Rethinking Resilience Among African and Asian Immigrant Families: Is It Resistance or Internalization of Racism?

Background: The resilience and high educational expectations have been noted to be strongly associated with the parenting practices of African and Asian immigrant families in the United States. While previous research has explored the various factors that contribute to the resilience and high educational expectations of African and Asian immigrant parents, there is a gap in the literature regarding whether what drive resilience and high educational expectations is a form of resistance to racism or a manifestation of internalized racism. African and Asian immigrant families are often subjected to racism and discrimination, which can have a negative impact on their mental health and compromise their parenting. In response to these negative experiences, Asian and African parents seem to have extremely high expectations of their children, both in academic achievement and cultural integration, leading to some conflict between parents and their children. Resilience is an important factor that can help these families cope with such challenges. However, in the context of racism, if resilience promotes adaptation and internalization of racism, it can have other unintended consequences on youth’s mental health and future internalization of structural oppression. In the current study we investigate African and Asian immigrants’ parents’ resilience and high educational expectations in the context of racism in the U.S.

Method: The current study draws on parents’ subsample of parents and youth of African and Asian immigrant families’ study. In-depth semi structured interviews of youth (N= 20, 54.6% female, mean age = 49.24, SD= 5.10, 81% married) of African and Asian immigrant household were used. Data were analyzed using the sort and sift, think and shift (SSTS) approach to qualitative analysis (Maietta et al., 2021). The research team read transcripts, discussed emerging themes and categories, reached agreement on ideas within the keywords and phrases, and generated initial codes. The team ultimately reached agreement on codes and a common coding structure was established and implemented.

Findings: Parents of both African and Asian immigrant origins acknowledge racialized context and that both they are their children have experience racism directly or indirectly. While some participants rely on the community (e.g., church and immigrant communities) to respond to racialized experiences, majority of the parents feel that because they are of immigrant origin, they are limited in their ability to address racism. The parents feel that attaining good education can help youth successfully navigate and resist racism. As a result, they tend to have higher and sometimes unrealistic expectations for their children, which can affect children’s mental health as well as the parent-child relationship.

Conclusion: While resilience and high educational expectations are important strengths in immigrant families, in the context of racism there is the need to foster positive resilience without internalizing oppression. Social workers can be very helpful to immigrant parents to strengthen their racial competencies to effectively prepare their children and youth to negotiate racialized world without compromising their mental health. We will discuss ways that social workers can support families and help them self-advocate to ensure that their children experience positive academic culture.