A number of educational and social objectives have been identified as justification for providing separate bilingual education programs.
These include promoting “self esteem,” respecting cultural diversity, offering a safe shelter from an otherwise hostile or indifferent school environment, maintaining minority languages, providing a role for school staff drawn from language-minority groups, intervening on behalf of pupils identified as requiring special services to overcome educational disadvantages, ensuring that language minority pupils are supported in participating in the full range of opportunities offered by the education system, and ensuring academic achievements through building on the home languages of pupils (Porter, 2000).
Human rights Only a democratic order which takes human rights seriously will be capable of avoiding or resolving ethnic conflict. These rights include the rights of ethnic groups, both as groups and as individual citizens. Such rights have recently gained international recognition and support in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities adopted by the General Assembly in 1992. The respect of universal human rights is one of the first measures to combat ethnic conflicts who have equal rights before the law (Beetham, 1995).
The only explicit institution recognition of minority problems within the UN system is the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. In spite of its dual responsibilities, very little of the agenda of the commission has been given over to the problem of protecting minority rights (Hevener, 1981). At school and work Serious problems, connected with social status, economic welfare and employment in different ethnic groups are due to substantial differences in their educational and qualification level (Maclean, 2005).
Differences in local labor market circumstances may produce socioeconomic and race/ethical differences in the association between employment behaviors and high school completion. White high school students are more likely than others to be employed and students from less advantaged family backgrounds are more likely to work intensively. These race/ethnic differences are true throughout high school, but become more pronounced in each successive year (Dalton Conley, 2004).
African-Americans have not only historically experienced discrimination in the form of residential segregation and occupational discrimination; they also have been most impacted by the deindustrialization and deinvestment in major American cities. Hispanic-Americans are in ethnically diverse group. They experienced several handicaps in their limited educational and occupational opportunities, racial stereotyping, language and institutionalized discrimination, industrial restructuring, and internal colonialism. They also have limited human capital resources. Privileges Investment in human capital is not the same across ethnic groups.
There is ample evidence that discriminatory practices in access, opportunity and financial incentives for education and training tilt the ethnic composition of potential participants. A low position in the immigration pecking order also reflects (and at the same time further reinforces) that ethnic group’s marginal economic, political and social status. In voluntary migration, ethnicity often determines the capacity and incentive to migrate. In involuntary migration, ethnicity is again important because expelled populations are often targeted specifically by their ethnicity (Bookman, 2002).
New face of U. S. The “check all that apply” option for racial and ethnic delineation will now be available for the 2000 U. S. Census. Multiracial census respondents can now mark their multiple racial and ethnic ancestries without having to force-fit themselves into just one of the preexisting monoracially constructed categories defined by the U. S. Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Statistical Directive 15 established in 1977. The check all that apply option will undoubtedly have important political implications for racial and ethnic data collection, tabulation, and coding.
Although Asian-decent multiracial individuals and groups joined a coalition of lobbyists and advocates, the resulting check all that apply census option was ultimately a concerted effort of many individuals and organizations (Herman L. DeBose, 2003). Conclusion As we are geared towards cross-cultural experiences, we become more broad-minded, sensitive and liberal towards cultural diversity and “uniqueness. ” Together with some formal study of the concept of culture, we are not only expanding our horizon and new insights towards improvement of our human relations, but we are also widening our awareness to the impact of our native culture.
Understanding cultural diversity may diminish the impact of culture shock and take advantage of intercultural experiences and learning. Cultural sensitivity ought to educate us that culture and behavior are relative and that we should build up consideration, and less absolute, in human relations. The family is responsible for preparing children for different environments by giving them a positive sense of ethnic identity. Ethnic groups especially need to give their children confidence in an environment that has historically made them feel inferior and less than welcome.
The socialization process within families is a key to instilling within children a sense of ethnic pride, loyalty, and identification. It is through an ethnically distinctive socialization process that the child will be less insecure about his or her place and worth in society. This will provide the children of ethnic families with a true sense of belonging, and group orientation (Richard M. Lerner, 2005).
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