immigrants and the american education

Running Head: IMMIGRANTS AND AMERICAN EDUCATION

Immigrants and the American Education

Laurelann Easton

ENG 200H

Professor Bickford

March 23, 2015

IMMIGRANTS AND AMERICAN EDUCATION

Abstract: This research project identifies how the education of immigrants in America is

inadequate in relation to the American expectations of how they can have successful lives.

Immigrants usually come to America for a better opportunity. For this to be successful,

immigrants have to know or learn English to start. A higher education, such as attending college,

can be crucial to getting a good job when they come to America. To get a job that could best

support the lives of immigrants, a college degree can be integral, however, without a well-paying

job paying for college is out of the question. America does not have many resources available for

immigrants to flourish in the economy. The research paper also addresses ways that can solve

this issue, starting with an in-depth discussion on President Obama’s plan to make community

college free. Community colleges are more widespread than expensive institutions, which would

be much more accessible to immigrants in various parts of the United States to give them a

higher education. Another solution is to create more organizations that can provide English

classes for immigrants, because it would help them in getting a job, and, if they will want to go

to college, help them understand what is going on in their classes. The research essay will

conclude with why the poor education of immigrants is an issue that should be solved, primarily

by benefiting America economically and socially, such as the unemployment rate being lower if

immigrants are able to obtain jobs more easily.

Keywords: immigrants, education, unemployment, trauma, English language, assimilation


Immigrants and the American Education

America has a reputation for being the land of the free and the land of opportunities. People have

been coming to this country before it was named, and for hundreds of years these people have

been immigrants and refugees. For them, America is still the land of opportunity, yet America

does not have enough available to help immigrants and refugees to be successful in their reach

for new and better prospects in life. Primarily, there is a language barrier, followed by a cultural

barrier, and then impeded with an overall lack of knowledge of the systems and institutions of

America (Kato, 2002). These are all aspects of life that a person needs to know to be successful,

and the problem for immigrants lies in there not being enough programs or institutions to educate

and aid immigrants on the inner workings and culture of their new country. This can be resolved

with programs built to address all of the issues an immigrant may come across in their new

country, as well as making English more accessible to them to learn.

The English Language and Its Benefits

The primary language spoken in America is English, yet the issue is that many

immigrants come to America for a better opportunity and they are not literate in English. The

National Adult Literacy Survey described “literacy” as such:

Just as adults with little money have difficulty meeting their basic needs, those with

limited literacy skills are likely to find it more challenging to pursue their goals whether

those goals involve job advancement, helping their children succeed in school, consumer

decision-making, citizenship, or other aspects of daily life. Even if adults with the lowest

literacy levels are not experiencing difficulties at present, they may be at risk as the


nation's economy and social fabric continue to change and become more demanding.

(“Literacy Skills for 21st Century America: A Foundation for Creating a More Literate

Nation,” 2000)

It is clear that English language literacy is of large importance for immigrants, since they have

the high goals of setting up a life in America. However, education in English is sparsely

available for them, and there are differences in how much they may know. Each individual is

unique, meaning that there cannot be just one basic level class or just one advanced level class.

The question, then, becomes how to know what to prepare for when English classes are

available.

How much do they know?

Starting at the base problem for immigrants and refugees, very few of them know English

when coming to America. An article titled “Immigrants Joining the Mainstream” provided a

history of immigration as well as important statistics about immigrants and how they adjust to

life in America. The article included a statistic from the U.S. Census Bureau, which stated that

89.7% of immigrants entering later than 2006 do not speak English, and 64.5% speak it less than

“very well,” with these numbers still rising (Immigrants Joining the Mainstream, 2006). In direct

correlation to this, immigrants’ median income is just less than $36,000 and has been dropping

since 1990. The English language, then, is crucial to how much they can earn. With little to no

knowledge of English, immigrants are stuck at making less than $36,000 a year.

With knowing the language, there is the possibility for this number to rise because of the

various opportunities it then opens for them. By knowing the language of the country they are

living in, it becomes possible to understand the buildings that surround them, or what Americans


are trying to say to them. The communication that opens up is crucial to what more they can

learn about their new country. They also have a chance at a better paying job or to an education,

such as at a university or a community college. If they have a higher education, a better income

with a better job becomes possible.

Employment opportunity

Immigrants tend to take low-wage jobs, which at most will contribute an annual income of $18,

100. This, according to Beth Shulman’s article on the disparity of wages between minorities and

those who are white, is “the government-defined poverty level for a family of four” (Shulman,

2004). This article also states that these low-wage jobs are not always just the fast-food jobs,

which “constitutes less than 5% of all low-end jobs” (Shulman, 2004). The jobs are also in

nursing homes, health care jobs, retail jobs, as well poultry processing and packaging, all of

which include low-standard conditions. According to Shulman, these conditions may include

standing all day in puddles of water and then being docked for taking a bathroom break, and

working for years with no paid vacations as a janitor and having constant back pain from lifting

trash (2004). These are far from ideal conditions to be working in, and yet they are the conditions

that immigrants face when looking for a job in America.

There may be a thought that immigrants should not be allowed to enter America in the

first place because they take the jobs of Americans. According to public opinion polls reported in

Charles Gallagher’s article titled “Blacks, Jews, gays and immigrants are taking over”, “the

majority of people in the UK and the USA believe that increased immigration…undermines the

unemployment opportunities of long-term residents, particularly those tenuously connected to

the labour marker” (2014). There is a stereotype that immigrants come to take jobs from

Americans, and that they do not benefit the country as a whole by immigrating. Gallagher’s


article, which explains the distorted views people have of how immigrants impact society, also

states:

Among a sizable part of the population, there is the perception that the government is

taking the ‘side’ of immigrants and providing these newcomers with economic resources

(jobs, housing and minority set-asides) at the expense of the ‘real’ American and British

citizens. (Gallagher 2014)

This is a poorly contrived idea given that almost 90% of immigrants do not speak English and

have a difficult time with getting a job in the first place, and they also get the low-wage jobs that

are not ideal to anyone. The job they get also allows them to just get by without requiring much

knowledge of English. Without the proper education available, however, immigrants and

refugees do not have the choice of what job they can take. It becomes a job that barely allows

them to survive instead of prospering. With this, Americans need to be educated on the reality

that exists for immigrants trying to obtain a job in America. Even worse, “most low-wage

workers receive no health or retirement benefits, no family or sick leave” (Shulman, 2004).

According to Shulman, they are also the most likely to actually be injured on the job, making it

detrimental to their life if they are to get injured. How would they afford it? Could they still work

despite the injury? Without having such benefits, especially health benefits, they may very well

be out of luck and eventually out of a job. It is circles such as this that are difficult for

immigrants to work their way out of without the proper knowledge of how to succeed in their

new country.


Higher education

To get a job that could best support the life of an immigrant, a college degree is integral,

however, without a well-paying job affording college is out of the question. According to a

report on increasing higher education access and success for immigrants, “Barriers that prevent

legal immigrants having access to higher education include limited finances, limited English-

language proficiency, and a lack of knowledge about the U.S. higher education system (Erisman

and Looney, 2007). As well, their report found that “almost 75 percent of immigrant students

work full or part time while attending college” (Erisman and Looney, 2007). For their time to

even be successful in college, immigrants have to know or learn English, which may require

them to take English as a Second Language (ESL) classes alongside regular college courses. This

scenario is difficult and not beneficial because if they do not know English and are working to

learn it, it then becomes possible for them to fall behind in their classes from not understanding

what is going on in their English-speaking classrooms. It becomes money wasted.

The language barrier that immigrants have sets them behind so that if they do manage to

learn English alongside their first year of classes, they may not be completing their credits at a

fast enough rate or succeeding at them well enough at first. As well, some immigrants may not

have completed high school, so getting a higher education becomes even more difficult, given

that some of these immigrants are over 25 years of age and may not be able to get into a

traditional high school. According to Figure 1, in 2011, almost 30% of overall immigrants had

less than a high school education, 26.3% were high school graduates, with even smaller

percentages having any college experience at all.


Figure 1. Education gaps among immigrants over the age of 25 in 2011. The diagram illustrates the levels

of education of adult immigrants from various regions and percentages associated with them.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 immigrants on average made about $625 a

week, yet those who had a bachelor’s degree or higher made almost twice that amount (Labor

Force Characteristics of Foreign-born Workers Summary, 2014). That amount was also almost

the same as what an American with a bachelor’s degree or higher, meaning that a college

education absolutely has a chance at getting immigrants on par with their native counterparts. If

ESL classes become more accessible to immigrants, as well as funds from a job, then education

and success in America can be possible.

Different People, Different Backgrounds

As people from many different countries, immigrants do not have a lot in common besides not

being familiar with the culture of America. Their cultural differences also mean that they have

different stories to their life, which means that overall they all come from very different

backgrounds and have different knowledge of the world around them. Given this, it becomes

difficult to say that they only need to learn English, or that they will be fine so long as they get a


job of any sort. America is uncharted ground for immigrants, meaning that they have no

knowledge of the inner workings of America. This can entail many different things, from how to

register their child for school, to getting a driver’s license, but they are all things that immigrants

need to be educated on how to accomplish. Otherwise, assimilating into life in America can

become very difficult.

Systems and institutions

Looking past income, jobs and language, there is a lack of knowledge immigrants have on the

systems and institutions of America. What this entails are school systems and how to register

kids for schools, what their legal rights are, how to acquire a phone in their home, how to obtain

a driver’s license, and other basic commodities. Many of these are aspects of life that Americans

take for granted because they are so common to daily life. With them being so common,

however, they tend to be things overlooked when programs are actually developed or planned

out to help immigrants.

Another large aspect that this can entail is being able to acquire child care. An adult

woman is less likely to try to find a job or get an education if she has to care for her child all day,

especially if she is the only one in her child’s life capable of bringing in money. If she is married,

and her husband is working to support them financially, then perhaps one can work nights and

the other works during the day to take shifts for watching the child. This can get tiring and lead

to the parent being less likely to wish to do anything else, such as get a higher education or learn

English to a better proficiency.

Linda Kato’s article “The Special Challenges of Offering Employment Programs in

Culturally Diverse Communities” reviewed the experiences that occurred within the


communities run by a program called “Jobs-Plus.” The research found that for some immigrants

in the community, getting an education was more difficult if child care was not an option for

them. The article reports, “The women would like to take GED classes and get further training

through Jobs-Plus for better jobs, but the responsibilities of child care and work prevent them

from taking on another thing” (Kato, 2002). What was also found in this immigrant community

was that if the immigrants did have access to child care, they were reluctant to make use of it.

This was because the parents were reluctant “for fear of exposing their children to alien cultural

practices, in addition to concern for their children's safety” (Kato, 2002). They know very little

about the American culture or the people who live in the country to trust it, which is fair given

that the country does not make much knowledge possible to be had.

Trauma

In a 2011 documentary titled Homeland Resources, there are many different cases of

refugees described, including how they adjust to their new life in America. There is one case

shown of a woman who is dealing with trauma from the land she came from, and she has a hard

time going outside and getting a job for herself. The video follows her as she is interviewed for a

job and shown what she would do, all while a translator is by her side. She does not understand a

bit of English, yet she gets a job in a factory. Eventually, she ends up not being able to keep her

job. Her lack of knowing the English language made it so that she did not know when she was

being told that she had done something wrong. She was unable to fix her mistakes, and lost her

job in the end.

Even if she finds a way to work past her trauma and feel safe in the community, her

lacking English skills will continue to hinder her in holding a job until she is able to learn the

language. Besides her daughter, who attends an elementary school and is rapidly learning


English, this woman is alone with no one to truly help her feel safe and comfortable in her new

country. If she could be a part of a program that has other refugees who have similar troubles,

she could find a way to move forward and be successful. The problem is that most programs

available do not consider all aspects of the background an immigrant or refugee can come to

America with.

As well, the American society can be traumatizing in itself. In her essay, “The Good

Immigrant Student”, shared in the 2008 publication of “Immigrants Joining the Mainstream”,

Bich Minh Nguyen explained her experience as a Vietnamese immigrant student, and the case of

what happened to her friend. Sometimes Americans are not accepting of immigrants because

they are different and this is a problem.

…I think of an Indian friend of mine who told how, in elementary school once, a blond

classmate told the teacher, “I can’t sit by her. My mom said I can’t sit by anyone who’s

brown.” And another friend . . . whose second-grade teacher used her as a vocabulary

example: “Children, this is what a foreigner is.” (Immigrants Joining the Mainstream

2008)

The mother and the teacher are examples of what Americans should not be doing when

immigrants or refugees make this country their new home. The problem should never be the

people in it, because there are already enough issues immigrants have in being successful in

America. If this kind of emotional bullying is seen as okay to place on immigrants, then is it

okay to bully others who are nonimmigrants? Discrimination is a part of immigration that should

be looked past. Instead, Americans should be the ones directly helping immigrants adjust to the

new customs of the culture surrounding them in their new home.


Programs Available

There are few exceptions to the generalization that there are not many programs or

classes available to teach them English, however it is not wide-spread enough to be completely

accessible and helpful to every immigrant or refugee. A strong example of this is the Job’s-Plus

Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families. Immigrants and refugees from

various continents have made public housing extremely diverse, and six cities took up this

demonstration project to help get immigrants on their feet in their new country. Kato’s article on

the Job’s-Plus program focused on two developments in Seattle, Washington and St. Paul,

Minnesota. All of the immigrants in the program spoke different languages other than English,

and while this was one aspect of assimilation that they needed help with, there was a long list of

other needs the immigrants had.

The staff and administrators of the program learned what all it took to help the

immigrants and refugees of the communities while working with them. They discovered how to

read cultural cues so as not to offend the people they worked with, how to understand the

differences in priorities between cultures, what the immigrants did not know about institutions in

America (which included employment programs), and what they could do to close all of these

gaps in knowledge. Having a program that addresses all of these issues is necessary for a

program to be successful, as well as for it to turn out successful immigrants who can handle life

on their own in America. The staff held direct contact with the immigrants in the community to

make sure that they kept on top of the things they needed to do or were around for when they had

questions. This kind of explicit help was positively received and successful in helping the

immigrants and refugees living in the communities, meaning that programs of this design work.


Moving Forward

Despite all of the issues that immigrants can face when they come to America, there are solutions

available to better help them succeed in their new lives. The solution lies in making services

more easily available to them, whether it be programs that help them get on their feet or ESL

classes in a greater variety of places throughout America. These solutions and more will be

addressed and explored in the following sections.

Adjusting or creating new programs

The Jobs-Plus community program described in Kato’s article is an example of an

effective program. If it were more broadly applied around America, or at least had its ideas

utilized in new programs, it would likely be ideal. For programs to be successful and benefit

immigrants best, they need to be capable of addressing the many various problems that each

individual immigrant or refugee can arrive with. The Jobs-Plus program offers a wide range of

knowledge to help immigrants succeed in America, which may not be the case for programs that

do get developed or at least planned.

What can put a halt to the planning, however, is the budgeting that goes into a program.

With how much is needed to aid immigrants in adjusting to their new lives, too much money

being necessary to implement it can cause a program to not be put into action at all. Since

budgeting is frequently the issue when carrying out a planned program, the government should

look to its people to help the assimilation process. In “Teaching English for ‘A Better America’,

Amy Dayton-Wood describes writing by authors Goldberger and Ruth Austin that would be

helpful in the case of a low budget: “[Americans] could serve as cultural ambassadors by

introducing immigrants to American customs and institutions, assisting them in finding housing


and employment, and helping them to resolve domestic, financial, and workplace conflicts”

(2008). If Americans were to take up this ambassador-like role, then budgeting would not be an

issue and there would probably be no need to have to create new programs to support and

educate immigrants. Who knows better about American life than Americans?

As well, Kato’s article on the Job’s Plus community showed that having their staff

knowledgeable of the issues immigrants faced was beneficial when it came to aiding them. The

staff “became well versed in the social cues of the ethnic groups, such as taboos that some

groups had against certain foods or mixed meetings of men and women in these developments”

(Kato, 2002). Given how successful this program was in helping immigrants assimilate, it

indicates that Americans need to obtain a similar knowledge of the various cultures that make up

the melting pot of American society. If they acquire such information, then immigrants could

benefit as well.

Accessible ESL classes

ESL classes are something that should be accessible to most, if not all, immigrants

because from there more opportunities become possible. There are websites free to use that teach

English, however there are some immigrants or refugees who come from rural areas that do not

have the same technological advances. Some immigrants do not know how to use a computer,

much less the funds for acquiring one unless they can access a public library. ESL classes would

be better provided in a classroom setting where one-on-one teaching is possible. English is a

tough language for others to learn, between homophones, verb tenses, and strange spellings in

relation to how it sounds. There have been few studies conducted on the learning of English for

adults, and far more on the education of children, as noted by Dr. Yin Lam Lee in his research on

adult immigrants learning English as a second language. Understanding how adults learn is just


as important and is necessary to be done before proper classes can be prepared more elaborately

for immigrants to learn (Yin Lam, 2013).

However, what also becomes difficult is the varying range of knowledge that immigrants

have of English. Some may know a little or none, making it tough to have single classes that fit

everyone’s needs. Kato reported this about the residents in the Jobs-Plus communities:

At one end of the spectrum are residents who came to the United States with little or no

formal education and may even be illiterate in their native language. Residents like these

have had great difficulty learning to speak and write English. They need the most basic of

literacy courses, since standard ESL classes are too advanced for them. At the other end

of the spectrum are residents, like Mr. Oman, who would have been classified as English-

proficient when they first came to Jobs-Plus but would have required more advanced ESL

classes geared toward the vocabulary and language skills needed in the workplace to

participate in training programs and qualify for better jobs. (2002)

With having such a broad diversity in knowledge, multiple classes need to be available for all

types of English-proficiency to be improved upon. If these classes are not offered, then all

immigrants will not be able to benefit as best as they should be able to. English is the most

important area to improve upon for immigrants with the many doors it opens for jobs and further

education, making it therefore crucial to be aware of their varying needs as individuals.

Past understanding how adults learn and having various classes available, the question

becomes how to make them accessible. A possibility is to make them available through local

churches. Most, if not all, towns or cities have religion structures such as those, meaning that if


they held ESL classes they would be rather easily accessible to immigrants no matter where they

are living.

Affordable college

Figure 2. Costs for full-time undergraduate students. This diagram illustrates the costs of tuition from

various categories of colleges, spanning from 1980 to 2011.

For the last thirty years, the cost of tuition has been steadily increasing, and it is likely to

continue increasing, putting a high price on a higher education. In the last couple of years,

President Barack Obama has been discussing a plan for making college more affordable for those

in the middle class, having recognized that higher education is more important than ever and yet

has never been more expensive (Obama, 2013). In relation to immigrants and their education in

America, community colleges are more widespread than expensive institutions, which would be

far more accessible to immigrants in various parts of the United States to give them a higher

education. In one of his weekly addresses, Obama explained his plan in making college more

affordable:


First, we're going to start rating colleges based on opportunity—are they helping students

from all kinds of backgrounds succeed—and on outcomes—their value to students and

parents. In time, we'll use those ratings to make sure that the colleges that keep their

tuition down are the ones that will see their taxpayer funding go up. (2013)

If this were to be implemented, immigrants could have a chance to attend community colleges or

universities at a cheaper expense that will benefit their wallets in the long run, and give them the

education that is crucial to benefiting their survival in America.

Conclusion

What is important for immigrants to be successful in America is not just for them to be aware of

what they need to know and learn. It is crucial that America and its citizens are aware of what

needs to be taught. Immigrants and refugees come from many different backgrounds, meaning

that there cannot be a one-size-fits-all kind of program. Every culture is diverse, the same way

that every individual is different. For years they have contributed to the melting pot of American

society, meaning that helping them will help America. Changing their unemployment rates and

making them successful citizens aids the economy. With both a job and an education being

difficult to obtain, they are only contributing to a rising unemployment rate unless something is

done to help them acquire these things. If programs are implemented that address all aspects of

their needs to survive and assimilate, then the country as a whole will benefit from such

developments.


References

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Erisman, W., & Looney, S. (2007). Opening the door to the American dream: Increasing higher education access and success for immigrants.

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