I recently got a copy of "Youth Identity and Migration" edited by Fethi Mansouri. I enjoyed the work and thought that it would be good to include a review here.
This collected work is framed by the experience of youth growing up in an era of increasingly complex ethnic and cultural diversity. It addresses the social connections that migrant youth have and seeks to identify their wellbeing as the next adult generation of workers, educators, and adults. The book is a collection of thirteen chapters divided into three broader themes of: cultural adaptation and wellbeing, the social experiences of migrant youth, and migrant youth and the new media. The book looks at how day-to-day exchanges, education, and media relate to identity for migrant youth. It also takes a critical stance in assessing issues of access, inclusion, and social capital for these young people. The book provides a broad engagement with migrant youth including work that encompass new, second and third generation migrants, refugees, and Muslims.
In introduction Mansouri addresses Vertovec’s concept of superdiveristy (p. 12) and argues that this new era of diversity is more complex than census data and recourse to country of origin enables us to identify. The works that follow support this argument and also contribute to an understanding of this complexity. One of the clear contributions this work provides is that of situating migrant youth in a new epoch to that of their parents, an age where media enables youth to create and engage with global communities. This is described as a departure from their parent’s transnationalism, as the youth in these studies are connected to not only others from their ancestral communities, but also other minorities in their own locale, and globally (p. 53, 157). This ‘unity in difference’ is a recurring theme of the collection and is given different representations in the chapters by Mansouri & Miller, Santoro, and Hopkins & Dolic. Another strong feature of the collection is the reference it provides to the different experiences of education by migrant youth. In Arber’s work which discusses popular racism in the teaching profession we engage with migrant youth coming to a largely monocultural school as transnational consumers of white middle class education. In Santoro’s study a contrast is provided by addressing the lack of ethnic minority teachers in schools with a multicultural student body. These works along with the chapters by Latrache and Windle highlight the global context of contemporary teaching and the need for teachers to gain professional competence in real life multicultural settings. Both the unity in difference and educational themes provide insight into the social connections of migrant youth and their wellbeing and inclusion.
The fact that this work is largely a collection of Australian research does not detract from the wider implications of its findings. As the youth in several studies indicate, contemporary migrant youth in Australia share much with migrant youth globally, and also more generally with all youth growing up conversant with new media and in multicultural surroundings. However, a number of chapters look beyond Australia and the book includes research on Arab youth in America and France, and a comparison of educational disadvantage between Australia and France. The book also does much to integrate the subject of Muslim youth, too often dealt with as a separate concern, into broader debates of migrant and ethnic minority youth. Similarly refugees, Turkish, Indigenous Australian, and Pacific Island youth are all included in various debates that are focal on the experience of being young and a minority, rather than being a particular ethnicity. Generally the chapters in the book are complimentary and readers interested in one or two specific chapters will find value in the rest of the volume.
The book is slightly impeded by the lack of clarity that the table of contents provides, where chapter number are omitted and the detailing of chapter sections is included at the expense it seems of their full titles. This is made prominent by the fact that there is no index to trace themes across the anthology. I note this precisely because the collection of texts are complimentary, in some cases even reiterating a theme, such as unity in difference, or providing different perspectives on similar themes like multicultural education from both student and teacher points of view. The engagement with wellbeing and health is at times nuanced and uneven. This is made more distinct in the concluding chapter by Paradies et al, who note that the health impacts associated with the experience of racism are most well established in terms of negative psychological effects and social behaviour (p. 214). The strong case these authors make highlights the need for some of the previous chapters to have made more of these connections. In addition, an issue that was lacking across the book as a whole was an acknowledgement of gender difference; this is only really touched upon briefly by Francis in reference to Pacific Island migrants (p. 198). This is a little disappointing as the volume handles the complexity of addressing a variety of different ethnic groups most competently, making their experiences relevant to both the reader and the other works within the collection.
On the whole the book is timely addition to the field of minority youth studies and includes a balanced collection of conceptualisation, research, and analysis. The issue of migrant youth health as an important issue is given context. A connection is made between the subtleties of social inclusion, wellbeing, and friendships, and educational success, criminality, and ill health. The authors achieve this by engaging in themes that are at the forefront of youth research, media use, ethnicity, and education. It is relevant and useful to youth researchers in Australia, and similarly to those beyond the region.
Book details
Youth Identity and Migration: Culture, Values and Social Connectedness
F. Mansouri (ed)
Common Ground, 2009
226 pages ISBN 9781863356213-3
This collected work is framed by the experience of youth growing up in an era of increasingly complex ethnic and cultural diversity. It addresses the social connections that migrant youth have and seeks to identify their wellbeing as the next adult generation of workers, educators, and adults. The book is a collection of thirteen chapters divided into three broader themes of: cultural adaptation and wellbeing, the social experiences of migrant youth, and migrant youth and the new media. The book looks at how day-to-day exchanges, education, and media relate to identity for migrant youth. It also takes a critical stance in assessing issues of access, inclusion, and social capital for these young people. The book provides a broad engagement with migrant youth including work that encompass new, second and third generation migrants, refugees, and Muslims.
In introduction Mansouri addresses Vertovec’s concept of superdiveristy (p. 12) and argues that this new era of diversity is more complex than census data and recourse to country of origin enables us to identify. The works that follow support this argument and also contribute to an understanding of this complexity. One of the clear contributions this work provides is that of situating migrant youth in a new epoch to that of their parents, an age where media enables youth to create and engage with global communities. This is described as a departure from their parent’s transnationalism, as the youth in these studies are connected to not only others from their ancestral communities, but also other minorities in their own locale, and globally (p. 53, 157). This ‘unity in difference’ is a recurring theme of the collection and is given different representations in the chapters by Mansouri & Miller, Santoro, and Hopkins & Dolic. Another strong feature of the collection is the reference it provides to the different experiences of education by migrant youth. In Arber’s work which discusses popular racism in the teaching profession we engage with migrant youth coming to a largely monocultural school as transnational consumers of white middle class education. In Santoro’s study a contrast is provided by addressing the lack of ethnic minority teachers in schools with a multicultural student body. These works along with the chapters by Latrache and Windle highlight the global context of contemporary teaching and the need for teachers to gain professional competence in real life multicultural settings. Both the unity in difference and educational themes provide insight into the social connections of migrant youth and their wellbeing and inclusion.
The fact that this work is largely a collection of Australian research does not detract from the wider implications of its findings. As the youth in several studies indicate, contemporary migrant youth in Australia share much with migrant youth globally, and also more generally with all youth growing up conversant with new media and in multicultural surroundings. However, a number of chapters look beyond Australia and the book includes research on Arab youth in America and France, and a comparison of educational disadvantage between Australia and France. The book also does much to integrate the subject of Muslim youth, too often dealt with as a separate concern, into broader debates of migrant and ethnic minority youth. Similarly refugees, Turkish, Indigenous Australian, and Pacific Island youth are all included in various debates that are focal on the experience of being young and a minority, rather than being a particular ethnicity. Generally the chapters in the book are complimentary and readers interested in one or two specific chapters will find value in the rest of the volume.
The book is slightly impeded by the lack of clarity that the table of contents provides, where chapter number are omitted and the detailing of chapter sections is included at the expense it seems of their full titles. This is made prominent by the fact that there is no index to trace themes across the anthology. I note this precisely because the collection of texts are complimentary, in some cases even reiterating a theme, such as unity in difference, or providing different perspectives on similar themes like multicultural education from both student and teacher points of view. The engagement with wellbeing and health is at times nuanced and uneven. This is made more distinct in the concluding chapter by Paradies et al, who note that the health impacts associated with the experience of racism are most well established in terms of negative psychological effects and social behaviour (p. 214). The strong case these authors make highlights the need for some of the previous chapters to have made more of these connections. In addition, an issue that was lacking across the book as a whole was an acknowledgement of gender difference; this is only really touched upon briefly by Francis in reference to Pacific Island migrants (p. 198). This is a little disappointing as the volume handles the complexity of addressing a variety of different ethnic groups most competently, making their experiences relevant to both the reader and the other works within the collection.
On the whole the book is timely addition to the field of minority youth studies and includes a balanced collection of conceptualisation, research, and analysis. The issue of migrant youth health as an important issue is given context. A connection is made between the subtleties of social inclusion, wellbeing, and friendships, and educational success, criminality, and ill health. The authors achieve this by engaging in themes that are at the forefront of youth research, media use, ethnicity, and education. It is relevant and useful to youth researchers in Australia, and similarly to those beyond the region.
Book details
Youth Identity and Migration: Culture, Values and Social Connectedness
F. Mansouri (ed)
Common Ground, 2009
226 pages ISBN 9781863356213-3
No comments:
Post a Comment