Migrants as educators: reversing the order of beneficence

The discussion of migrants’ education focuses generally on whether and how host countries should educate their migrant populations, examining the goals and moral principles underlying educational services for immigrants. While apparently innocuous, such formulations of the issue stipulate a framewor...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Saner, Senem (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group [2018]
In: Journal of global ethics
Year: 2018, Volume: 14, Issue: 1, Pages: 95-113
Further subjects:B second nature
B Education
B Hegel
B Immigration
B Identity
B Self-determination
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:The discussion of migrants’ education focuses generally on whether and how host countries should educate their migrant populations, examining the goals and moral principles underlying educational services for immigrants. While apparently innocuous, such formulations of the issue stipulate a framework with clear roles: host countries are posited as providers and immigrants as recipients of services. Host countries are, thus, placed in a hierarchical position of ‘granting’ belonging, ‘granting’ services, ‘granting’ education, as benefactors, whether for the purposes of duty, utility, or justice. In this paper, I challenge this unidirectional order of beneficence. I propose that the inclusion of migrants in public institutions should more properly be viewed (also) as providing a necessary good/service for the host communities. The encounter with the alien, the foreign, the migrant, in oneself and in one's world, forces individuals and communities to reflect on what and who they are as well as what and who they want to be - their identity and their future development. I argue that migrant populations with diverse linguistic traditions and customs are uniquely situated to bring to consciousness and help denaturalize the given traditions and culture of their host communities and thus make possible a more self-aware, informed, and freer path of development for their host countries.
ISSN:1744-9634
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of global ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/17449626.2018.1496350