Vietnamese Immigration in Poland: Issues of Education and Integration for Children?

Abstract

This paper investigates the issues of education and integration conditions for children of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland with the case of Pomorskie. It was conducted under the format of an empirical
study with three non-standardized interviews of the families, informal observations, and group discussions about the possible problems of Vietnamese children living and growing up in the research context. Regardless the limitation of small range of data collection, the study found the noticeable concerns for the process of education and integration of children in Vietnamese families. Four main findings were found answering the research question pointed to the issues of cultural differences and expectations of their parents, language barriers of the parents, the typical stereotypes of educating children at home, and the conflicts of self-identification in the future. The research implied that children of any immigrant groups should be considered their growth for the sake of well-adaptation into the society associated with their choices of good education, growth, and identity with issues-free regardless any conditions.

Full text

PROBLEMY WCZESNEJ EDUKACJI / ISSUES IN EARLY EDUCATION
4 (35) / 2016
ISSN 1734-1582
e-ISSN 2451-2230
Nguyễn DuyKhang
University of Gdańsk
ndkhang@vlcc.edu.vn
Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
University of Gdańsk
pttvan@vlcc.edu.vn
Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and
integration for children
Summary
This paper investigates the issues of education and integration conditions for Vietnamese immi-
grants’ children in Poland. These points of interest were primarily treated as the additional research
connected with our teaching practices. It was conducted as an empirical study with three non-stand-
ardised interviews with the families, informal observations, and group discussions. Regardless of
the limitation of a perhaps not signicantly substantial range of data, the study led to the outlining
of some concerns connected with the process of education and integration of the children in these
Vietnamese families. The main four ndings which are related to the research question are: the
cultural differences and expectations of the parents, the language barriers of the parents, the typical
stereotypes of educating children at home, and the conicts of self-identication in the future. The
research implied that children from all the immigrant groups should be assessed as to their growth
as well as to the quality of their adaptation into the society.
Keywords: immigration, issues in education with immigration, Vietnamese children, issues
of education and integration
Our preparations for the course of Childhood in Emigration and on the Borders of Cul-
tures for Polish pedagogy students led to awareness and of understanding about the com-
munity of the Vietnamese and some difculties for their children in becoming educated
and integrated within this society. This could be seen as the rst reason for our on-going
observations and studies on the different generations of Vietnamese immigration in Po-
land. Although the primary purpose was to search for material that could be useful for
future teachers of early education, it resulted in nding the reasons why people from our
Vietnam longed to live in a new and different country. Further research questions also
include: “who are they?”, “what do they do for living?”, and “how do they live?”. Last but
not least, we wanted to know more about how their children learn as well as wishing to
have a closer look at their perceptions on education, and this issue is going to be the main
theme of the article presented.

Nguyễn DuyKhang, Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
128
Following Cline et al. (2009: 29), the concern about children learning probably would
not allow any migratory parents to satisfy it, although:
Childhood is assumed to be a time for play, education and socialisation.
That statement is another important reason for the quest connected with the real situa-
tion of the children from Chechenia staying in Gdańsk as applicants for the status of refu-
gee. The information was obtained during our participation in a project called: “Program
Aktywności Obywatelskiej” in 2014. When it comes to educational situations, it must be
stated that the children from Chechenia failed to learn and communicate with their teach-
ers and friends. They did not meet the requirements of their schools. The cultural differ-
ences created a barrier among them and Polish pupils and their language also made better
integration through learning impossible. The members from our programme applied for
a grant from the Rada Miasta of Gdańsk and invited teachers from Warsaw to teach these
children during the summer of 2014. The reason for inviting teachers from the capital city
of Poland was the fact that they were much more experienced in working with immigrant
children. They all had to overcome their stressful moments, but at the same time had great
achievements after the summer. This situation provoked questions as to how Vietnamese
children would do in similar cases and how they would solve their problems.
The experiences from meetings with our international and Polish friends in that pro-
gramme gave us a lot of ideas for teaching materials. However, when we met our students
in the classroom, it turned out that our understandings about the immigrants and their
problems were not accepted by the pedagogy students. For example, at rst the students
did not believe that they would need to teach children from other countries in Gdańsk
because – as the students replied – they did not see many immigrants around. A similar
perception was recognised and admitted by the Rada Miasta of Gdańsk when about twenty
people from other countries in that programme went to meet them. The vice President of
Gdańsk was surprised to get to know that the city has been lived in by many immigrants
and international citizens. The situation alerted both sides, and for us it was another moti-
vation to continue to write this article to share with the academic community our observa-
tions about issues in educating childhood immigrants.
These reasons were the most essential motivations for writing this paper aimed at
nding the issues of education and integration of Vietnamese children in northern Poland
(Pomerania Region). This is an empirical study using three short interviews with Viet-
namese parents who have children from 2 to 6 years old in Trójmiasto, the observations
conducted while visiting the families, and the group discussions. All sources of data col-
lection focused on nding the answers to the following question:
What are the educational and integration issues for children of Vietnamese immigrants to
Poland?

Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and integration for children 129
In order to fully understand and root the issues related to immigrants from Vietnam, this
paper starts with a review of the literature related to problems of education for immigrants
retrieved from “Taylor and Francis Online” for social sciences.
A review of literature
It is undeniable that immigration brings to Poland both problems and benets because it
is “multi-faceted and not something that can be simply explained or argued against” (Al-
lan 1989: 156). However, it could become a concern for any immigrants from any non-
European country, not just the Vietnamese, to be aware of the patriotic slogan of “Polska
dla Polaków”.
According to Allan (1989), the case of Australia emphasised that “immigration is not
merely a question of economics, race, or ethnicity” (p. 154). It is not only a political, but
an ethical decision which may lead to more questions about the process and belief about
assimilation, integration, and multiculturalism. This notion points out the general views
on immigration in which the immigrants will assimilate into the targeted community or
will be assimilated to that community with the long process of integration in multicultural
environments. Differently from Allan (1989), Witmer and Culver (2001) gured out im-
migration as a potential source of a traumatic stressor. Similarly to the view of immigra-
tion as causing traumatic effects to any individual, Berger & Weiss (2003) found that:
Immigration involves separations, losses, changes, conicts and demands that severely chal-
lenge or shatter individuals’ past ways of making meaning and dening themselves, it could
be conceptualized as a traumatic stressor (Berger & Weiss 2003: 22).
In addition, the trauma of immigration should be considered to be vital for increasing
posttraumatic growth with effective strategies, because it is often not recognised owing to
the loss of social support.
The absence of social recognition further exacerbates the sense of loneliness and being mis-
understood among new immigrants. Furthermore, because society often fails to recognise
and validate immigration-related losses…it is more difcult for immigrants to give them-
selves permission to recognise and mourn these losses (Tedescgi, Park, and Calhoun1998:
34).
Although multi-faceted immigration may bring both good and bad inuences to soci-
eties, more concerns related to that eld were recognised in Witmer and Culver (2001),
Berger & Weiss (2003), and Drachman & Shen (1991). Immigration pushes the immi-
grants to the multi-phase process with plenty of stressors (Drachman & Shen 1991). In
order to understand these elements which are stressful for immigrants, the review will
later be devoted to the literature on the issue of immigration as well as some aspects con-
nected with immigrant children in education and integration. However, because of the

Nguyễn DuyKhang, Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
130
limited sources of data collection, and the research sample limited to the cases of some
Vietnamese families living in Trójmiasto, the review will also involve the section devoted
to the differences of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland thematised from the perspectives
of an insider.
Immigrants and their situation
As mentioned earlier, Polish citizens are, to a certain excent, aware of the new period of
international migration in Europe, in which the characteristics of the newcomer differenti-
ate immigration from its previous stages. According to Nguyen and Siciarek (2015), there
are big groups of migrants from Ukraine, Vietnam, China, India – including the applicants
for refugee status, and those who are at times called illegal immigrants.
In the nineties, Campani (1993) categorised the important features of the new groups
of migration to Europe as:
(i) the growing importance of clandestine migrants and refugees as a consequence of
both European migratory policies and the degrading life conditions in the Third
World and eastern Europe;
(ii) the growing importance of unaccompanied women, migrating to enter the labor
force, along with the migration of unaccompanied children;
(iii) the involvement of ethnic and social groups traditionally not migratory (e.g., the
case of the Tamils from Sri Lanka);
(iv) the involvement of more and more countries, both as receivers and senders of mi-
grants (some countries being both of emigration and immigration, e.g., Portugal
and Poland), in the course of which certain countries, especially in southern Eu-
rope, have made the transition from emigration to immigration countries;
(v) a new East-West migration which had been stopped in the post-1945 years and;
(vi) the increasing importance of the service sector (including services to private per-
sons) and of the informal economy for the absorption of the immigrant labor force
(Campani 1993: 507–508).
The current trends of immigration are somehow different from those listed by Campini
(1993). However, some characteristics from the current wave of immigrations are not dif-
ferent from previous stages. Among them one might think of the adaptive process of the
local social structures that are, from now on, to respond to the huge changes in a society
when there is more and unknown labour, more unaccompanied family members, and more
social needs. In particular, immigration brings important issues which require the reaction
of civil society for a movement of social tolerance (Campini 1993).
These lie mainly in the fact that immigration has become a symbol of the difculties and
contradictions of Italian society: the poor delivery of social services, the problems of hous-
ing, the ‘management’ of the labor market (for example, the inability of labor ofces and
agencies to nd work, especially in southern Italy) and the spread of the informal economy.

Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and integration for children 131
The arrival of a limited number of immigrants has provoked the explosion of these contra-
dictions (…) (Campini 1993: 511).
Another important issue which should be taken into consideration when regarding
immigration is education for the children. According to Kong, Yoon, and Yu (2010: 267),
“education is highly correlated to high paying employment in the future. The children of
international marriages suffer from language problems, bullying and various other types
of discriminations”. Beside education, the issues of ethics in human rights should be no-
ticed. It is related to the treatment of immigrants in a country.
Immigration policies determine which people enter, their characteristics, from where they
come, and in what numbers, while policies toward immigrants determine whether they and
their families have access to education, housing, employment, welfare benets, and citizen-
ship (Weiner 1995: 75).
It could be seen obviously from Weiner (1995) that immigrants are both ofcially or unof-
cially categorised when they enter a country. The issues from paying less attention to hu-
man rights would lead the immigrants to become subject of discrimination and that would
later inuence the ability for the unaccompanied members of immigrant groups to access
housing, education, employment, social benets, and attain normal legal status. Similar
situations are found in Portugal. Cardoso (2007) reveals new concerns of public policy re-
garding access to services, education, health care, and safety at work for the new groups of
immigrations. However, the concerns are different from previous reviewed cases because
they do not refer to the situation in Eastern Europe.
In short, no matter what may be the origin of immigrants or their reasons for leaving
their own homelands, immigration creates more concerns as well as potentials for the city
that they settle in. Since the potentials of immigration will not be focused on in this paper,
the issues or concerns are ranged from national policies to lower levels of services. From
the review, several issues can be connected to the areas of local law, labour work force, the
features of legalising the migratory status, education, social services, human rights, health
care, and a new denition of social tolerance.
Issues for immigrant children in education and integration
The issues that immigrant children confront when living in foreign countries are diversi-
ed and different for every single child and this can be identied from many aspects of
one’s life, both spiritual and physical. However, within the scale of this study, these are
aspects of education and integration for immigrant children that are reviewed for deeper
understanding the research area.
In the rst place, some generalisations related to the challenges or problems immigrant
children face will be presented from a number of studies from different contexts (Olsen

Nguyễn DuyKhang, Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
132
1997; Shields & Behrman 2004; Toppelberg & Collins 2010; Tienda & Haskin 2011).
Among the researchers, Shields & Behrman (2004) seem to synthesise the whole picture
of the main challenges during an immigrant child’s life in both his family and society rec-
ognised as (1) Less-educated parents, (2) Low-wage work with no benets, (3) Language
barriers, (4) Discrimination and racism, (5) Poverty and multiple risk factors, and (6)
Lack of supports. Similarly though more straightforwardly, Tienda & Haskin (2011) deter-
mined that education, health, poverty, and assimilation are the issues immigrant students
face with serious problems. Regardless of what and how the problems or challenges are
specied by various researchers, it is realised that all these sets of categories or taxono-
mies are related to each other and presumably cause difculties for immigrants trying to
integrate into a new society. Specically, the educational environment in which immigrant
children are involved when they move to a new country may be the-rst-place-challenge
that the immigrant children experience.
One of the most important challenges specied by the above-mentioned researchers
is the language barrier, which is obviously one of the biggest problems hindering an im-
migrant’s full potential at school. In this sense, Tienda & Haskin’s (2011: 6) study results
show that:
… minority students who begin kindergarten with limited oral English prociency fall be-
hind native speakers in their reading ability, resulting in a substantial achievement gap by
fth grade.
The problem of the language barrier becomes even more serious when the parents are
less-educated and cannot speak the host language. In such circumstances, students must
deal with almost all of the difculties and problems at school themselves owing to their
parents’ inability to communicate with the school (Shields & Behrman 2004). Besides,
in comparison with the previous generations of immigrants, in correlation with a period
of high socio-economic inequality, contemporary immigrant children are recognised as
facing a higher risk of living in poverty, having fewer chances to access medical care,
having a higher rate of high school dropout, and many problems with behaviour (Tienda
& Haskin 2011).
Apart from the language barrier, discrimination is identied as another vital cause in
the academic setting leading to challenges for immigrant children. Discrimination hap-
pens in education when children who come from different cultures cannot get along with
the host countries and especially, they are not accepted by their classmates and even the
teachers as mentioned by Gregor and Green (2011: 423)
… teaching and learning, and they too face a racially and linguistically altered community.
The consequence of discrimination against immigrant children is pointed out by Shields
& Behrman (2004) as follows:

Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and integration for children 133
Thus, while children from immigrant backgrounds enter school with very positive attitudes
toward education, by adolescence they can become disillusioned, and their attitudes toward
teachers and scholastic achievement can turn negative. (p. 7)
Adair (2015) strengthened Shields & Behrman’s ndings by demonstrating that discrimi-
nation causes adverse effects on children’s development and their academic performance.
Secondly, the integration which immigrant children must undergo to become part of
the host society, is connected with some problems that are found both in their families and
in stereotypes cultivated by a given society. A major issue leading to conict between the
generations in many immigrant families is identied as an acculturation gap. The accul-
turation gap emerges when members of a family do not share “the same voice” in language
usage, behaviours, attitudes and values. It is, as specied by Marsiglina, Kulis, Fitz Harris
and Becerra (2013: 2), “a process of cultural adaptation characterised by changes in dif-
ferent psychosocial dimensions of individuals, families, and communities”. In immigrant
families, the conict and discord between parents and children occurs because of an ac-
culturation gap leading to the children’s deviant behaviour (Mogro-Wilson 2008). In other
words, the acculturation gap in such families leads to difculties in “children’s adjustment
psychologically at school and in other life domains” (Birman and Poff, 2011). As a result,
this makes children feel lost in both their families and the society as they cannot determine
what would be better for them when standing between two options of integrating into the
new culture or keeping their heritage culture. The stereotypes or prejudices about Asian
students from Western teachers or students such as “passiveness”, “quietness”, and “inde-
cision” (Coll, Basel, Karger 2012) may prevent immigrant children from being willing to
socialise or communicate with the people around.
In a study about Vietnamese immigrants in the Polish context, Nowicka (2014)
states that:
Poles nd it difcult to deal with the Vietnamese because of their low expressiveness, i.e.
not showing emotions and not expressing opinions, which is perceived as “secretiveness.
(p. 218)
On the other hand, from the Vietnamese side, the researcher recognised that the priva-
cy characteristic for the Poles might provoke the immigrant perceptions of Poland to be
closed and sad. The wrong assumptions about each other may lead to difculties in smooth
integration among Vietnamese and Poles.
In short, the process of adaptation to the education and integration of children from
Vietnamese immigrants causes serious problems for their comprehensive development.

Nguyễn DuyKhang, Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
134
The differences between of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland
Similarly to other groups of immigrants in Poland, Vietnamese people “move to wealthier
western countries” (Tedescgi, Park, and Calhoun 1998) for multiple reasons, which could
serve as the key to classify and describe the characteristics of different waves of immigra-
tion (Nowicka 2014).
People who leave developing countries to move to wealthy western countries are frequently
looked on as fortunate winners of a better life while their pain goes invalidated (Tedescgi,
Park, and Calhoun 1998: 34).
However, Vietnamese immigrants differ from other Asian groups in many ways that could
not be easily identied and statistically mapped. They inherit the stereotypes of being obe-
dient and oppressed which is better than being confronted from generations to generations
with the philosophy of Confucius.
Stereotypes of Asian students among Western teachers and students include “silent”, “qui-
et”, “passive”, “non-assertive”, and “poor communicators”… These cultural values of quiet-
ness and restraint of self-assertion are reected in parenting styles (Coll, Basel, and Karger
2012: 3).
According to Nowicka (2014), the Vietnamese community in Poland is the largest immi-
grant group whose culture is non-European with a current estimate of around 35 thousand
people. Two big waves of Vietnamese immigrations are recognised and each wave has
different features. However, regardless of the communicative and cultural values for the
next generations of these waves who are born and grown up in Poland, being, learning,
and living in the same political system and environment would not allow Vietnamese to
be less different.
The young Vietnamese have a feeling that it is difcult for them to fully “melt” into the
Polish society because of physical differences which Poles perceive as noticeable and big
(Nowicka 2014: 215).
If we bear in mind that each community is unique and realise as well the fact that the Viet-
namese are the largest group of immigrants in Poland, usually misidentied as Chinese
or other groups from South-East Asian countries, this is one of the most unwanted and
annoying phenomena for any Vietnamese.
In addition, Vietnamese people are different within the immigrant community of those
from Vietnam. According to Nowicka (2014), there are people from two waves and each
wave has a third group as the next generation. However, we would like to present the
differences from our undocumented observation during our connections and integrations
with the community.

Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and integration for children 135
As for all other immigrants, the policies for foreigners in Poland classify Vietnamese
to be (1) with legal documents and (2) illegal documents. For those with legal documents,
people are categorised into having (1) visas, (2) a temporarily living card for the rst peri-
od of 15 months, (3) a temporarily living card for second period of 1 to 3 years, (4) 5-year
living card, (5) 10-year living card, and (6) Polish citizenship for those married to Poles.
For cases of illegal documents, the Vietnamese are classied into illegal immigration and
expired-legal documents with no conditions to re-apply for new status. According to Celna
(2016), the cases of Vietnamese illegally entering Poland were still on top of the statistics1.
Vietnamese children can be grouped differently in accordance with their reasons for
moving to Poland, their complicated connections with this society, their learning capaci-
ties, and so on.
Table 1. Major differences among Vietnamese immigrants concerning children
Self-identication of Vietnamese Immigrants in Poland
The rst wave
– Started in 1950s, came to
a peak in the 1960s to 1980s
– Young elite Vietnamese to
study and stay in Poland
(Nowicka, 2014)
The second wave
– Started 1990s
– Vietnamese come to Poland
for multiple reasons, but
majority for economic
reasons
(Nowicka, 2014)
Children of the rst wave
– Born in Poland
– Learning is priority for their
parents.
– No problems with languages
or cultural integration with
Poles.
The third group Children of the second wave
– Born in
Poland
– Learning
can be
or not be
a priority
depending
on a given
family’s
background
and
economic
conditions
– Born in
Vietnam
– Learning
might take
place but it
is not the
priority in
one’s family
life
– Problems with language and
cultural integrations
All cases may get married to Poles or other Vietnamese which may lead to the differences in the
quality of the long process of education of their children in Poland.
1 Celna I.(2016): Ze statystyk straży granicznej winka, że w 2015 roku zatrzymano na wschodniej grani-
cy 239 osób, które nielegalnie przekroczyły granicę. 203 z nich to Wietnamczycy. W tym roku zatrzymano
89 osób, z czego 64 to obywatele Wietnamu, którzy, jak widać, wciąż są najbardziej liczną grupą podej-
mującą tego rodzaju nielegalne próby.

Nguyễn DuyKhang, Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
136
Both
Vietnamese
parents of the
rst wave
Vietnamese
and Poles’
parents of the
rst wave
Both Vietnamese parents of the
second wave
Vietnamese
and Poles
parents of the
second wave
New young
couples of the
second wave
with 1–6 year-
old children
– Children had good
conditions and were as
uent in Polish as Poles.
Children
were born in
Vietnam and
brought to
Poland
Children were
born in Poland
– Children
had good
conditions
and were
as uent in
Polish as
Poles.
– Children
may not
know any
Vietnamese.
Only Polish.
– Language
at home is
Polish.
– Children
were born
in Poland.
– Parents
have limited
knowledge
of language.
– Speaking
Vietnamese
at home and
Polish at
school.
– It depends
on the fam-
ily circum-
stances and
whether
they had
Polish
babysit-
ters before
being sent
to nursery
schools with
other Polish
children.
– Children
may com-
municate in
Vietnamese,
but limited.
– Language
at home
is both
Polish and
Vietnamese,
depending
on the
family
it could
be only
Vietnamese
at home.
– Children
may not
know any
Vietnamese.
Only Polish.
– Language
at home is
Polish.
– Parents have limited
capacity of Polish uency.
Vietnamese is the only
language at home or broken
Polish (limited cases).
– Depends on the economic
conditions of the parents;
children will study with
Poles and like Poles.
– Language and culture
differences are the problems
The self-identication of Vietnamese children can be partially found in Nowicka
(2014). The reality of Vietnamese differences should also be clear and known for policy-
makers in order to enable them to take care of the new generations better, and also when
the children were born in Poland both with and without legal documental status of their
parents. There must be reasons for them to focus on earning money only, but not lead
a normal life. The differences were also claimed by Vietnamese originated from the rst
wave of immigration.
All Vietnamese people of my generation learned a lot and they study abroad or at some
prestigious institutions, but these new generation pupils get mediocre grades. So that has
changed somewhat; they are average pupils. My generation had parents who came here to
study at universities, as my father did. In my family, much emphasis was put on education,
and now the majority of Vietnamese people come from Vietnam to earn money only (No-
wicka 2014: 217).

Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and integration for children 137
In conclusion, although the Vietnamese are still judged as difcult to deal with by the
Poles (Nowicka 2014) because their culture is far from showing emotions openly or ex-
pressing opinions, they work hard, respect the system, and understand the limits of our
strange non-European appearance as not to annoy others. However, the issues brought into
this paper will be mainly concentrated around education and integration for Vietnamese
children regarding their different family conditions as well as historical reasons of im-
migration.
Research methods
This empirical study was conducted to nd out the issues of children of Vietnamese im-
migrants in Pomerania (North Poland) related to their education and integration.
With the aim of understanding the difculties of our people in this country and prepar-
ing updated knowledge for our course preparation that links to the teaching of lessons,
the review of literature guided us to collect the data using informal interviews with three
families who have children who are less than 6 years old. The observation was applied
when visiting the families and the focus was on how the communicating process happened
between the parents and their children. The data for group discussions were unintention-
ally collected during one available meeting to discuss how different children will grow up
in Poland in terms of education and integration into the Polish culture.
The research participants in this study were limited to families living in the Pomerania
Region with their children aged from 1 to 6 years old. They belong to the category of
new young couples of the second wave who have recently immigrated to Poland. These
participants were both Vietnamese parents and all their children are now learning at kin-
dergartens. The rst family has one three year-old son. The second family has one three
and a half year-old daughter and a six year-old son. The third family has one two year-old
daughter and ve year-old son.
The interview was non-standardised with only one main theme about the issues that
the children are facing. Similarly to the interviews, the observation and group discussions
were informal to understand the problems each family has been struggling with. These
research tools were used to collect data for the research question of what are the educa-
tional and integration issues for children of Vietnamese immigrants to Poland? Since the
limitation of this study was the range of data collection, it was analysed with the use of the
technique of data mining.
Findings
From the data analysis, the ndings show that the children of young Vietnamese immigrants
may potentially encounter problems in their education and integration due to the current con-
straints. These constraints include: the cultural differences and expectations of their parents,
the typical stereotype of educating children at home, and future issues rooted in the family

Nguyễn DuyKhang, Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
138
and its economic conditions. Although the data from group discussions and observations
were somehow different from the interviews, the results shared following common issues
which possibly inuence children’s education and integration process in Poland.
Cultural differences and expectations of their parents
Cultural differences was the rst issue that the data from all research tools has had in com-
mon. When the groups of Vietnamese families were asked about how differently their chil-
dren would be educated and integrated, they all discussed and agreed that the differences
between Vietnamese and Polish cultures in nurturing children would confuse their chil-
dren. A similar perception was found from our observations about the ways these partici-
pants’ children were educated at home. It was shown in their communications among the
family members. It could be seen that children were treated differently by their families
of KT, TD and BQ2. A child from KT appeared to be under pressure and controlled by his
parents during the meetings. This KT’s child had to ask his parents for every movement to
play, to eat, or to interact with other children. And if an action was done without permis-
sion, it would be assumed as disobedience and misbehaviour. Different cases were found
in the families of TD and BQ where the children had more freedom in doing anything to
do with eating, playing, learning, and other activities during the meetings. These children
appeared to be more independent with their own decisions and no sign of being oppressed
could be found.
However, there was something that these children had in common – the failure to
express their feelings or desires with people other than their parents. They showed no
interest in sharing their ideas with the visitors. When asked, the action of ignoring or not
answering the friends’ of their parents was considered to be misbehaviour. It is rooted in
the tradition of respecting the elderly, especially their parents’ friends or older generations.
This nding somehow annoyed or made Vietnamese children in Poland confused
about how they should behave in a Vietnamese community or in the context of the daily
basis of Polish society. At school, children may be educated with individual responsibili-
ties for what they do and what they want. However, the Vietnamese believed that children
must obey their parents and do whatever is permitted by their parents or do as they are
told. Two opposite practices of cultures confuse Vietnamese children now and will do so
in their future until they fully recognise their rights.
In addition to these ndings, the data from the interviews also presented the in-depth
understandings of the differences which claried the cultural differences in details in the
other categories.
No, in the rst few weeks, he did not want to go into the class. Now, he does not even want
to kiss for goodbye when I take him to school [CT03].
2 Name codes for 3 families of Vietnamese participants.

Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and integration for children 139
The case of TD’s family with 3 year-old son was paid attention to because this boy was
a little slow with language in both Vietnamese and Polish. Different situations were found
in the families of BQ and KT: each has one younger daughter and an older son. When
asked about how their children integrated with friends, the mothers perceived as follows:
They talked and played with each other, not with us much. They studied at school in Polish
while we don’t. We are too busy with earning the living so we cannot expect much from
them as in Vietnam [CK05].
Oh, you must know that we have to accept the fact our children in the future will not know
anything about Vietnamese culture. They will have to decide, not that we can force them as
our parents do to us. They have not much to learn and to do with Vietnamese within small
Vietnamese community in our neighbours. And what they learn and practice from school
will be for the different styles of living in Poland [CB06].
These mothers accept the fact that their children will possibly have different perceptions
about cultures. They respect that their children are learning within the Polish system of
education although they all knew and were worried that the next generations would be
totally different from their origins.
Although all families in this research noticed the possibilities of losing their cultural
heritage, they valued highly the educational conditions for their children since they en-
able their children to become more independent and adaptable to the society here, not
in Vietnam.
The typical stereotypes of educating children at home
The data analysis also presents the ndings that Vietnamese children might be passive,
silent, and quiet… as other Asian people. (Coll, Basel, and Karger 2012). However, the
participants in this study reected the cases of unexpected stereotypes. Children from all
cases were active, noisy, and interacted with other children including the case of KT’s
family after having been given permission by the parents. When bringing up this concern
and asking the participants about it during the meetings, all pairs of parents decided that
their children integrated well in the classroom with Polish children.
The stereotypes were also found in the interview data with the mothers. When asked
about their children, the fathers contributed in general during the communication in
groups. They all believed that the children would be ne at school because the schooling
conditions were good. However in the interviews, the data was mainly from the female
members of each family. The mother of TD’s family conrmed:
His teacher says that he adapts well and integrates well with his Polish friends. He has no
problems to play with friends [ST01].
The other two cases had similar perceptions about their children.

Nguyễn DuyKhang, Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
140
He is a bit quiet but his teacher says that he is good at math [SK04].
No, both the kids are active and have fun at school because they are used to be with Polish
cultures from their babysitters and friends from nursery schools in a few years [SB02].
The reasons for not mentioning the girls in these families were because they were still not
learning as much at school as the boys were. The two girls in the families of BQ and KT
were similar to the case of the boy in TD’s family because they could not share much with
their mothers with limited language ability and capacity to talk about schooling.
Language barriers of the parents
Another problem for the children’s conditions of education and integration could be the
language barriers of the parents. It was because the parents in this research were from the
current wave of immigrants to Poland. This wave was different from the rst wave who
had good language skills and knowledge to settle well in the society. The families in this
context cared less about cultural adaptation; however they accepted the differences and
ignored the problem of communicative abilities.
The issue of the parents’ language barriers could be used as a voice in the debate on
the values of mother tongue or the language in the migratory country. The parents wanted
their children to keep using the mother-tongue not only because of keeping the traditions,
but also to reduce the gap arising from the limitations of their Polish language capacity.
According to Hu, Torr, and Whiteman (2014), the values of home language or the
language in the migratory country were perceived differently by educators, but fundamen-
tally all agreed to focus on the best interests of children.
The language barriers might limit their children from learning and the growth of their
educational process because the educational roles from parents should not be excluded.
Parents often assume didactic and dyadic roles in motivating their children to learn and are
involved with many other social participants in the process (Corson, Bernhard, and Gonza-
lez-Mena 1998: 246).
The reasons are however not so obvious if we take into consideration the results of the data
analysis. All the families agreed that their Polish language capacity would make a distance
between them and their children in the future, create a gap of education at home due to the
lack of in-depth communication with the teachers of their children, and in supporting them
with doing homework or solving educational problems. The following extracts from the
interviews would partly clarify this point.
Now, it would not be a problem because they mainly play at school. But I am worried that
in the future I may not help them to learn or do homework. It could be worse when I sel-
dom understand what the teachers mean. We mainly say “dzień dobry, dziękujemy, and do
widzenia [LK08].

Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and integration for children 141
I agree with you. We have no time and energy to study Polish at school now. This limited
Polish cannot help much. If the teacher wants to tell me something long, I will ask someone
to help [LT06].
It could be seen from the families of KT and TD that they visualise the possible issues
for the future condition of their children’s education. It would not stop at that point be-
cause the limited ability of Polish speaking would kill the chances for further interactions
or integrations with Polish friends’ and families’ of their children. Any efforts to celebrate
the integrated activities would end with uncomfortable feelings if both sides did not have
a common language for communication other than Polish and Vietnamese as sign lan-
guage or English, for example. This case would hinder the chance for their children to be
more “melted” into the cultures of Poles. However, the family of BQ had different idea.
Don’t worry. The children will nd out how to deal with their learning and socialising. I do
not think of interrupting or intervene into our children’s learning [LB07].
The extract LB07 showed that they accepted the situations and would let their children
grow as naturally as possible in the context. However, we thought that the other two per-
ceptions should be considered in the long run.
The conicts of self-identication in the future
The next discussed issue was connected to one obvious point from Nowicka (2014).
The trouble is rooted in the multilayered thinking about the Vietnamese identity. Although
that identity is a matter of choice, it is not acceptable to refer to a person born to Vietnamese
parents in a different way (e.g. a Pole). Such a person is described as “a Vietnamese who
does not feel being a Vietnamese” (Nowicka 2014: 225).
Although the data from all research tools did not focus on this issue, the families implied
different points of view. They all conrmed their knowledge and experiences from cases
of other Vietnamese families that no matter how Vietnamese children tried to be one with
the Polish system and with its education, society would still discriminate against them.
There is only one exception, and that is the physical image of the child – in the case of their
Vietnamese parent’s marriage with a Polish spouse, resulting in their looking more Polish
than Vietnamese. Such children seem to not be discriminated against.
Conclusions
Bearing in mind the statistics from Nowicka (2014), the following data require better un-
derstanding for children of Vietnamese immigrants.

Nguyễn DuyKhang, Phan Thị Tuyết Vân
142
over 60
(4%) 50–59
(11%)
20–49
(73%)
0–19
(12%)
Chart 1. The distribution of age in Vietnamese group of immigrants
Source: developed from Nowicka (2014: 223).
It can be seen from Chart 1 that the possibility of 85% of young Vietnamese would
bring about a huge group of possible newborn children in the forthcoming future in Po-
land. As education is always considered important from a Vietnamese perspective, the
conditions for this new generation might create a lot of problems and worries for their
parents, related to proper education for their children.
From the ndings, it can be concluded that the children of Vietnamese immigrants
will possibly have more issues in their education and integration. It may inuence greatly
the growth of children even more when the issues are not properly recognised by Polish
teachers, educators, and educational policy makers. It is because “immigration experience
is a developmental process in which children juggle cultural and linguistic differences
between home and society, and discusses ways in which the process of the immigrant
experience affects psychological development” (Jensen 2007: 38).
Although the language barriers of the parents in this research were never recognised
from the previous cases of Vietnamese immigrants, more and more cases will be similar to
those from this research participants. It is because the origins of the current wave are not
similar to the cases of elite young Vietnamese students from the 1950s. In addition, other
issues should be managed to facilitate children of young Vietnamese immigrants because
of the possibility to encounter the problems from cultural differences and expectations of
their parents, the typical stereotypes of educating children at home, and the conicts of
self-identication in the future.
As a conclusion, we “borrow” the concept from Kimberlin (2009) to emphasise on
the call for being aware of the issues for Vietnamese children living in Poland now and
in the future.

Vietnamese immigration in Poland: issues of education and integration for children 143
The only successful immigrant adaptation process was full assimilation into the new culture,
with abandonment of the culture of origin. However, more recent sociological theory has ac-
knowledged that successful cultural adaptation can take many forms. Theories of segmented
assimilation propose that immigrant acculturation occurs at different rates and in different
ways for different immigrants and immigrant groups, inuenced by both individual and
contextual factors. Kimberlin (2009: 764–765)
It was believed that full assimilation into new culture could be classied as successful
adaptation. However, the European Union respects the diversities, and Vietnamese groups
of immigrants have well adapted to the current society. In order that Vietnamese children
may be better balanced to grow up safely and successfully in the national system, it is es-
sential to pay attention to these and other unexplored issues for them to learn, to integrate,
and to be members of the society with multicultural backgrounds.
To conclude, the following statement would generally support our implications from
the educational aspect of this paper.
If the educational system functions properly, they should acquire all of the social tools re-
quired to function effectively in the society, including mastery of the ofcial language and
many other social capacities as well. This does not mean, however, that the children of im-
migrants can be expected to be like the children of the majority in every respect or that the
immigrants themselves have to conform to every established practice (Carens 2014: 545).
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