Key points
- Immigrant youth hold resilience and strengths often overlooked in research.
- Cultural assets like bilingualism and adaptability foster positive growth.
- Language brokering can build skills if supported, not just be seen as a burden.
- Culturally aware research and policy help affirm youth potential and dignity.
In popular rhetoric, immigrant-origin youth are often seen for what they lack. Elements such as lower proficiency in the language of the host country and lack of economic security are what people focus on. Developmental studies on immigrant-origin youth are also often underfunded, which makes it a challenge to proliferate strength-based research on this topic. Indeed, research usually focuses on the problems or challenges they face rather than their strengths or potential. There is a need to reframe the focus on risk factors in the development of immigrant-origin youth. This reframing does not ignore challenges but instead contextualises them. It creates space for resilience, cultural assets, and agency, and explores what would happen if the youth were viewed through a strength-based lens instead.
Understanding the Historical Framing of Risk in Immigrant-origin Youth Research
In research, immigrant-origin youth have traditionally been portrayed as ‘vulnerable’, ‘ at-risk’, or ‘deficient.’ Due to their exposure to migration-related stressors, they are frequently depicted as inherently fragile. These stressors include language barriers, family separation, or displacement. According to this interpretation, immigrant-origin youth require ongoing assistance and protection. Although these factors may exist, these representations often ignore their cultural strengths, autonomy, and adaptability.
Viewing individuals through the lens of ‘fragility’ may pathologize ordinary cultural adjustments, making them appear abnormal. This distinction between ‘fragile immigrant youth’ and ‘normally adjusted youth’ makes the former seem constantly like outsiders. That is, constantly framing this group in a risk-based view focuses on failure rather than success. Interventions are also often intended to “prevent problems” rather than “foster thriving”. As such, immigrant-origin youth may begin to internalize views about themselves as fragile.
This issue of fragility is also prominent in education-based research. Immigrant-origin youth are compared to norms framed according to the average of a different country and culture. This standardization does not account for inherent individual differences, which, rather than being viewed via a lens of marginalization, should be seen as strengths. For instance, being bilingual has often been seen as a marker of lower vocabulary knowledge instead of as a cognitive asset. This bias can also be seen in psychological literature, which emphasizes that “acculturation gaps” among families are fundamentally problematic rather than occasionally adaptive.
This framing in research affects policy formation and broader perceptions of immigrant-origin families and youth. In some cases, immigrant-origin youth may start to feel deficient, and their growth may be limited by insecurities and a lack of self-esteem. Other groups in society may see them as ‘problem kids’ and ostracize them by perceiving immigrants as inherently vulnerable and different. These foundational beliefs, coupled with media and news portrayals, can fuel xenophobia.
A Strength-Based Framework: What It Looks Like and Why It Matters
Strength-based approaches are frameworks that focus on the positive differences– i.e, how different ways of upbringing, perspectives, or experiences develop valuable skills in immigrant-origin youth. This includes deliberate focus on factors that support positive development, even in the face of migration-related challenges. Among such factors that need emphasis are protective factors, adaptive strategies, and cultural assets.
Protective factors refer to conditions that cushion youth against risk while promoting resilience. This may include strong family bonds, supportive peer networks, or mentors who affirm their identity. Adaptive strategies are practical ways in which youth navigate challenges that may arise, such as learning to code-switch to fit different cultural contexts. Cultural assets are skills, knowledge, and values gained from their heritage culture that support them to thrive. All of these structures and systems support immigrant-origin youth from a strength-based perspective.
Among the key sources of strength in immigrant families are cultural values. Values such as collectivism, perseverance, and humility can be invaluable assets during the process of acculturation. Additionally, family obligation and support create a safety net that immigrant-origin youth can rely on when facing challenges. Strengths such as these draw from intergenerational resilience, where strengths and coping strategies are passed down from one generation to the next and are based in collectivism.
Another common source of strength that is often overlooked is bilingualism and biculturalism. Their multicultural experience allows immigrant-origin youth to adapt and adjust to different cultural contexts with ease. Skills such as code-switching and being able to appreciate nuances from different cultures allow young immigrants to thrive in diverse spaces.
While deficit-focused models may overlook these strengths, they are key skills that support the potential and growth of immigrant-origin youth.
Research Insights: Evidence from Language Brokering and Bilingualism
While traditional research emphasized immigrant-origin youths’ risk factors, new work in developmental science seeks to do the opposite and show a more complex picture that is rich and nuanced. Everyday practices such as language brokering and bilingualism are not only sources of stress, but in some contexts can be engines of cognitive development and family cohesion. Recognizing this complexity matters for research, policy, and practice. It is crucial to measure and model both risk and resilience to understand and support immigrant-origin youth.
Language brokering is a common feature in immigrant family life. It is a practice in which children and adolescents informally translate for their parents and families. Studies show that language brokering is a multidimensional practice. It involves emotional labor, cultural mediation, and instrumental tasks such as translating documents. When youth experience brokering as something that brings them pride, it fosters academic efficacy, family cohesion, and maturity. When experienced as burdensome, it brings about stress and can affect a youth’s sense of self and result in parent-child alienation. These effects can coexist within the same individual, depending on the context and support available. Rather than trying to neatly classify language brokering as either good or bad, research needs to focus on the conditions that promote growth versus when they become a burden.
Similarly, bilingualism as a whole needs to be seen as a resource for enhancing executive function. Research shows that bilingual youth who engage in complex language practices can show enhanced executive function performance. However, this is dependent on emotion, proficiency, and context. For example, negative emotions and stress can undermine executive functioning. Beyond the cognitive abilities, bilingualism supports cultural identity and family cohesion. On the one hand, heritage language knowledge allows for meaningful intergenerational communication. On the other hand, speaking the dominant language of the host country supports connections with new groups and friends.
Centering Cultural Context in Developmental Science
The Parenting in the Cultural Context framework emphasizes that parenting is shaped by historical experiences and cultural values. In immigrant families, these beliefs, values, and experiences guide parenting goals and influence youth development.
Cultural beliefs such as respect and sacrifice are often themes that direct parenting goals. These values and beliefs cannot be separated from the broader cultural context that gives them meaning. If viewed from a Western lens only, they can be misinterpreted as a lack of autonomy and rigidity. Such misinterpretations can distort research findings and reinforce deficit-based narratives about immigrant families. An example of such an interpretation can be parents’ close monitoring of academic progress being interpreted as excessive pressure. In reality, it demonstrates a commitment to future success and stability. Hence, parenting styles need to be studied in the context of cultural values to avoid bias and to comprehensively understand the development of youth within immigrant families.
Research designs must include culturally sensitive measures and interpretations. Developmental science needs to ask questions about the motivations behind parents’ actions. This inquiry ensures interpretations reflecting the cultural logic behind them, which often includes structural barriers to success due to discrimination, lack of resources, and opportunity deficits. Without this, valuable strengths can be overlooked, and immigrant parenting may be unfairly pathologized. Research needs to support policies and systems that recognize immigrant families and their strengths. Consequently, policies and systems need to provide support rather than just reduce risk. Investing in approaches that integrate cultural strengths can promote positive youth development while addressing structural barriers. Doing so helps move the framing of immigrant families from problems to be fixed to invaluable members of society.
Conclusion
The reality is that immigrant-origin youth are resilient because of their cultural context and differences. Their experiences of balancing between two worlds make them resilient in more ways than most can imagine. Their strengths often emerge from navigating multiple cultural worlds and adapting to new environments by drawing on the deep resources within their families and communities. Their experiences do not just help them face challenges but also build cognitive abilities, empathy, and worldviews.
The understanding of development in immigrant-origin youth can be changed through research that takes into account the real-life experiences of youth in immigrant families. Studies that focus on understanding cultural diversity can uncover strengths, including innovation, care, and adaptability, that are missed in deficit-based methods.
Such research can correct misconceptions about immigrant families. In turn, this can inform policies and practices that are geared toward supporting immigrant families to integrate and thrive. They can affirm immigrant families’ dignity and agency, reflecting their lived experiences and cultural richness.
Developmental science needs to uplift rather than undermine differences in cultural identities. Studies need to move beyond seeing immigrant youth as data points to be compared to the norm. They need to embrace complexity and cultural differences, and see potential rather than pathology.