In this article the author examines public schools in the United States as sites where immigrants and refugees express their religious identities as part of their integration processes. In particular, the author examines the schools as “sites of refuge” for refugee students. Although public schools provide refugees with opportunity for study without regard to race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion (areas of potential persecution under the 1951 UN Convention Regarding the Status of Refugees), owing to their liberal and secular nature they necessarily put constraints on the degree to which students may exercise their particularistic cultural identities. Religion is an area in which such constraints are often most apparent. The article analyzes Will Kymlicka’s theory of polyethnic group rights as a possible framework for both understanding migrant ethnic cultures and integration processes generally, as well as a defense for providing accommodations for the religious identities and religious expressions of immigrant and refugee students. With conditions, the author believes that, by guaranteeing the right to refugee students’ societal culture, polyethnic rights comprise a viable framework for supporting immigrants and refugees in their integration into the United States. However, the framework works only to the degree that it is consistent with and advances liberal ends, including student autonomy and freedom.
Ahmad, I., & Szpara, M. ( 2003). Muslim children in urbanAmerica: The New York city schools experience. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs , 23(2), 295-301.
2.
Biesta, G. ( 2007). Education and the democratic person: Toward a political conception of democratic education. Teachers College Record , 109, 740-769.
3.
Cambron-McCabe, N., McCarthy, M., & Thomas, B. ( 2008). Church/State relations. Public school law: Teachers’ and students’ rights. (6th ed., pp. 25).Boston: Pearson.
4.
Haynes, C.(2009, February). Religious liberty in public schools-at long last . Teachers College Record, 16, 1.
5.
Hodge, D.R. ( 2002). Working with Muslim youths: Understanding the values and beliefs of Islamic discourse. Children & Schools ,24, (1), 6-20.
6.
Kymlicka, W. ( 1995). Multicultural citizenship: A liberal theory of minority rights. Oxford, UK: Clarendon .
7.
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2009). Realizing the promise of diversity: Ontario’s equity and inclusive education strategy. Toronto: Author .
8.
Toronto District School Board. (n.d.). Guidelines and procedures for religious accommodations. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Author.
9.
AbuEl-Haj, T.R. ( 2002). Contesting the politics of culture, rewriting the boundaries of inclusion: Working for social justice with Muslim and Arab communities . Anthropology & Education, 33, 308-316.
10.
Ahmad, I., & Szpara, M. ( 2003). Muslim children in urban America: The New York City schools experience. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs , 23, 295-301.
11.
Apple, M. ( 1995). Education and power (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
12.
Banks, J., & Banks, C. ( 2004). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives . New York: John Wiley.
13.
Bell, L.A. ( 2002). Sincere fictions: The pedagogical challenges of preparing white teachers for multicultural classroom. Equity and Excellence in Education, 35, 236-244.
14.
Bloom, A. ( 1987). The closing of the American mind. New York: Simon & Schuster.
15.
Cambron-McCabe, N., McCarthy, M., & Thomas, B. ( 2004). Church/state relations. Public school law: Teachers’ and students’ rights (5th ed., pp. 25). Boston: Pearson.
16.
Casey, C.B. ( 2008). Accommodation of student religious expression and practices . In L. Soronen (Ed.), Religion & public schools: Striking a constitutional balance (3rd ed., pp. 41-53). National School Boards Association .
17.
Castles, S., & Miller, M. ( 2003). The age of migration: International population movements in the modern world (3rd ed). New York: Guilford.
18.
Centre for Refugee Studies. (2008, August 11). Education and forced migration. Presentation. Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, Toronto , Ontario, Canada.
19.
Collet, B.A. ( 2007). Islam, national identity and public secondary education: Perspectives from the Somali diaspora in Toronto, Canada. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 10, 131-153.
20.
Eck, D.L. ( 2000). A new religious America. New York : HarperCollins.
21.
Gibson, M.A. ( 1998). Accommodation without assimilation. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
22.
Gutmann, A. ( 1987). Democratic EducationPrinceton : Princeton University Press.
23.
Grahl-Madsen, A. ( 1966). Historical background. In The status of refugees in international law (pp. 9-27). London: Kluwer Law International.
24.
Hathaway, J. ( 1991). The development of the refugee definition in international law. In The law of refugee status (pp. 1-27). London : Butterworth-Heinemann.
25.
Haynes, C. ( 1998). Muslim students’ needs in public schools . Law-Related Education, 22(1), 17.
26.
Kymlicka, W. ( 1995). Multicultural citizenship: A liberal theory of minority rights. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press .
27.
Loewen, J.L. ( 1995). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster.
28.
Marshall, J. ( 2006). Nothing new under the sun: A historical overview of religion in U.S. public schools. Equity & Excellence in Education , 39, 181-194.
29.
Menjívar, C. ( 2003). Religion and immigration in comparative perspective: Salvadorans in Catholic and Evangelical communities in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Washington D.C. Sociology of Religion, 64(1), 21-45.
30.
Merry, M. ( 2007). Introduction. Culture, identity, and Islamic schooling: A philosophical approach (1st ed., pp. 1-12). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
31.
Milner, H.R. ( 2003). Reflection, racial competence, and critical pedagogy: How do we prepare pre-service teachers to pose tough questions?Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 6, 193-208.
32.
Musalo, K. ( 2004). Claims for protection based on religion or belief . International Journal of Refugee Law, 16, 165-226.
33.
Nawyn, S. ( 2006). Faith, ethnicity, and culture in refugee resettlement . American Behavioral Scientist, 49, 1509-1527.
34.
Nichols, J. ( 1988). The uneasy alliance: Religion, refugee work, andU.S.foreign policy. New York: Oxford University Press.
35.
Pew Research Center. (2008). U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, 2008. February, 2008.
36.
Ravitch, F.S. ( 2006). The fourth R: Conflicts over religion in America’s public schools. Sociology of Religion, 67(1), 112-113.
37.
The refugee act. Retrieved 11/07, 2008, from www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/policy/ refact1.htm
38.
Sarroub, L. ( 2005). All American Yemeni girls: Being Muslim in a public school . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
39.
Schlesinger, A. ( 1992). The disuniting of America: Reflections on a multicultural society. New York: Norton.
40.
Sleeter, C.E. ( 1993). How white teachers construct race. In C. McCarthy, & W. Chrichlow (Eds.), Race, identity and representation in education (pp. 157-171). London: Routledge .
41.
Sleeter, C.E. ( 2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94-100.
42.
Stoll, K., & Johnson, P. ( 2007). Determinants of psychosocial adjustment of southern Sudanese men. Journal of Refugee Studies, 20, 626-640.
43.
Subedi, B. ( 2006). Preservice teachers’ beliefs and practices: Religion and religious diversity. Equity & Excellence in Education , 39, 227-238.
44.
Tozer, S., Violas, P., & Senese, G. ( 1998). School and society: Historical and contemporary perspectives . (3rd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
45.
Toronto District School Board. (n.d.). Guidelines and Procedures for Religious Accommodations. Toronto: Author.
46.
Unhcr. (2000). The state of the word’s refugees: Fifty years of humanitarian action. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
47.
Unhcr. (2007). Convention and protocol relating to the status of refugees. Washington, DC: Author.
48.
Van Hear, N. ( 1998). New diasporas; the mass exodus, dispersal and regrouping of migrant communities. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
49.
Westermeyer, J., & Nugent, S. ( 1994). Religiosity and psychosocial adjustment among 100 Homng refugees. Asian American Pacific Island Journal of Health , 2(2), 133-145.
50.
Yarnold, B. ( 1990). Administrative policy making: Adjudication by the board of immigration appeals in asylum-related appeals 1980-1987. Policy Studies Review, 9, 681-701.
51.
Zhou, M., Bankston, C., & Kim, R. ( 2002). Rebuilding spiritual lives in the new land: Religious practices among Southeast Asian refugees in the united states. In P. J. Min, & J. H. Kim (Eds.), Religion in Asian America (pp. 37-70). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
