This study examined the question of whether there was a difference in the general school experiences of children who move to a new country with an entirely different culture and language, and children who immigrate to a country with a language and culture that is similar to their native culture? It was stated that the existing literature had not directly addressed this specific question but, rather, had focused on language problems and other academic difficulties experienced by bilingual/bicultural children.
It was further noted that several authors (e.g. Espin, 1987; Phinney, 1991) had stated that immigrant children's school experiences can be affected by any attitudes about the country of immigration and its people which they pick up from their parents as well as from the degree of parents' willingness to interact with the new culture. These postulates were said to provide reason to believe that being in a culture different from one's own makes for far more problems in school than merely language/academic difficulties, e.g. academic problems, and social interaction or adjustment problems.
In an effort to examine for differences in school experiences as a function of differences in the degree of similarity between the native and immigrant country, two subject groups were used. These consisted of Arab families whose children were attending school in either the United States of American or the United Arab Emerits.
In a single city in each country, local schools were contacted and asked to participate in the study. Schools which agreed to participate were asked to provide the names of children who had immigrated from non-U.A.E. Arab countries, and who had one or more children in the fourth, or fifth grades. Children were restricted to only the 4th and 5th grades in order to control for response variance due to maturational rather than cultural differences.
All provided names were then placed on a roster and contacted...