Blog #4 Opened? Or Closed?

“When you are an immigrant, many doors are closed.

Well, yes, some, some are open – but they are hidden. Without help, I can’t find them”

Edgar

                                                                              

Seven months after I was born in Seoul, Korea, my family moved to Indonesia because of my father’s business and for that I grew up there and all of my education backgrounds - before I attend to college in the United States, had taken place in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The place where I spent my entire childhood is one of the developing countries and still considered as the third world country for some people. My family and I lived in Indonesia for more than 17 years as immigrants with a temporary residency. Which we have to renew it every five years; but coming from the country where it has a better economic situation and money values, actually our family had better living environment than average local people in Indonesia and had a better life than in Korea if we would just stayed there. In addition, immigration policies and laws in Indonesia are pretty much similar in Italy but I had experienced that living as an immigrant in Indonesia, especially from a country where better economic situation, immigrant has more opportunities in general and strong enough to influence the host country’s communities. My family and I had never felt neither; we were segregated or mistreated by natives. Nor what doors are closed for us, who are the immigrants. Of course, there are some doors not even opened to foreigner but there is always a way to open those doors and it is quite easy to access or to be found. Also in Indonesia, immigrants can become a teacher in public schools, bus and taxi drivers, and doctors or dentists in Indonesia whereas in Italy those kinds of jobs (public sectors) are only for people who have citizenships. One of my big opportunities as living as an immigrant in Indonesia is that I went to private schools from kindergarten to high school – Korean School and International School. Moreover, my upbringing was with parents who are very passionate and care about my education and future, schooling has never been questioned. It was a part of my life and it is my present and it will be my future. My parents and I believe that with higher education; it can lead one to a better job and a better quality of life; moreover, change the world. Therefore it seems going to preschool, elementary school, middle school, and high school, and then university is a very standard step to take which I have gone through and still in a progress. Again, I believe that people from all over the world - except the third world countries and under developing countries - think how I think and do what I do because I thought that is a norm that everyone does and at least people whom I know are being taken through this step but I guess I was wrong…

I found out an Italians in general have different opinions on education. When I had a conversation with Paola, who is the first grader’s class teacher at Iqbal Masih (public school where I’m doing my service learning) and at the same time when we had our guest speakers from Italian education system. So now, a few questions have popped up in my mind; if they think different from what I think, what Italian thinks about education? How important education is to them? Are Italians following the same steps that I have taken? I remembered when I asked Paola about what brings her to become a teacher and her opinion on general education system in Italy during my visit on last Tuesday (Jan 25, 2011), she smiled and answered she did not know she is going to be stand in this classroom right now and teaching children for more than 20 years. Also she added that she has never thought or want to become a teacher but in Italy, people have to decide their track whether science or arts or etc. at their age of 14 and at that time she decided to learn Russian and English. After finishing her college and when she didn’t know what to do, her father asked Paola to apply for a teacher position because it is better than doing nothing after graduation. Also the reason why she chose to learn languages is that she doesn’t want to study science, that’s it! When I heard Italians have to choose their track at a very young age, I felt little bit of harsh on education system in here and also felt sorry for children who go to school in Italy because it seems to me that the government forced them to choose and/or set their life. Well… I have a very negative view on this system because I think a child has a right to dream, explore, and experience various things at least when they are in school stages and there should be no limitation nor interference. Recalling from my childhood, I had a lot of dreams that I want to become or study or see and I couldn’t pick for one… so I can’t image the government made a choice for me yet I don’t know what I want to do or become. Fortunately, Paola was okay with the education system in here and happy with her choice and she really enjoyed being with children and teaching them. By listening to her education history, I knew that Italian education system is quite different from the United States, Indonesia, and Korea. I felt that education meaning itself in Italy is more like just a preparation to get a job whereas education in the United States, Indonesia and Korea, where I came from, is more about open our sight to see the world, understand, and broaden knowledge to become a better person and citizen in the world. Maybe that’s the reason why people in the United States and Korea are more likely to go to college and attaining high school degree than Italy here (Manka’s lecture). Furthermore, even though empirically it seems Italy, the United States, and Korea go by similar school stages but system insides are vary.

On the same day that I heard about Paola’s education background, in the afternoon, we had our guest speakers from Italian education system talking about immigration and education in contemporary Italy.

Now, Italy is experiencing a mass immigration coming from all different parts of the countries; especially from Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, China, and the Philippines (http://www.childrencrossingborders.org/ italy.html). In 2009, Italy was the fourth European country for immigrants said by one of our guest speakers. Among these immigrants in Italy, some people have already achieved citizenships but some people are remained undocumented and waiting for their time to apply for residency. Just like other countries, Italy has certain doors opened towards immigrants and some are closed. While I’m in Rome, I have never seen a bus and/or tram drivers or any pharmacist are immigrants but all native Italians. Like this, public sectors are only opened to natives or a person who has a citizenship which is hardly to get. Meanwhile, immigrants are allowed to work in restaurants or any private sectors which are not funded by the government. Moreover, I was surprised that when one of our guest speakers talked Italian limits the percentage of immigrant/foreign students in school to 30 percents because until now I have never seen or heard of any school which they limit the foreign students and even though I didn’t go to public school in Indonesia, I had a few Korean friends who went to Indonesian public schools and any of them told me that their schools are accepting only certain amount of foreign children. I think School should be the place where open to anyone who wants to learn. Otherwise can it be called as a public school? Well… the education policy itself creates a closed door to immigrant families and students. In addition, since public schools are going to accept only 30 percent of immigrant children, some children have to go to another school which is further from their home and that creates inconvenience to immigrants. Italian education policies seem to be unfair and considered as a closed door to immigrant but there are some opened for them. In 1994, Italian law has decided that all students whatever their documentation, must go to school (Manka’s class). In other words, immigrant children who are staying Italy illegally have an opportunity to learn and be educated. In addition, no matter immigrants or natives can pick the school. Here, another few questions came to my mind; Are immigrant children able to follow the instruction which is not in their home language? If not, is there any program or assistance for them?

Similar to the United States, Italy starts accepting immigrant children in their school, but Italy have less structured program for immigrant children to help them learning Italian whereas in the United States, student whom English is not a first language, they had to take an English test before they are assigned to class and if a child shows lower language proficiency than average then he/she should be placed in ESL class until he/she can speaks, writes, and understands the certain level of English. From my own experience and observation from service learning site, in Italy, they don’t have a language test which the United States does, but in classroom, class teachers are helping immigrant children for their understanding of Italian and making sure they are following the instructions. For example, one day during my service learning, the classroom that I was assigned had a story telling time and at that time, teacher noticed that few children do not understand the story at all, so teacher stopped the reading and picked few children to act characters of the story so by acting or movements children start understanding the text. Again, on another day, when I was in 5^th grade classroom and there is a boy who is from Roma and until age of 10, he didn’t go to school; thus he didn’t even know how to write his name. The class teacher told me it is very hard and challenging for her and a boy himself to teach and learn. So although he is in her classroom based on his age, the class teacher give different assignments to him with extra care and also she told me that twice a week, there’s a volunteer who come to teach him writing and speaking skills. Like this, living as an immigrant in Italy, immigrant children may feel frustration and have less opportunity due to language barrier but at the same time, there are more and more doors are opening toward them such as an organization or volunteers. Looking at on different perspectives, in my case, although I’m not an immigrant in the United States but as an international student, I see many doors are closed for me. Since the University of Washington is a public school and I’m considered as an outsider, I had to pay high tuition fees which my one quarter is one year of residence. Besides that, just because I’m not an American, I can’t apply for a financial aid and even work study is forbidden; moreover, I cannot work out of school and have to be fully enrolled at least 12 credits per quarter whereas these things do not apply to people who has a residency or American. Every time when I pay my tuition fee or registration day, I continuously feel that I’m never getting equal opportunities what natives get. But there are some opportunities are open to me such as studying abroad, priority of residence hall and others which are considered as open doors for me.

In conclusion, I remembered that Paola told me that people in Italy do not feel that they need to go to college because some people who do not have a bachelor degree, they still can get a nice job and earn a lot of money than people who went to the universities; therefore, many Italians think that going to college is wasting time and money and rather start working right after high school. Then she told me that how her friend who ended up not going to college but make more money than she does and while she was saying this to me, I have noticed she shakes her heads for several times which gave me an impression of prostration. Furthermore, from my casual conversation with local people on education, I recalled that majority of people decided not to go to university and although people who had higher education, a lot of them are being unemployed after they graduate or ended up doing something but not related to their major or what they have been studied. Like this, youth in Italy is ignoring or does not recognize the importance of education. Next, Italy and the United States have similar but different education systems within policies and approaching method to immigrants. It is important to increase the awareness of education and people in Italy should more think about their future and their youth.


Ciao,