ECOLES PROJECT

MULTICULTURALITY IN SCHOOL

DATA FROM A SURVEY:

IMMIGRANT STUDENTS

Escola Secundária Daniel Sampaio

Sobreda-Portugal March 2008

The sample was mainly chosen for its diversity and was composed by:

• 30 pupils aged between 15-18, living in Portugal for a period between 9 months and 13 years

• no declared religious background, but with Christian Catholic or Ortodox or Muslim family background

• immigrants from Portuguese speaking countries (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique)

• immigrants from Eastern Europe (Ukrania, Moldavia, Rumania)

• sons/daughters of former Portuguese emigrants that lived childhood in other EU countries

• one student from Equador

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General conclusion: Immigrant sudents combine Portuguese features with family background features

• students celebrate the same events as regular Portuguese, plus some from their own original culture and religion.

• it was not detected any different pattern from parents’ type of job or unemployment rate among the sample

• there’s a similar level of housewife mothers

• there’s no perceived difference on parental rules on going out at night during school days or limitation of time for watching TV

• 5 students out of 30 said they had limits to watch TV

• 17 students said they had some limits on going out during school days

• 2 students answered their parents had never come to school to attend parents’ meetings

• 20 students claim they feel better among friends/sports team; 15 prefer to stay at home with the family (8 choose both) and 2 prefer to be alone

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General conclusions:

• everyone expects, at least, finishing High School

• a large majority expects reaching college level

IMMIGRANT SAMPLE

13%

3%

84%

Finish High School

Vocational/Business

University

PE

RS

ON

AL

VA

LUE

SP

ER

SO

NA

L V

ALU

ES

IMMIGRANT SAMPLE

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

love

friendship

health

hapiness

honesty

w ealth

w ork

peace

religion

tolerance

OT

HE

R IS

SU

ES

OT

HE

R IS

SU

ES

Leisure and musical preferences• musical preferences mentioned the most are: hip hop, pop, rock and the most referred hobbies are using internet, sports, going out with friends, computer games.

Language issues:• only the students from Portuguese speaking countries speak Portuguese at home, all the others speak their parents’ original language

• there’s a correlation on the oral and written skills on Portuguese language with the years living in the country rather than the country/culture of origin

• all the students, except one, claimed they speak/understand/write Portuguese well or very well

Experience of Segregation:• 6 out of 30 immigrant students claimed they had felt badly treated or even insulted by other students just because of being immigrants or sons of immigrants