcomes of immigrant youth. International Migration Review, 38(2), 427-449. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27645384
13. Kao, G., & Tienda, M. (1995). Optimism and achievement: The educational performance of immigrant youth. Social Science Quarterly, 76(1), 1-19. Retrieved from http://crcw.princeton.edu/migration/files/October 2009/Kao and Tienda.pdf
14. Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2003). Cultural capital in educational research: A critical assessment. Theory and Society, 32(5/6), 567-606. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:RYSO.0000004951.04408.b0
15. Levin, H. M. (1997). Raising school productivity: An x-efficiency approach. Economics of Education Review, 16(3), 303-311. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7757(96)00069-6
16. Lin, E. S., & Lu, Y. (2016). The educational achievement of pupils with immigrant and native mothers: evidence from Taiwan. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 36(1), 48-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2014.922049
17. Lucas, S. R. (2001). Effectively maintained inequality: Education transitions, track mobility, and social background effects. American Journal of Sociology, 106(6), 1642-1690. https://doi.org/10.1086/321300
18. Lukianova, E. L. (2011). Educational achievements of migrant children (on the materials of survey at Saint-Petersburg). Journal of Social Policy Studies, 9(3), 319-338. (in Russian)
19. Luthra, R. R. (2010). Assimilation in a new context: educational attainment of the immigrant second generation in Germany (ISER No. 2010-21). Essex, UK. Retrieved from https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/files/iser_working_papers/2010-21.pdf
20. Mello, Z. R. (2008). Gender variation in developmental trajectories of educational and occupational expectations and attainment from adolescence to adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 44(4), 1069-1080. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.4.1069
21. Pong, S., & Landale, N. S. (2012). Academic achievement of legal immigrants’ children: the roles of parents’ pre- and postmigration characteristics in origin-group differences. Child Development, 83(5), 1543-1559. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01790.x
22. Pribesh, S., & Downey, D. B. (1999). Why are residential and school moves associated with poor school performance? Demography, 36(4), 521-34. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10604079
23. Robbins, S. B., Lauver, K., Le, H., Davis, D., Langley, R., & Carlstrom, A. (2004). Do psychosocial and study skill factors predict college outcomes? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 130(2), 261-288. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.2.261
24. Roshchina, Y. (2010). Accessibility of professional education in Russia(ESCIRRU Working Paper No. 13). Berlin: ESCIRRU. Retrieved from http://www.diw-berlin.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.347207.de/diw_escirru0013.pdf
25. Roshchina, Y. (2012). Family capital as a factor of educational opportunities for Russian high school students. Voprosy Obrazovaniya / Educational Studies, 1, 257-277. Retrieved from https://vo.hse.ru/data/2013/11/01/1283174703/VO1_12%20Roshina.pdf (in Russian)
26. Suárez-Orozco, C. (2001). Afterword: Understanding and serving the children of immigrants. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 579-590.
27. Suárez-Orozco, C., Gaytán, F. X., Bang, H. J., Pakes, J., O’Connor, E., & Rhodes, J. (2010). Academic trajectories of newcomer immigrant youth. Developmental Psychology, 46(3), 602-618. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018201
28. Sullivan, A. (2001). Cultural capital and educational attainment. Sociology, 35(4), 893-912. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038501035004006
29. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D. (2012). Approaches to study educational and occupational trajectories and outcomes. Working Papers on Culture, Education and Human Development, 8(2), 1-19. Retrieved from http://www.uam.es/otros/ptcedh/2012v8_pdf/v8n2eng.pdf
30. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D. (2013). Determinants of educational outcomes in Yaroslavl, Russia. Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa, 15(2), 100-113.
31. Tovar-GarsRa, E. D. (2013a). Educational trajectories of schoolchildren in the Yaroslavl region: Discriminant analysis vs. logistic regression. Sotsiologiya: 4M, 36, 65-93. (in Russian)
32. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D. (2013b). Relationship between parental education, educational trajectories and achievements of schoolchildren in the Republic of Tatarstan. Voprosy Obrazovaniya / Educational Studies, 2, 252-269. https://doi.org/10.17323/1814-9545-2013-2-252-269 (in Russian)
33. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D. (2014). Determinants of educational outcomes: Analysis of the Republic of Tatarstan. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 47(1), 39-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postcom -stud.2014.01.001
34. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D. (2017). Migration background and educational achievements in Russia. Migraciones Internacionales, 9(1), 69-93.
35. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D., & Alòs i Font, H. (2017). Bilingualism and educational achievements: The impact of the language used at home by Tatar school students in Tatarstan, Russia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(6), 545-557. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2016.1213847
36. Tovar-GarcRa, E. D., & Podmazin, E. (2018). The impact of socioeconomic status and population size on the use of the Tatar language at home. Intercultural Education, 29(1), 122-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2017.1404740
37. Tyumeneva, Y., Kuzmina, J., & Kardanova, E. (2014). IRT Analysis and Validation of the Grit Scale: ARussian Investigation(Psychology No. WP BRP 24/PSY/2014). Moscow.
38. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division. (2016). International Migration Report 2015: Highlights. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/publications/migrationreport/docs/MigrationReport2015_Highlights.pdf
39. Vaquera, E., & Kao, G. (2012). Educational achievement of immigrant adolescents in Spain: do gender and region of origin matter? Child Development, 83(5), 1560-1576. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01791.x
40. Zaionchkovskaya, Zh., Poletaev, D., Florinskaya, Yu., & Doronina, K. (2014). Migranty glazami moskvichei [Migrants through the eyes of Muscovites]. Demoskop Weekly, 605-606, 1-28. Retrieved from http://demoscope.ru weekly/2014/0605/s_map.php#1 (in Russian)
Published
2018-11-06
How to Cite
Товар-ГарсиаЭ. Д. (2018). Immigrant Background or Assertiveness? In the Search of Key Factors for the Academic Progress of Migrant Children. Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 15(2), 326-345. https://doi.org/10.17323/1813-8918-2018-2-326-345
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