3.1 Introduction
In this chapter an attempt is made to explain the reasons for the apparent under attainment of the AIs academically and socio-economically in India. The situation in Australia will be discussed in a later chapter. Researchers in India have consistently shown that AI students performed poorly compared to students from other Indian communities (Gist, 1972; Gist and Wright, 1973; Lobo, 1994). Further more, adult AIs were described as being willing to settle for low and middling positions in Government organisations (Gist, 1972; Gaikwad, 1967; Gist and Wright, 1973).
In recent times a number of researchers (Ogbu, 1978; 1991; Gibson, 1991) have pointed to the differences between immigrants and some minorities with reference to academic and socio-economic attainment. According to these researchers, if a minority group believes that, no matter how hard individual members strive for success, they will not be able to progress beyond mid-level jobs, this group will start to under-attain. If members of this minority grouping are given opportunities to progress upward their attitudes and behaviours change and they start to attain educationally and socio-economically.
3.2 Ogbu's Caste Theory in the Context of Australian Research
The caste theory of Ogbu (1978, 1991) was critical to analysing the AI situation. It provides an explanation for their academic and socio-economic attainment, both when they were in India and then after they arrived in Australia. In India the AIs can be characterised as a low caste grouping, with its attendant academic and socio-economic failure. In Australia, the AIs are an immigrant group, and if Ogbu is right they should have higher academic and socio-economic attainment levels than in India.
Ogbu's caste theory is more flexible than most of the theories in the social science literature in Australia. Almost without exception, the Australian literature dealing with the attainment of immigrant groups in recent years indicates they are doing well, in many cases better than the ADs. But, the Australian literature fails to provide an explanation for why the immigrants and their children are often more successful than the ADs, who often do not attain as highly. The Australian Aborigines are a classic example of Ogbu's caste grouping, but few would have emmigrated and been studied overseas. It thus becomes impossible for a researcher to study their attainment levels both in Australia, where they are a caste group, and overseas where they would be an immigrant group.
The issue of immigrant success is important in a country such as Australia, which has an especially large immigrant population. After the second world war, Australia embarked on a massive immigration program to populate the vast Australian continent. Originally, it was planned to only take British immigrants. These were the original European stock that had populated Australia after the Aborigines. When enough Britons could not be convinced to emigrate to Australia, people from Northern and then Southern Europe were recruited.
It was expected that non-British immigrants would assimilate to the Anglo-Australian norms as quickly as possible (Wilton and Bosworth, 1984). But by the 1960s it was becoming obvious that many immigrant groups were not assimilating as quickly as was originally expected. Partly, ethnic segregation was a result of immigrant workers being concentrated in manufacturing industries. This led to immigrants concentrating together in inner city areas where manufacturing industry was to be found. Another reason was that many immigrants wished to maintain their language and culture.
It was at this time that Australian social scientists began to discuss the issue of immigrant disadvantage (Martin, 1972; 1975; 1978). Further, during the 1970s, immigrants were admitted from the middle east and then Asia. Australia was now both multi-ethnic and multi-racial. In an attempt to deal with this increasing ethnic, cultural and racial diversity, the policy of multi-culturalism was developed. The policy of multi-culturalism attempts to avoid separatism by bringing different ethnic groups together (Zubrzycki, 1986). Educationally it does this by attempting to provide immigrants access to a universal system that takes account of pluralism by teaching community languages. This was done in an attempt to maintain ethnic identity and self-esteem so that immigrants would be productive citizens.
Research dealing with the first generation of immigrants, who usually arrived in Australia as adults, found that they often had inferior education and were working class. The situation changed substantially for the second generation. Research findings now started to paint the second generation as being well educated and middle-class (Birrell, 1987; 1990; 1994; Birrell and Khoo, 1995; Birrell and Seitz, 1986; Bullivant, 1986a; 1986b; Williams, 1987; Mistilis, 1986).
In a recent work, Birrell and Khoo (1995) provided evidence for the view that second generation immigrants were doing better in educational attainment and occupational position than "Australians". It appears that while in many cases the first generation immigrant is poorly qualified, the second generation is likely to be better qualified than similarly aged "Australians".
Table 3.1 Degree's Achieved by First and Second Generation Respondents Aged 25-34 by Father's Birthplace
Males Females Birthplace Generation % No. % No.
Australia 10.8 779617 11.4 793046 U.K 1st.Gen. 8.9 444256 6.3 439037 2nd.Gen. 11.2 52125 11.6 53154 Greece 1st.Gen. 2.5 64299 2.0 61884 2nd.Gen. 18.8 16445 20.0 15273 Italy 1st.Gen. 2.5 128852 1.5 112139 2nd.Gen. 13.1 43850 12.0 42371 Malta 1st.Gen. 2.0 26093 1.1 23127 2nd.Gen. 5.0 7448 5.0 7165 India 1st.Gen. 23.2 16873 15.6 17480 2nd.Gen. 17.4 1372 16.7 1435
Table adapted from Birrell and Khoo (1995: 78).
The table above deals with six of the twenty groups detailed by Birrell and Khoo (1995). It is obvious that compared to the "Australians" - that is, people with fathers' born in Australia - most second generation immigrants are more likely to have a degree. There is at least one exception to the story of ethnic success and that is the Maltese.
Table 3.2 Professional Status Achieved by First and Second Generation Respondents Aged 25-34 by Father's Birthplace
Males Females Birthplace Generation % No. % No.
Australia 12.6 653156 16.7 475075 U.K 1st.Gen. 14.0 256651 13.3 174211 2nd.Gen. 13.6 43110 16.8 32237 Greece 1st.Gen. 4.4 37414 4.6 23916 2nd.Gen. 18.7 13688 23.2 10613 Italy 1st.Gen. 5.0 74189 5.4 35163 2nd.Gen. 14.0 38039 16.9 27902 Malta 1st.Gen. 3.9 16346 4.3 8043 2nd.Gen. 7.2 6298 10.7 4156 India 1st.Gen. 24.0 10528 19.7 7767 2nd.Gen. 19.0 1122 21.9 965
Table adapted from Birrell and Khoo (1995: 12-13).
Second generation immigrants are, in general, more likely than "Australians" to have professional jobs. Once more, it is the Maltese who stand out as the only group to have a substantially smaller proportion of people working as professionals than the "Australians".
As part of the perception of immigrants and their children as being successful in Australia, a new empirical style of sociology became popular during the 1980s and 1990s. This approach uses highly sophisticated statistical models to explore issues such as unemployment and income (Broom et. al. 1980; Jones, 1992a; 1992b; Kelley and McAllister, 1984). In general this approach has found that immigrant groups are doing relatively well in Australia with a couple of exceptions, such as the Maltese.
Many Australian studies indicate that the children of non-English Speaking Background immigrants are doing well academically in Australia. What these studies fail to identify adequately are reasons why people who were working class in Europe have children who are tertiary educated and professional in Australia. Australian authors have on occasion taken up a structuralist stance (Toomey, 1974; 1976; Connell, 1977a; 1977b; Branson and Miller, 1979). But they have focused primarily on the Australian environment, rather than on the structural changes that result from immigration.
The majority of research dealing with educational and socio-economic attainment in Australia emphasises psycho-social variables (Rosier, 1978; Poole, 1978; Meade, 1978; 1983a; 1983b; Marjoribanks, 1979; 1980; 1982; 1983a; 1983b). This research focuses on isolating psychological and social variables that lead to success. Poole (1975: 183), for example argued that:
Children of different SES/ethnic/sex groups think in different ways. These ways can be viewed as systems or patterns. The teacher...needs to understand more clearly how students think [so as to help them achieve success].
In contrast, the structuralists focus primarily on how the structures of society maintain and reproduce inequalities based on class, ethnicity and gender. According to Connell (1977: 178):
There are class differences in educational success, and in expectations of it, in the cognitive skills making for it, and in some equipment useful for it; but not, it seems ...., in the language structures or attributes that have often been thought to underlie it.
Basically Connell rejected the effects of psycho-social variables on attainment. He argued forcefully for societal structures as the major variable contributing to attainment.
The present study focuses on two main research questions, using the work of Ogbu (1978; 1991) to provide a theoretical framework. Firstly, are the AIs part of the ethnic success story in Australia, or are they like the Maltese, a relatively poorly attaining group? Secondly, in what ways has immigrating from India to Australia and the structure of Australian society helped the AIs attain academic and socio-economic success? More detailed hypotheses will appear in Chapter six.
Ogbu's work attempts to explain why an immigrant group can attain better in their adopted country, rather than their country of origin. His work provides a useful theoretical framework to study an immigrant group such as the AIs. Ogbu's work contrasts with that of many Australian researchers who are documenting the high attainment levels of immigrants. These studies, while valuable contributions to the immigration and ethnicity debate, are often atheoretical (Birrell and Khoo, 1995). As a result, the work of Ogbu (1978; 1991) has been drawn on extensively in the present study.
3.3 The Structuralist Explanation for Academic and Socio- Economic Failure
The AIs in India have often been described as having low academic and job aspiration levels and also as performing poorly at school. This has been partly blamed on British Colonial practices, where middle level jobs were reserved for the AIs. While the AIs were guaranteed certain middle level positions, the colonial hierarchy did not permit them to rise beyond this level, no matter what their qualifications or ability (Anthony, 1969; Moore, 1986a; 1986b).
The result was a plateauing of their "motivation-aspiration gradient", a term employed by Bullivant (1986b: 21). The loss of motivation and aspiration led to a self fulfilling prophecy. AIs would not strive to attain, because they believed that no matter how hard they worked and studied they would never have access to the best paying and more powerful positions in the colonial bureaucracy.
Given the greater opportunity for upward social mobility in Australia it becomes a point of interest to pose the question: "How do AIs perceive themselves in Australia compared to India?". Is Australia the "lucky country" for AIs or do they believe that they have made a mistake in immigrating? What is the effect of multi-culturalism at the grass roots for AIs? Do AIs perceive that they are discriminated against?
A number of researchers have suggested structuralist explanations for why members of particular groups fail to perform. One of the researchers to have attained some distinction with his theoretical formulations in the 1980s and 1990s is the Berkeley sociologist, John Ogbu. The explanation given by Ogbu for the failure of many minority groups such as the Afros in the US to perform is firstly, "societal forces" and secondly, "culturally determined boundaries".
The focus on societal forces (Ogbu 1987b: 318) as an explanation is not new. Sociologists, particularly neo-Marxists, have articulated that position since the early 1950s and 1960s (Bowles and Gintis, 1976; Whitty, 1985). They have alluded to the job ceiling created by economic and social macrostructures mentioned by Ogbu (1978; 1987a; 1987b; 1991). Structural explanations are based on the assumption that inequality of outcomes whether income, status, or academic attainment "is necessitated by the very structure of industrial society" (Bowles and Gintis, 1976: 86-87).
Ogbu's work is part of a body of literature that argues for the presence of a strong relationship between consistent socio-economic and academic failure and caste status. A caste group is made up of people who have been involuntarily separated from the main cultural group. Being a member of a caste group eventually leads to the development of a cultural process which is in opposition to that of the main culture. This oppositional cultural process gradually undermines academic and job success of the caste grouping (Green, 1981; Lobo, 1988: 4; Kushner and Castile, 1981; Spicer, 1980). The concepts of caste and oppositional cultural processes will be elaborated later in this chapter.
The caste theory of under-attainment argues that only an analysis of the power structures in society will lead to an effective explanation of why some groups under-attain. If an individual cannot have access to a high status position in society because of discrimination, then they are unlikely to attempt to attain academically, so destroying their chances to attain socio-economically (Ogbu, 1978: 43-65; Wild, 1978: Chapters 2-3; Gibson, 1991, Matute-Bianchi, 1986; 1991; Lee, 1984; 1991; Suarez-Orozco, 1987; 1989; 1991; Shimihara, 1991; Portes, 1995).
3.4 Ogbu's Theory of Status Mobility
Ogbu and a number of other researchers (Ogbu, 1974; 1978; 1991; Jiobu, 1988; Smith, 1989) have suggested that the way education is perceived and responded to depends upon the economic niche of a particular group, their historical experience in using education for personal economic gain, and their values and cultural frame of reference. Each group develops its particular "folk theory" (Ogbu, 1991: 24) of success or status mobility.
The folk theory includes an appreciation of the type of behaviour that leads to success and it describes the ideal of a successful person or role model. When members of a group believe that one must do well in school in order to attain social mobility, they will select strategies and behaviours that promote academic success. Parents will encourage their children to adopt behaviours that are conducive to academic success. If, however, children and parents do not perceive education as a necessary part of their status mobility system, their attainment motivation and behaviours will reflect the view that education is irrelevant for them.
3.4.1 The Folk Theory of Success
Most people, including those termed as being "involuntary minorities", a term that will be discussed in more detail later, have a folk theory that emphasises the importance of education in attaining socio-economic success. But, while the importance of education is articulated, in the case of many groups it is not accompanied by the necessary effort to attain. This discrepancy between words and action is attributable, in part, to the fact that historically involuntary minorities, such as the AIs or the Afros, did not get the same opportunity to benefit from their education and work skills as members of the majority group.
Over time the minorities came to believe that discrimination against them was institutionalised, and that it was not eliminated by getting an education (Ogbu, 1978; 1991). As a result minorities did not develop "effort optimism" toward academic work (Shack, 1970; cited in Ogbu, 1991: 24). Effort optimism involves a particular group developing a "strong tradition of cultural know-how, hard work and perseverance toward academic tasks (Ogbu, 1991: 24)."
Apart from failing to maintain effort optimism, minority parents often give their children contradictory messages about getting ahead through education. While parents were telling their children to study hard so that they could get a good job, at the same time the reality of the parents' lives was one where they held poorly paying jobs and were regularly unemployed. This reality conveyed a contradictory message, which powerfully undermined the parents' original message to study hard. Minority parents discuss their problems with "the system" as well as the problems that other people they know are having in the presence of their children. The result is that involuntary minority group children increasingly become disillusioned about their ability to succeed. This is especially true when their adult role models are failing (Hunter, 1980).
3.4.2 The Three Minority Types
Ogbu's (1978; 1991) status mobility theory accounts for differences between "castelike" involuntary minorities and freely emigrating minorities. Further, a particular group could represent a caste grouping in one environment and by emigrating or special assistance break out of their caste mentality and poor attainment.
In most societies there are usually several minority groups. The members of some of these groups do well academically and career wise while others do not. Ogbu (1978; 1986; 1991) has suggested that what distinguishes those groups who are successful from those who are not depends upon what type of minority group they are. He has suggested a three tiered typology of minority groups into (1) autonomous, (2) immigrant, and (3) castelike minorities.
It is the castelike minority that frequently is associated with persistent, disproportionate school failure and an inability to move into the middle and upper socio-economic classes. The AIs may be viewed as being a castelike minority in India. Whether they are an immigrant or caste group in Australia will be examined later in the thesis.
3.4.2.1 Autonomous Minorities
Autonomous minorities are characterised by groups such as the Jews, the Mormons and the Japanese in the U.S (Jiobu, 1988). In the United States these groups are minorities primarily in a numerical sense. However, they all perform well academically and occupationally. These minorities differ from the majority Anglo group in a number of different areas such as religion, language, or cultural identity and they do occasionally experience prejudice. On the whole, these groups "are not totally subordinated politically and economically by the dominant Anglo group (Ogbu, 1986: 27)."
Members of the dominant group do not view members of the autonomous group as being inferior to them in anyway. Further, members of the autonomous minority do not regard the majority group as something they have to join. In general, the members of the autonomous group are viewed as being different from but acceptable to the majority group (Ogbu, 1978: 23).
3.4.2.2 Immigrant Minorities
The second of Obgu's groupings are the immigrant minorities, such as the Chinese, Filipinos, and Koreans in the United States. These are all groups who have voluntarily migrated, primarily to improve their economic and social status (Jiobu, 1988; Ogbu, 1987b: 327).
The members of these minority groups may initially hold what are low status jobs in the perception of the dominant group. But the immigrants may consider their menial position better than what they had before they emigrated, or they may consider the menial job a temporary situation.
The immigrants tend to compare themselves, not with the elite members of the dominant group of the host society, but with their peers from their country of origin. This approach has been described as having a "dual frame of reference (Ogbu, 1987b: 328)."
When the migrants compare themselves with their reference group they often find evidence of self-improvement for themselves and good prospects for their children because of better opportunities in their adopted country (Gibson, 1987; Shibutani and Kwan, 1965; Suarez-Orozco, 1987; 1989: 97-101; 1991).
There is evidence to suggest that those AIs who had immigrated to London judged their material and educational success in terms of a "Third-World Yardstick (Lobo, 1988: 3, 37)." That is, they compared their material success not to middle class English people but to middle class AIs in India.
Ogbu (1986: 27) believes that a "dual frame of reference" encourages immigrants "to maintain instrumental attitudes and behaviours toward education and economic matters". Other researchers, such as Lobo (1988) in her study of AIs in England, believe that it may actually cap the second generations' aspiration level. This is because a working class AI in England can have the same material possessions as the upper-class AI in India.
Members of the first generation cope with the problems of adjustment and a job ceiling by comparing themselves to their relatives in the country of origin. The same process if continued by the second generation ensures that they remain in the working class. This is especially true if there is a fictive kinship, or extended family network. The other members of the extended family are all working class. So it is important to maintain faith with them by remaining in the same class.
3.4.2.3 Castelike Minorities
Caste may be defined as "a hierarchy of endogamous groups whose membership is determined permanently at birth (Berreman, 1967: 279)." In addition to Ogbu, a number of other authors have suggested that Afro-Anglo relations in the United States may be best described in terms of caste (Davis et al. 1965; Dollard, 1957; Lyman, 1973). Other authors have argued that using the concept of caste to stratify members of a society is only appropriate in the case of India (Cox, 1945; 1948; Dumont, 1961; Johnson, 1966). Increasingly researchers have applied the concept of caste to analyse minority group relations around the world, not just in India (Berreman, 1967: 295-304; Ogbu, 1978: 101; 1982; 1986; 1987a; 1987b).
The term "castelike", as used by Ogbu, was first developed by De Vos (1967; 1973), to describe the Japanese Burakumin. This group was characterised by academic under-attainment, low incomes and discrimination from other Japanese. De Vos' main thesis was that social class did not explain fully the adaptive responses of certain ethnic groups. He believed that it was necessary to resort to cultural and psychological factors rooted in the socialisation of these groups to explain why they failed to attain. The implication was that castelike groups shared cultural values that did not emphasise achievement in their counties of origin. Ogbu's cultural ecological perspective extends and builds upon the work of De Vos and others.
In sharp contrast to the autonomous minorities and immigrants, the experience of castelike minorities is completely different educationally and job wise. Castelike minorities are those minority groups who may be forcibly excluded from the majority grouping, or if not by force, then certainly more or less involuntarily. These groups are permanently relegated to lower status and menial positions through "legal and extra-legal devices". Examples of these caste groupings are the Afro-Americans, Hispanics and American-Indians in the United States (Obgu, 1986: 27) and the AIs in India (Lobo, 1994; Moore, 1986a; 1986b) and perhaps Britain (Lobo, 1988: 4).
Initially the caste minority has primary differences in style and culture from the dominant group. These differences exist prior to contact between the two groups. After the caste and dominant group come in contact discrimination occurs; the inferior political, economic, and ritual roles of the caste are defined and rationalised by the majority. Then, secondary cultural differences of style are developed by the caste minority as a way of coping with exploitation and domination.
These secondary differences are due to cultural inversion or the tendency of an involuntary minority to perceive certain forms of behaviour as belonging to the dominant majority (Ogbu, 1987a; 1987b). Members of the caste minority then reject the behaviours and values of the majority group. This results in the development of oppositional forms of behaviour that hinder academic and socio-economic attainment.
Castes and castelike groups are to found in many parts of the world. Apart from the Afros in the United States, there are West Indians in Britain (Krausz, 1971; Rose, 1969; Tomlinson, 1982; 1983a; 1983b; 1989), the Maoris in New Zealand (Ausubel, 1961; Harker, 1977; Metge 1967), Buraku outcastes in Japan (De Vos, 1967; 1973; 1984; De Vos and Wagatsuma, 1966a; 1966b; Hawkins, 1983; Ito, 1967; Ito and Hanake, 1983; Shimahara, 1991), the AIs in India (Lobo, 1994; Moore, 1986a; 1986b) and the Oriental Jews in Israel (Ackerman, 1973; Adler, 1970; Avineri, 1973; Matras, 1970a; 1970b; Ortar, 1967; Rosenfeld, 1973; Similansky and Similansky, 1967).
Membership in a castelike minority group is acquired at birth and in most cases is retained permanently, the exception to this is those caste members who are willing to pass themselves off as members of the higher caste. This process of "passing" occurred with many mixed race groups, such as the Eurasians of Singapore (Braga-Blake, 1992: 122-123) and the AIs (Lobo, 1988: 2; Moore 1986a).
The subordinate caste members are regarded and treated by the dominant group as being inferior. Castelike minorities lack political and economic power, and "this powerlessness is reinforced by economic subordination". In addition, castelike minorities face a job ceiling, where no matter how high their qualifications the better paid and higher status jobs remain inaccessible to them (Ogbu, 1978: 160; 1986: 28). Further, the total subordination of castelike minorities at all levels economic, political and social, is reinforced by the overarching ideology and behaviour of the dominant group, which then "rationalises the menial status of the minorities" (Ogbu, 1986: 28).
The members of the castelike minority usually do not accept the menial position ascribed to them by the dominant group. In their opinion their economic, political, and social problems are due primarily to the discriminatory practices of the dominant group rather than to their own personal inadequacies. As a result, castelike minorities often develop what may be called a "collective institutional discrimination perspective" (Ogbu, 1986: 28).
Once the caste group believes it is being discriminated against, they consider it virtually impossible to advance into the mainstream society which is controlled by members of the dominant group. Members of the caste group stop trying to attain middle-class positions or self-betterment through individual efforts at school and the work place or by behaving like members of the dominant group (Lobo, 1988; Ogbu, 1986: 28).
Caste groups perceive "the cultural differences they encounter ... as markers of identity" which they need to maintain. In direct contrast the immigrants view these cultural differences as short term barriers that they can successfully overcome (Ogbu, 1987b: 330). For caste members, school learning is often equated with an antagonistic frame of reference that challenges their group identity.
The caste member believes that if they learn the values and knowledge disseminated by the school they will be "threatening ... their language, culture, and identity (Ogbu, 1987b: 330)." Academic attainment is equated with learning the knowledge and skills that are part of mainstream society which is dominated by the majority group. One of the reasons why many AIs in India continue to have problems is because they view learning an Indian language as a weakening of their identity (Lobo, 1994).
Some of the AIs in Britain may be starting to take on caste characteristics in that country. The first generation of AIs who arrived during the fifties and sixties took working class jobs because they had to take what was "on offer". The second and third generations remain predominantly working class (Lobo, 1988: 4).
Many researchers (Tawney, 1931; Coleman, 1969; Bowles and Gintis, 1976; Halsey et al., 1980) consider academic attainment in Britain to be stratified along class lines. Once an individual becomes part of the working class it then becomes difficult to move out of it (Lobo, 1986: 4). This problem is compounded by an educational system that prepares them for mainly working class jobs (Bowles and Gintis, 1976; Halsey et al., 1980). Further, Lobo (1988: 4, 41) suggests that AIs with better qualifications than the English were earning less, a process that she referred to as "discriminatory underpayment" (Lobo, 1988: 37).
3.4.3 Long Term Consequences of Inferior Education
If a particular group is consistently discriminated against and has limited access to quality education, a consequence can be a lowering of academic performance levels. In the United States minorities constitute more than 20 percent of the nation's college-age population but they accounted for only 8 percent of the 31,190 Ph.Ds awarded in 1983. Afros, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans and American Indians together accounted for a paltry 4.4 percent of the Ph.Ds.
At the M.A level, Afros, who make up 13 percent of the college-age population, were awarded 6.5 percent of the degrees in 1979 and 5.8 percent in 1981. Educators say the statistics show few signs of improvement and in many cases have been getting worse (Dramatic Drop for Minorities. Time, Nov 11, 1985: 84).
Relatively high salaries for individual members of the educated and Anglo upper caste translates eventually into a high rate of economic return, in terms of good salaries, for the whole caste (Ogbu, 1987b). During the 1960s the use of underpaid Afro labour, rather than better paid Anglo workers, resulted in mainly Anglo owned business gaining between $10.5 and $20.5 billion dollars. There is little reason to assume that this trend has been reversed in recent times, given its long history (Thurow, 1969: 117; Harlan, 1968: 257).
For Anglos this type of favourable caste experience leads them to perceive schooling in a positive light. Further, it leads to the development of attitudes and behaviours that are culturally based and that enhance academic efforts and success for the caste.
Anglo, high caste parents and other people involved in the child rearing process would tend to transmit these attainment oriented attitudes and behaviours to children and also see to it that the children behave as expected (LeVine et al., 1967; Ogbu, 1981). For the lower caste student an apparent reduction in academic effort does not necessarily have to be conscious, but rather it could quite easily occur on an unconscious level. It may, in fact, be an "adaptive response to a history of unequal and inadequate rewards" for their educational background and qualifications (Ogbu, 1986: 47). The parents' social status and the child's academic attainment reinforce each other and result in the maintenance of the status quo.
The caste system sends different messages about the relationship between school performance and monetary rewards in the workplace to upper and lower caste students by rewarding adult members of the two communities differently for their educational attainments (Blair, 1971; Shack, 1970). These different messages cause the two groups of students to adjust differently to school and to respond differently to the beliefs, values, and attitudes that schools teach them.
To the castelike minority student, the message is that staying on at school so as to attain a high school or college credential will not result in attaining a good job and a high wage (Blair, 1971). Troyna (1983) working in the U.K supports this position. He suggests that racist practices operating in the recruitment and selection of workers play a significant part in determining the life chances of ethnic minorities. Many employers do not specify formal qualifications when employing workers and may choose to ignore Afros, who tend to be better qualified than their Anglo counterparts. This suggests the existence of barriers which block Afro chances at upward social mobility.
In contrast upper caste members have traditionally received social and economic rewards in keeping with their work experience and qualifications. Experience has taught them that effort does lead to success. The contrary experience of lower caste members has taught them that social and economic rewards are not in proportion to their educational and job qualifications; consequently, they have tended to lack "effort optimism" (Ogbu, 1974; 1986 : 46; Ransom and Sutch, 1977; Shack, 1970).
Ogbu (1987b) suggests that generations of inferior education can also affect the lower castes' cognitive repertoire. In the USA Afro schools in the South and in the inner-cities of the North have not usually emphasised academic curriculum as much as Anglo schools do. Specifically, the schools have not encouraged Afros to develop Anglo middle-class cognitive and problem-solving skills. Afro education was to be "industrial" (Ogbu, 1978: 115; Leacock, 1969; Moore, 1964). There are interesting parallels here with the Railway Institutes that the AIs attended in India. The primary purpose of these institutions was to prepare AIs for lower level technical positions (Gist and Wright, 1973: 125; Lobo, 1994).
While the AIs in Australia do not experience the structural racism that they experienced in India the long term effects of that racism are likely to still be felt. The AIs who have emigrated to Australia may manifest similar levels of academic aspirations and attainment to other ethnic students who are manifesting the "success ethic" (Bullivant, 1988: 238). This is likely to be in contrast to the Indian AIs who have had their aspirations capped for many generations in India (Gist, 1967a; 1967b). Over the long term, lower school performance and lower educational attainment become a "functional adaptation" for the lower caste AI student in India (Ogbu, 1978; Smith, 1989).
According to this "differential socialisation hypothesis", lower-caste children are socialised into norms and cognitive styles which impede their ability to attain upper caste positions through formal education (Smith, 1989; Squibb, 1975; Van Zeyl, 1974). Schools operate overtly and covertly to institutionalise the caste-like status of Afro children, acting as a primary instrument by which the powerful maintain the status quo (Ogbu, 1986: 41-42).
In summary, the lower academic attainment of lower caste students and in particular of Afros in the U.S.A appears to be due to two related factors. First, the castelike system has long denied lower caste people access to good education and to the more desirable jobs. Secondly, members of the lower caste became disillusioned because of the job ceiling which has not encouraged them to develop a cultural norm of maximising their academic and job attainment.
3.4.4 Fictive Kinship
Fictive kinship refers to an extended family-like relationship between people who, while not related by blood or marriage, have some reciprocal social or economic relationship (Fordham, 1986: 5). Fictive kinship is used to describe a cultural symbol of collective identity or a group membership (Fordham, 1986: 8; Folb, 1980:1-26; Hale, 1982:48; Pitt-Rivers, 1968; Staples, 1976). The fictive kinship system provides the members of the minority group with a set of rules with which they judge the "eligibility" of other members (Fordham, 1986: 8).
Members of the minority grouping may be judged as in the case of Afro Americans to be "real" or "spurious" members of the group (Williams, 1981a; 1981b) or as "uncle Toms" (Ogbu, 1991: 26). In the case of the AIs, terms such as being a "good" or "bad" AI are used (Anthony, 1969; Bhattacharya, 1978: 171). While Anthony (1969: 7) does not mention a fictive kinship system he does mention "herd consciousness" that led to members of the community practising an "social exclusiveness".
Lobo (1988: 2, 50) in her study of AIs in London used the term "fictive kinship" to describe the "close-knit" community ties. These ties were, in her opinion, inhibiting working class AIs from moving up into the middle classes. This was because high educational qualifications lead to socio-economic success which "alienate" working class AIs from the more successful ones (Lobo, 1988: 50-51). Similarly Gist and Wright (1973: 124) talk about an "Anglo-Indian sub-culture" that resulted in a community consisting primarily of "hewers of wood and drivers of locomotives".
3.4.5 The issue of racelessness or Achromism
Fordham (1985a; 1985b) has restated the Anglo-reference group hypothesis using the term "racelessness". This approach indicates a willingness on the part of the Afro person to identify with the values of Anglo society and forfeit their Afro identities. Other authors (Gains-Carter, 1984) have used terms such as "un-Black" to refer to the process of a Black person acquiring the values and behaviours of Anglo Society.
Some authors have suggested that Afros are similar to most other Americans who have "no [distinct] values and culture to guard and protect" (Glazer and Moynihan, 1963: 53). Contrary to this often cited claim, the Afro cultural system is a "fictive kinship", with Afros being "eternally bound and obligated irrespective of [their] economic, educational or social status" (Taylor, 1973: 12) to the Afro community.
According to this perspective Afro-Americans are linked together and constrained by a distinct and active cultural system (Fordham, 1985a; 1985b; 1986). This existing cultural system was forged from an African base then adapted by the long period of contact with the dominant Anglo group and has continued to change in the present century.
It is the existence of this "fictive kinship system" which forces Afros to make a conscious choice to seek disaffiliation from other Afros and develop a raceless persona. They do this in order firstly to, enhance their vertical mobility aspirations and secondly, to help them merge into Anglo dominated American society.
The coexisting and often competing cultural systems which are responsible for the dual socialisation experience of Afro Americans vie for psychological dominance of individual members in the Afro community. Fordham (1986) asserts that a strong Afro ethnic identity which supports academic attainment appears to be negatively sanctioned among Afro adolescents. When an Afro shows an aptitude for school he or she is immediately sanctioned by their Afro peers. It appears that for an Afro to succeed he or she has to relinquish the afro identity and take on a raceless persona.
The term "racelessness" has been operationalised by Fordham as (1986:3):
[It] denotes the conscious ...efforts of [Afro]Americans to minimise their ethnic and racial identity, both in and outside the school contexts, by incorporating into their behaviour repertoire: (1) skills and characteristics which are not generally attributed to [Afro]Americans; and (2) greater acceptance and conformance to those cultural features, i.e., values, beliefs and customs most often attributed to Anglo Americans and the dominant social system.
While a raceless persona weakens group cohesion and solidarity it also promotes the willingness on the part of Afro students to pursue academic excellence.
3.4.6 The Effects of Achromism and Skin Colour on an Upwardly Mobile Strategy
According to Fordham (1986) a raceless persona among Afro adolescents is a conscious effort to disaffiliate with the Afro fictive kinship system. The evolution of racelessness as an upward mobility strategy appears to have emerged in direct response to discrimination. An individuals race determines whether a person attains vertical as opposed to mere horizontal mobility.
Authors such as Bradley (1982: 58-59) prefer the use of the term "achromism" meaning "no colour" to terms such as "racelessness." Talking about the black Afro race in the USA is patently ridiculous, since Africans and Anglos have been involved in the process of miscegenation for over two hundred years, with many "Anglos" carrying African genes with the converse being true for most Afros. This situation has long been recognised in the AI phrase "the taint of the tar brush" (Anthony, 1969: 5; Moore, 1986a; 1986b).
The emergence of achromism as a coping strategy, in the Afro community appears to be an adaptive response to the endemic racism that characterises American society (Bradley, 1982). Racism acts as an impassible barrier to Afro vertical mobility. Achromism, is an attempt to minimise the inhibiting effects of race on their vertical mobility. As a result of racism, some Afros have begun to incorporate into their behaviour a repertoire of skills and characteristics which are generally not attributed to Afro Americans.
The appearance of a person, such as their skin colour, can affect a person's life experiences, including their job success. Some research in the USA indicates that lighter coloured Afros earn more than similarly qualified but darker Afros (Hughes and Hertel, 1988; Njeri, 1988). With reference to AIs issues of skin colour did play a significant part in their social life. The white AIs usually belonged to a higher social class than the dark AIs (Gaikwad, 1967: 175, 257). Further, it was the Anglicans who tended to make up the AI middle classes in India (Gist and Wright, 1973: 111).
Most Afro adolescents are constantly made aware of the negative sanctions associated with their ethnicity in the USA. As a result, they either choose an achromistic persona or they develop complex strategies which enable them to minimise the influence and impact of the schooling process on their peer relationships. This response on the part of Afro adolescents is often described as an "anti-attainment ethic" (Granat et al. 1986).
Achromistic students often disparage those activities and events which are generally associated with Afro Americans (Fordham, 1986). They continually try to dissociate themselves from the fictive kinship system, which maintains the Afro community and all that it involves in speech, dress and values. Afro females are usually judged to be more academically successful and oriented than males (Jackson, 1973; Gordon and Brown, 1990: iii). Ogbu (1978: 192) attributes this superior academic attainment to the "preferential treatment" that Anglo society accords Afro females. This preferential treatment results in Afro males perceiving a much lower job ceiling than females and this results in a loss of academic persistence.
3.4.7 Not Learning as a Caste Behaviour
The process of "not learning (Kohl, 1991: 13)" should not be confused with the inability to learn. If an individual deliberately refuses to study, "which involves the willing rejection" of the school and its values, the reason for this behaviour may lie more with a rejection of those values rather than any inherent inability to absorb knowledge (Kohl, 1991: 13).
While academic failure produces a loss of "self-confidence accompanied by a sense of inferiority and inadequacy", the deliberate decision to not learn "tends to strengthen the will, clarifies one's definition of self, reinforces self-discipline, and provides inner satisfaction" (Kohl, 1991: 15). The problem with the decision not to learn is that it results in "defiance or a refusal to become socialised in ways that are sanctioned by dominant authority" (Kohl, 1991: 15).
For the young Afro, learning is more that just absorbing knowledge. It is the rejection of their Afro culture and value system. Unfortunately, it is the Anglo society that controls access to jobs and material success. If the Afros are unwilling to conduct themselves in ways sanctioned by Anglo society, they find themselves excluded from it. This has become an issue with the AIs in India who fail to learn an Indian language. Without a good grasp of an Indian language the AI fails academically and then cannot get a professional job. But becoming competent in an Indian language challenges the AI identity (Lobo, 1994).
3.4.8 Double stratification
The process of double stratification generates a distinct type of cognitive orientation in Afros not found among Anglos, even among lower-class Anglos. This is the tendency to blame the system rather than oneself for personal and group failures. Unsuccessful Anglos often blame themselves, and luck, for their lack of success.
What distinguishes Afros and similar castelike minorities from lower-class Anglos is not that their objective material conditions are different, but rather that the way the minorities perceive, interpret, and respond to their conditions is different (Sennet and Cobb, 1972; Ogbu, 1986: 30). The Anglos believe that if they get an education and work hard then they can attain in society. The Afros believe that no matter how hard they work and how good their qualifications they will never be given the opportunities of the Anglo.
3.4.9 The Job Ceiling
One of Ogbu's (1978; 1986; 1991) strongest arguments for the presence of a caste system in the USA is the presence of the job ceiling or "status summation (Ogbu, 1986: 36)." According to Ogbu (1978: 170-171) Afros have been consistently discriminated against in the work place, where they have been offered only the most menial of positions, a situation that has only improved slightly in recent years. In general, it appears that Afros have a severely "truncated opportunity structure (Boykin, 1986: 72)."
Table 3.3 Occupational Distribution of Non-white Workers as Percentage of Total U.S Labour Force Percentage Non-white
Job Year 1940 1950 1960 1970
Professionals 3.6 3.6 4.9 5.0 Farmers and farm managers 12.9 11.5 7.7 3.4 Managers and administrators 1.3 1.9 2.3 2.7 Clerical and sales 1.1 2.3 3.8 6.3 Craftsmen and foremen 2.7 3.7 4.9 6.5 (Job Ceiling) --------------------------------------------------- Operators 5.7 9.1 10.7 13.2 Domestics 47.1 57.6 53.9 52.5 Service occupations 15.6 19.0 20.1 17.0 Farm labourers 24.8 20.8 25.0 19.0 Labourers 20.4 26.0 25.8 20.5
Figures cited in Ogbu (1978: 152)
Members of the minority group are denied job access through a job ceiling and are not given the opportunity to advance according to their qualifications and ability (Ogbu, 1978; 1987b: 318).
In the case of Afros as each new wave of Anglo immigrants arrived from Europe they took up appointments Afros could have filled (Greene and Woodson, 1930: 4-5; Myrdal, 1944: 292-293; Ogbu, 1978: 162-163; Ross, 1967: 9).
A similar problem was experienced by the AIs with the newly arrived British being given the best positions (Anthony, 1969; Judd, 1972: 24; Moore, 1986a; 1986b; Varma, 1979: 141). Later, the AIs were unable to compete with the better educated and poorly paid Indian (Gaikwad, 1967: 100, 176; Gist and Wright, 1973: 123).
The result of job discrimination was that the Afros continue to remain at the bottom of the occupational ladder. Figures for 1980 (Jiobu, 1988: 85) and 1990 (Ransford, 1994: 76) indicate a gradual improvement but Afros still lag well behind Anglos (Table 3.4).
Table 3.4 Occupational Distribution of the Percentage of the Employed Labour Force by Sex and Race, 1992 USA
Males Females Occupational category Anglo Afro. Anglo Afro.
Executive, administrative, 14.3 7.1 12.0 7.2 and managerial. Professional speciality. 12.5 7.0 16.5 12.3 Sales occupations. 12.0 5.7 12.9 8.7 Technicians and related 3.4 3.1 3.8 3.8 support. Administrative support, 5.7 8.5 27.9 25.7 including clerical. Service occupations. 9.1 19.0 16.5 27.9 Precision production, 19.5 14.8 2.0 2.1 craft and repair. Operators, fabricators, 18.9 31.3 7.2 12.0 and labourers. Farming, forestry, and fishing. 4.7 3.6 1.1 0.3
Source: U.S. Department of Labour Employment and Earnings (January 1993: 194; cited in Ransford, 1994: 7).
The figures indicate that the gap in occupational standing between Anglo and Afro remains. Afros continue to be over-represented in the lower status jobs and under-represented in the higher status ones.In addition to the continuing gap in occupational standing between the two groups, there is also an income gap. In 1947, the average Afro family earned about half that earned by the average Anglo family. In 1991, forty-four years later, the gap remained almost the same at 57 percent (Ransford, 1994: 74).
The picture is not as bleak as the average figures first suggest, with some Afro subgroups earning almost as much as Anglos. In 1991, dual income, married Afro couples, in the North and West of the USA, earned 92 percent that of a similar Anglo couple. However, in general, Afro women are more likely to hold a job year round than Anglo women, resulting in greater income for the Afro family (Ransford, 1994: 75). Further, Afro women are more likely to be on an earnings par with Anglo men than Afro men (Mickelson, 1989). In the area of educational attainment, there initially appears to be an encouraging trend with Afros narrowing the educational gap with Anglos. Between 1970 and 1980 Afros were increasingly more likely to complete four or more years at college, but since 1980 they have stopped closing the gap with Anglo students.
Table 3.5 Educational Attainment of Afros and Anglos Aged between 25 and 35 Years 1960 - 1992
4 Years high school 4 or more years of or college 1 - 3 college Year Afro Anglo Afro Anglo
1960 28.9 49.4 4.3 11.7 1970 47.3 59.5 6.1 16.6 1980 62.5 61.7 11.7 25.1 1992 69.8 62.9 12.0 24.2
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Profile of the United States 1992. Current Population Reports Series P-23. No. 185. U.S. Department of Commerce. (cited in Ransford, 1994: 78)
While there are some encouraging trends in Afro educational attainment, there is also evidence for Afro college enrolments declining substantially from the 1970s (Ransford, 1994: 77; Jiobu, 1988: xii). A possible reason for this is the ease with which students can get financial aid. As the American economy began to compete less successfully with those of Japan and Europe, less money became available for education scholarships (Ransford, 1994: 78).
3.4.10 The Job Ceiling and Educational Attainment
Ogbu (1978: 172-175) provides four types of evidence to support his argument that Afro occupational advances are not related to their educational attainment. Firstly he compares the rates of progress made by Afros in education and job occupations. He uses the comparison to show that between 1940 and 1970 the occupational gap between Afro and Anglo Americans was always "much wider" than the educational gap (Ogbu, 1978: 173-174).
Secondly, he shows that Afros and Anglos with similar educational levels do not have similar occupational profiles. Afros consistently work in lower paid occupations than Anglos with "equivalent" educational levels (Kahn, 1968: 21; Norgren and Hill, 1964: 84; Ogbu, 1978: 174).
Thirdly, when the "financial returns" for Afros and Anglos with equivalent levels of education are compared not only is there an "income gap" but this gap increases as the educational level rises (Harrison, 1972; Jiobu, 1988: 202, 219; Michelson, 1972; Ogbu, 1978: 174; Reich, 1972).
Fourth, Ogbu (1978: 175-176) provides support for the view that the occupational advances attained by Afros during the 1960s, were not due to improvements in their academic performance. The occupational advances were a result of the social reforms brought in by the Kennedy and Johnston administrations.
Further, it was only during periods of rapid economic growth or during periods of war (Jiobu, 1988: 30) which created labour shortages that Afros advanced occupationally. Jiobu (1988: 105) in a recent study suggests that while the educational gap between Afro and Anglo has closed, there is still a substantial gap between the two groups in regard to earnings and occupational levels.
Ogbu's findings with the Afros have been shown to be true of other groups in the USA. Jiobu (1988: 219) showed that the Koreans and Filipinos had higher educational levels than the Anglos. But it was the Anglos who were the most successful at converting this advantage into high earnings. However, Asians were more successful than Afros in converting educational credentials into earnings (Tienda and Lii, 1987). While education is important for economic success, by itself it "will not solve the problem of inequality" (Jiobu, 1988: 219).
Researchers in the UK have come up with similar findings which indicate that West Indian youths who were unemployed were often better educationally qualified than their White counterparts (Roberts et al. 1981). The obvious inference is that West Indians with better qualifications than Anglos were being refused jobs on the basis of their colour and ethnic background. This contrasts with the suggestions of those researchers who prefer to emphasise that Blacks are more likely to be unemployed because they are in general less academically qualified (Jenkins and Troyna, 1983; Rampton, 1981).
3.4.11 Immigration and its Effect on Caste Problems
When members of a castelike minority group emigrate to another society, the problem of low academic attainment often appears to disappear. This is well illustrated by the case of the Japanese Buraku immigrants to the USA. In Japan, low caste Buraku children continue to underperform in comparison with the children of the dominant Ippan group. But in the USA, where Americans treat the Buraku exactly as they treat other Japanese immigrants, the Buraku do at least as well at school and the work place as do their Japanese counterparts (De Vos, 1973; De Vos, 1983; Ito, 1967).
A similar contrast exists for Koreans in Japan, where they are an involuntary minority group, and in the USA, where they are voluntary immigrants (De Vos, 1984; Lee, 1984; Rohlin, 1981). Compared to West Indian immigrants to Canada and the USA, West Indian immigrants to Britain were significantly less satisfied with their decision to move to a new country (Thomas-Hope, 1981). These findings were consistent with the greater discrimination the West Indians experienced in Britain. Further, the West Indians achieved lower academic attainment rates in Britain compared to North America.
3.5 The Appropriateness of Ogbu's Caste Theory to AIs
Ogbu (1978; 1991) developed his caste theory mainly to explain the poor academic and socio-economic attainment of Afro-Americans. In this chapter I have drawn heavily on his work as an explanatory framework for explaining the academic and socio-economic attainment of AIs in India and Australia.
There are many parallels that can be drawn between the experiences of the AIs in India and the Afro in the USA. Both groups laboured for long periods under endemic structural racism. Though the situation in many ways was worse for Afros, in that they had to cope with the degrading and dehumanising experience of slavery. The AIs were discriminated against on the grounds of colour. So were the Afros. The AIs had their opportunities to education and jobs severely restricted. So did the Afros. AIs had to fight to preserve their self-esteem and identity as individuals and a community. So did the Afros.
Further, the AIs adapted to the European lifestyle rather than the Indian, just as the Afros did to the Anglo. The main difference between the two groups was that the AI adopted British culture and values voluntarily. However in most cases the Afros had their original African language, culture and religion stripped from them. Even so, the ameliorating effects of time have healed many of the original scars, resulting in an Afro community with mostly Anglicised values and English as a mother tongue.
There is little research available on the AIs in India or Australia, in particular that using a structural perspective. Since the sixties there has been an explosion in research on ethnic groups in the USA, in particular Afro Americans. One theoretical perspective, that of Ogbu (1978; 1991), has gained particular acceptance among researchers (Fordham, 1986; Gibson, 1987; 1991; Lee, 1991; Matute-Bianchi, 1986; 1991; Smith, 1989; Suarez-Orozco, 1987; 1991). Given the many similarities between the AIs and the Afros it is planned to map the AI situation in India and Australia using the structural framework provided by Ogbu (1978; 1991).
The reasons offered for the lack of academic attainment by AIs in India, have been of two types. The first type of explanation has focused on the AI subculture as promoting under-attainment. This theory has been supported mainly by non-AI scholars (Gist and Wright, 1973: 124; Cresey, 1935; Bose, 1979).
In contrast to this first group, a second group of mainly AI scholars have argued that it was the discriminatory policies of the British along with prejudice from both the British and Indians that resulted in the AIs often doing poorly in India (Grimshaw, 1959; Moore, 1986a; 1986b; Lobo, 1989; Stark, 1926; 1936; Wallace, 1930). A recent study of AI attainment in India suggests that discrimination has developed to the point that AIs are being excluded from the learning process in what used to be their own schools (Lobo, 1994).
During the period when Britain ruled India, AIs were not permitted to attain high position within the colonial regime but instead had many lower-level positions in the railroads, telegraph services and other areas reserved for them. According to one point of view this resulted in them settling for middle and lower level positions since any attempt to go higher in the Colonial structure was heavily circumscribed by the British (Gist and Wright, 1973: 124-125).
Ogbu (1978; 1991) has argued that inequality in access to employment has made Afros cynical about their life chances in American society. They communicated this cynicism to their children and that accounted for the children's school failure. In the opinion of AIs in India this is the situation today as a consequence of the discriminatory policies of first the British and now the Indians against the AIs (Lobo, 1994). Failure to attain may be an adaptive response to a history of unequal reward for effort. Adult members of different communities are rewarded on the basis of their ethnic and "caste" status, not their ability or academic credentials. As a result the Afros in the USA (Ogbu, 1978; 1991) and the AIs in India have lost their "effort optimism" (Lobo, 1994).
Middle level positions were available to AIs in the armed forces, the police, railways and telegraph services during the days of the British. Their preferential status in these positions have long gone. In modern day India the only positions that still remain available to AIs are those in Schools where the main language of instruction is English. Having English as a mother tongue gives AIs a substantial advantage over most Indians when it comes to communicating in English but their poor Indian language skills make it difficult to attain economic and social mobility.
Further, the AIs do not have the extended family networks that many Indians' use to get the "bright" members of the family educated by the amalgamation of economic resources. The process of a "peer-group society" (Gans, 1982: 154) or a "fictive kinship system" (Fordham, 1986; Lobo, 1988) results in AIs being less willing to go against the trend of low academic attainment.
This results in members of the caste group being less likely commit most of their time to study, to the extent of excluding their friends and family (Watt, 1989). This is similar to the problem that Afros who wish to attain academically and socio-economically experience. The "fictive kinship" (Taylor, 1973: 12) binds them to the stereotype that academic attainment is "Anglo" behaviour and as such should not be exhibited by a Afro person.
Another problem is caused by generations of education that does not emphasise "academic" curriculum leading to tertiary education (Leacock, 1969, Moore, 1967; Ogbu, 1986). Young AIs were often sent to Railway Institutes where the educational emphasis were on trade qualifications. Further to this is the attitude of teachers that Afros lacked the motivation to attain academically (Mabey, 1981; Smith, 1989; Parekh, 1988). This attitude can be self-fulfilling, with teachers then leaving their Afro pupils to their own ends.
Many teachers in Indian schools express similar attitudes toward their AI students (Gist and Wright, 1973: 124; Lobo, 1994). Further, Lobo (1988: 36) has pointed that in the case of AIs in England there appears to be a perception that "you don't need a degree to have a home, car and an annual holiday." This attitude leads to the perception that material success can be attained without academic success.
3.6 A Critique of Ogbu
Ogbu's position (1974; 1978; 1981; 1982; 1983; 1986; 1987a; 1987b; 1991) has been criticised on a number of points (Erickson, 1987). Firstly, it can be criticised on the grounds that it does not explain the success of many minority individuals who belong to the "castelike" minority. Secondly, Ogbu's theory mostly ignores language difference. Thirdly, it can be viewed as being reductionist to the point of economic determinism.
Erickson's reaction is predictable in terms of his sociolinguistic theoretical perspective (Erickson, 1984). However, some of the problems with Ogbu's over-generalisation and reasoning do need further elaboration and discussion. For example, the role of the caste sub-culture in the acquisition of knowledge within certain context-specific settings may need further clarification.
Perhaps Ogbu's use of castelike, immigrant, and autonomous minority types, which was based on the work by De Vos (1967; 1973; 1982; 1983; 1984), may not be applicable to some of the ethnic groups that Ogbu has identified as prototypes of each category. For example, Ogbu treats recent Mexican immigrants and long time Mexican residents in the USA as a single caste group. Yet both these groups have different social and cultural backgrounds (Ogbu, 1987b: 321). Apart from the points already raised, the main challenge to Ogbu's work involves his claims regarding lack of academic attainment and the job ceiling for members of the caste group.
Trueba (1988) cites a number of studies that he claims disprove Ogbu's hypothesis. According to Trueba, in the case of the Mexicans, studies show that there is educational progress, an increase in English language proficiency, and upward economic mobility taking place. The improvement is incremental across generations (Velez-Ibanex, 1987; McCarthy and Valdez, 1985; 1986).
Trueba seems to be missing Ogbu's point. While the Mexicans may be making some progress educationally it is more a case of incremental creep than a successful leap into the American middle and upper classes. A first generation Mexican may be illiterate and the second generation may have a high school education. But this does not represent a huge increment in Mexican academic performance in the USA. Rather, it represents the reaching of a educational plateau occupied by the least economically successful in the USA. As McCarthy and Valdez point out:
[Mexicans] typically have no more than a sixth-grade education, most immigrants have little hope of filling anything but the lowest-paying jobs. But the high school education their children receive is their ticket to the next rung on the occupational ladder (McCarthy and Valdez, 1986:54-55).
It is at this point that Ogbu (1978) and Trueba (1988) diverge. Trueba holds the position that there is sufficient evidence to indicate that Ogbu's caste-like groups are entering Anglo middle class American society. Ogbu maintains that there re only token amounts of lower caste penetration into the middle and upper castes. No matter how well qualified a lower caste person is, he or she remains at a severe disadvantage when competing with a similarly or less qualified higher caste member.
A more serious criticism of Ogbu involves his claim that there is a persistent mismatch in a number of areas between different groups. The mismatch occurs in cognitive styles, communication styles and interaction etiquette between Afro students and teachers with middle class values and behaviours.
There is much support for the mis-communication hypothesis with many different groups. Studies of Native Americans in Alaska, Northern Ontario, and Oregon have reported serious mis-communication problems between native and Anglo groups (Hymes, 1972; Mehan, 1978; 1980; 1984; Erickson and Mohatt, 1982; Philips, 1982). Other researchers have reported similar problems with Afros (Labov, 1972; Michaels and Collins, 1984; Piestrup, 1973).
In spite of the above findings, there seems little basis for claiming that mis-communication should by itself result in Afro underachievement, since other groups who speak English as a second language go on to do well academically. It is difficult to understand why a sensitive teacher and intelligent students could not overcome any communication problems (McDermott and Gospodinoff, 1979).
Ogbu's (1978; 1991) position has been described as "the perceived labour market explanation" (Erickson, 1987: 339). It is when Ogbu (1978; 1991) shows that Afros with similar levels of education to Anglos are earning substantially less that he makes his strongest argument. This evidence is more convincing for Afro and Hispanic men then for women. Studies show that educated Afro women are more likely to be earning on a par with Anglo men than Afro men or Anglo women (Mickelson, 1989). More recent research has shown that the wages gap between the educated Anglos and Afros has closed. But, the gap between the average Anglo and Afro has changed little in over 40 years (Ransford, 1994: 74-75).
Ogbu has discussed the effects that cultural differences can have on lowering Afro attainment. He argues that it is the labour market treatment of Afros that is the "more powerful factor" in lower attainment, rather than factors such as language differences. Ogbu's critics, such as Erickson (1987), appear to have resurrected the cultural deficit paradigm. This is in spite of many commentators being highly critical of the cultural deficit approach during the late 1960s (Baratz and Baratz, 1970; Valentine, 1968).
To conclude, Ogbu (1978; 1991) and Trueba (1988) seem to be approaching the area of academic and socio-economic attainment for American ethnic groups from two different directions. Perhaps it may be more accurate to suggest that they are opposite poles of a single continuum. Ogbu (1978; 1991) observes the material wealth and academic accomplishments of the middle classes and finds many minority ethno-linguistic groupings lagging well behind. Trueba (1988), for his part, seems more concerned with comparing the newly arrived immigrant who has little if any material possessions and little education with the accomplishments of the second generation one or two decades later.
It is enough for Trueba (1988) that members of the second generation have effectively improved their material and academic standing relative to their parents. It is of little concern to him that many of the second generation continue to be unable to make it into the middle class in spite of massive effort and sacrifice on their part. To sum up, "Ogbu has successfully built a very strong theoretical apparatus, and a clean-cut typology of minorities (Trueba, Cheng and Ima, 1993: 11)." This theory will be applied to the AI situation in Chapters eight and nine.
3.7 Chapter Summary
Australian research has indicated that many second generation immigrants are doing better than ADs from a similar class background. The Australian literature often fails to take into account the effect of the immigration process on academic and job attainment. Ogbu's caste theory does attempt to explain why a group can under-attain in their country of origin but achieve well in their country of immigration.
Ogbu points to discrimination in the originating society as the main cause for academic and job failure. Immigrants believe that they are making a new start in their adopted country and as a result try harder to do well and often succeed. While Ogbu's work has dealt mainly with Afro-Americans, other researchers have used similar arguments to explain the under-attainment of many other groups. The present study adapts Ogbu's arguments to the AI situation.