Social maladjustment of children of migrants

Children of migrants in Europe and the USA face a variety of social, political and economic barriers before being integrated into these societies. The language programmes provided by host countries, with the exception of Sweden, are fairly useless. Indeed there is a lack of any kind of orientation, let alone language lessons, before or after arrival for most countries. This results in the migrants remaining at the bottom of a stratified economic and social system rather than gradually narrowing the gap between them and their hosts. Many migrant families and their host countries assume that the migrants will return to their home countries. For the most part this is illusionary. Many young people from immigrant families are less active in applying for apprenticeships, additional schooling or jobs than their host country counterparts. Numerous children attend less schooling in the host countries, achieve lower capacity in the host country's language and are culturally and socially unsure of themselves. Parents may force values and practices from the home country that are at odds with the host country's culture, placing the students in the position of having to reconcile the differences. This results in youth who are not socially and culturally adept in either country. The process of adaptation is often counter-acted by spatial and social segregation.