A Multi-Country Study on the Education of Migrant Children a Multi-Country Study
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A Multi-Country Study on the Education of Migrant Children of Migrant Education Study on the A Multi-Country A Multi-Country Study 12 13 on the Education of 1 Migrant Children 11 2 10 3 9 4 8 5 7 6 RR.11.2017 Jialing Han RR.11.2017 A Multi-Country Study on the Education of Migrant Children Jialing Han Jorge Enrique Delgado Ruth Cheung Judge Camilla Nordberg Pichapon Robru Xinjian Qi Buraskorn Torut Huynh Thi Ngoc Tuyet Wei Tang Hiromi Uemura Xin Xiang Contents Foreword iii Executive Summary iv Abbreviations and Acronyms v List of Tables and Figures vi Chapter One — Education of Migrant Children: A portrait of seven countries with comparative analysis 1 Chapter Two — Finland: Camilla Nordberg 7 Chapter Three — The UK: Ruth Cheung Judge 21 Chapter Four — The United States: Jorge Enrique Delgado & Wei Tang 39 Chapter Five — Japan Hiromi Uemura 57 Chapter Six — Thailand Buraskorn Torut, Xinjian Qi, & Pichapon Robru 77 Chapter Seven — China Jialing Han 91 Chapter Eight — Vietnam Huynh Thi Ngoc Tuyet 109 Chapter Nine — Conclusion: Migrant Children’s Education from a Comparative Perspective: What can we learn 125 from these seven countries’ experiences About the Authors 132 About 21 Century Education Research Institute 135 About WISE 136 Acknowledgments 137 References 138 Foreword Leaving home in search of a better life has been, from the beginning, an elemental human reality. Tales of ancestral voyages are embedded in our identity, our oldest epics and histories. In our own times, the immigrant’s journey is at the heart of much literature and art. We pass along family stories of migration, of building new lives in unfamiliar places that became home. Wealthy societies owe much of their success to the determination and sacrifice of immigrants. Yet many view immigrants with indifference, if not outright suspicion and hostility. An undocumented ‘Dreamer’ –brought to the United States as a child— scrambles to seize opportunities and education, and through wits and determination builds a thriving life for herself and becomes a leader in her community. On the other side of the world, a farmer may have little conventional education or government support. But he has leveraged technology and social networks to access knowledge, and has grasped the realities of his world. He understands that changing climate and other pressures means he and his family must take an agile approach to their livelihood. But those who pull up sticks too often face complex added barriers to opportunity and improvement, including accessing a good education for their children. When migration separates families, further issues emerge. In some regions, the parents leave the farms to seek employment in urban areas, leaving the children to be raised by the elders. Even when government responds with revised laws, and constitutional rights are bestowed, enforcement may be neglected or impeded. In some rich countries and poor alike, migrants face the ambient tensions of ‘identity politics’, dispiriting official neglect, even blatant hostility and persecution. Over recent decades, entrenched patterns of migration have become the enduring hallmarks of an age of economic growth and disruption, often created or aggravated by policy, conflict, even pressures linked to climate change. Discussions about migration should trigger a deeper examination of social stressors, individual motivation, and policy. This WISE Report describes how education for migrant children is managed in four Asian and three western countries. The portraits usefully include the historical development of unique practices and systems, such as the household registration schemes used in China, Thailand, and Vietnam for the management of internal migrants. The team of authors has brought together substantive information and resources that will be useful for further research on the creative practices and initiatives that facilitate equal, quality access – while supporting cohesive social well being and security. Governments would be well advised to support access to quality education for migrants. They are often highly motivated, determined, and hard working. They are worthy of our constant advocacy. Stavros N. Yiannouka CEO WISE iii Executive Summary obility — the capacity of people to move from one part of the world to another — is one of the defining features of the modern era. Every Myear, millions of families uproot themselves from their homes and move to another city or country in search of work, taking their children with them. It is thus very important for researchers and practitioners to understand the needs and challenges of migrant children around the globe who have made this transition. Mobility is an important characteristic of modernity: in contrast to the traditional agrarian societies where most people live their entire lives in the locality that they were born to, modern societies are characterized by mobile individuals and families who cross local and national borders. These mobile individuals and families, however, often run into barriers that limit their cultural, social, political or legal rights and prevent them from integrating into their new communities as full members. Different nations and localities offer different opportunities and pathways — if any at all — for these mobile individuals to obtain cultural, social, political, and legal membership. In the following chapters, “migrant children” encompasses immigrants who move across national borders to live in host countries as well as internal migrants who cross administrative boundaries within the country. With different social, political, and economic histories, however, these seven countries present different immigration and migration patterns as well as substantial variations in terms of which migrant groups are regarded as salient social problems. The chapters included in the first part of this document describe the nature and circumstances of the migrant child population in seven countries: China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Finland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each chapter outlines the context and make-up of that country’s migrant population, discusses educational rights issues faced by migrant children and successful initiatives to address those issues, and makes policy recommendations. The second part of this document presents a comparative analysis of some of the most salient issues raised in the individual country reports. It is our hope that this report will help governments seize the opportunity they have now to make policy decisions that benefit migrant children, and bring about a future that is more just and prosperous for everyone. iv Abbreviations and Acronyms ACS: American Community Survey BMEI: Binational Migrant Education Initiative CAMP: College Assistance Migrant Program CDE: California Department of Education DACA: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (US) program DLA: Dialogic Language Assessment EMAG: Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant ESEA: Elementary and Secondary Education Act FDI: Foreign Direct Investment FRPG: Fourth Ring Play Group (China) GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education GPRA: Government Performance and Results Act GSO: General Statistical Office, Vietnam IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act IHE: Institution of higher education IOM: International Organization for Migration IPS: Inter-Census Population and Housing Survey IRRC: Identification and Recruitment Rapid Response Consortium MEIR: Migrant Education Identification and Recruitment Initiative MEP: Migrant Education Program METS: Migrant Education Tutorial and Support Services MEXT: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan) MiraCORE: Migrant Reading Achievement: Comprehensive Online Reading Education MOET: Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam MPI: Migration Policy Institute MSIX: Migrant Student Information Exchange MSRE: Migrant Student Records Exchange Initiative MWEAC: Migrant Education and Action Research Center (China) NCELA: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition NRPF: No Recourse to Public Funds OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OELA: Office of English Language Acquisition OESE: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education OME: Office of Migrant Education ONS: Office of National Statistics (UK) PISA: Programme for International Student Assessment SEA: State educational agency SEAMEO: Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization SMILE: Supporting and Mentoring in Learning and Education UN-HABITAT: United Nations Human Settlements Programme UPE: Universal Primary Education v List of Tables and Figures Chapter Two Figure 1 — Foreign nationals by sex 1990–2016, Finland Figure 2 — Largest foreign-born groups in Finland in 2015 Figure 3 — The largest groups by native language in Finland 2006 and 2016 Figure 4 — The education system in Finland Chapter Three Figure 1 — Immigration, emigration and net migration in the UK, 1991-2015 Chapter Four Table 1 — States with the largest immigrant population in the US Table 2 — Main MEP state allocation recipients, year 2015 (US dollars) Table 3 — U.S. Department of Education allocations for English language acquisition Table 4 — States that participated in the Consortium Incentive Grants for migrant children whose education was interrupted (2015 data) Table 5 — Percentage of MEP students who scored at or above proficient on their state’s annual reading/language arts assessments in grades 3 through 8 (desired direction: increase) Table 6 — Percentage of MEP students who scored