Reflection

In Module 9 Unit 4 we learned a lot about immigrants and their classifications. In an

article by Ogbu, he focuses on two classifications of immigrants, voluntary (immigrant) and
involuntary (non-immigrant) minorities and talks deeply into their feelings and where they come
from. This week we are focusing on Third Culture Kids (TCK’s)/mobile students that are living in
host countries. When looking at immigrants versus globally mobile students there are many
similarities and differences.
First of all, migrants (both voluntary and involuntary) and globally mobile students have
to deal with a sense of not belonging. They are living in a completely new place usually with
whole new surroundings and culture, they are dealing with the change emotionally and
physically and have the sense of rootlessness. Moving to a new home is never easy so imagine
moving at a young age to a completely new country. Although it may be for a better life or
education and no matter how optimistic they may feel, migrant and mobile students will take
time to adjust. However, a difference would be immigrants and mobile students between
involuntary migrants. Migrants that choose to go to a country (whether for work, education, a
better life, etc.) tend to be more optimistic because they made the choice. Therefore, they have
a completely different frame of reference than those that come to a country involuntarily.
Immigrants and mobile students tend to struggle for a short period of time and are happy to
conform to the norms where non-immigrant minority students struggle for much longer and are
more pressured to stick with their own culture and tradition. This makes it hard for involuntary
minority children to assimilate to their new home and surroundings.
On a more positive note, children that grow up in a country that is not their home
country gain a lot of insight and skills that students in national education more often do not. For
example, migrants and mobile students have to get used to change and therefore they gain an
important 21st century skill called adaptability. Although it is difficult in the moment, this
prepares these children for success in the future. Children that move and live in different
countries also become resilient; also a great skill to prepare students for success. Something
that mobile students gain from an international education that migrants going to America do
not get is just that, an international education. Mobile students tend to get an expanded world
view and cross-cultural enrichment and skills. Their international education prepares them for a
globalized world by teaching them 21st century skills. Globally mobile students also have an
advantage over migrants because although they are minorities in the country, they tend to fit in
well in an international school because there is so much diversity and everyone is a minority.
Migrants are thrown into national schools that typically have a large race or culture that
dominates the school. Therefore, migrants experience the discrimination and hardships that
come with being a minority.
As you can see there are many similarities and differences between globally mobile
students and migrant minority students.