Gender at the intersection with race and class in the schooling and wellbeing of immigrant-origin students

Abstract

BackgroundIn French-language secondary schools in Quebec, among all immigrant-origin students, those originating from South Asia have the highest dropout rate. However, girls belonging to this group consistently outperform their male peers of similar ethnic background. This stirs questions about the reasons for this relative outperformance and its linkage with overall wellbeing among these girls.MethodsA mixed methods approach guided data collection. It involved in-depth interviews with female and male students of South Asian origin (n = 19) and with individuals holding educational roles in the lives of youth (n = 25). An additional anonymous questionnaire aggregated parent perspectives (n = 36), though this article focuses primarily on qualitative lessons.ResultsThis article shows three main reasons for why South Asian female adolescents in Quebec French-language secondary schools outperform their male counterparts in schooling attainment: parental expectations after migration, socialization at home, and relationships at school. According to our findings, academic perseverance among these girls does not necessarily translate into their improved wellbeing or their involvement in an advantageous process of acculturation.ConclusionsThis study highlights that although gender, ethnicity, and class can create an interlocking system of oppression in certain social spheres for a specific group of women, it can emerge as advantageous in other contexts for the same group. This provides educational policy makers, as well as school and community workers, with guidance and avenues for action that can promote the wellbeing of immigrant-origin girls through involvement in beneficial processes of acculturation aligned with their improved academic performance.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12905-016-0328-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Engaging South Asian youth and families: A clinical review

“…Patel and Gaw (1996) also found that younger Indianorigin women in the United States were at higher risk for suicide than their male and older female counterparts. Interestingly, Bakhshaei and Henderson (2016) found that SA female adolescents in Quebec outperform their male counterparts in schooling attainment due to parental expectations, socialization at home and relationships at school.…”

“As Natural as the Air Around Us”: On the Origin and Development of the Concept of Structural Violence in Health Research

“…17 Many of the studies based in the global south examine migration -from violence among internally displaced youth in Haiti 18 to the plight of Syrian refugees in Lebanon 19 and HIV risks for Pakistani labor migrants in the Persian Gulf. 20 Much of the published work on structural violence in the global north has focused on immigrant groups, [21][22][23] indigenous peoples, 24 and marginalized populations such as the homeless. 25,26 Some of the papers in this group invoked structural violence as a lens to analyze domestic violence.…”

“…Much of the published work on structural violence in the global north has focused on immigrant groups, 21–23 indigenous peoples, 24 and marginalized populations such as the homeless. 25,26 Some of the papers in this group invoked structural violence as a lens to analyze domestic violence.…”

Language of Instruction and Ethnic Disparities in School Success

“…Moreover, only a small proportion of them has French as mother tongue or as language used at home (4.0%). Within this target group, there is also an important overrepresentation of boys and concomitant underrepresentation of girls (55.0% vs. 45.0%), which, consistent with national and international research (Canadian Education Statistics Council, 2014;Jacob, 2002;Machin & McNally, 2005), could pose a disadvantage to this group's academic success (Bakhshaei & Henderson, 2016). Furthermore, the families of this group have a strongly disadvantaged socioeconomic profile with a marked overrepresentation in the weakest socioeconomic status category (67.0%), a trend that has been found in other studies to pose a potential disadvantage to school success (Sirin, 2005;White, 1982).…”