“In contrast, among immigrant minorities, academic achievement and adoption of cultural values for success typical of the dominant group are not perceived as giving up any part of one’s identity. Immigrants may even be more willing to suffer discrimination because they perceive these as a natural reaction to outsiders. Unlike involuntary minorities, immigrants perceive school as necessary to obtain good jobs and wages…School and school success are not perceived as the property of whites…” – Ethnic Identity and Schooling: The Experience of Haitian Immigrant Youth.

I have honestly never considered that minorities could be classified in such a way, instead of just by ethnic group. Immigrants are in a way accepting of the prejudices and stereotypes, feeling that it is a “natural reaction to outsiders.” Yet they do not always internalize these things and usually have cultural or socio-economic reasons to push themselves to ignore the negative and keep striving for what all the other students in the school are striving for. In the example in the text, African Americans may feel too systematically oppressed by society and begin to reject that society in order to be different from them. Being like the society becomes a bad thing.

My question is, what about when you have African American/black immigrants…which category do they fit into? Obviously they are immigrants and thus voluntary minorities. But they also fall into the race category of those who feel historically oppressed by white society. Does the immigrant part of the individual take stronger priority in their thoughts about themselves and their goals? It has to depend on where they are immigrating from, I think, as well. Because if they are coming from a place ripe with racism from white society, to a similar place, they may feel the immigrant and the nonimmigrant categories equally.