Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study is to develop a greater understanding of Honduran youth’s cultural experience upon entering Canada. I have examined the interplay of acculturation, the integration process, and its overall effect on the development of the self and ethnic identity as a newly-arrived immigrant living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Specifically, this study performs an in-depth analysis of the cultural barriers existent when a youth is first enrolled in a classe d’accueil at a French primary or secondary public school.

The classe d’accueil is a preparatory class for newly arrived immigrant students who do not speak French and who have lived in Quebec for less than five years. The function of the class is the dominant educational model for immigrant students, placed under scrutiny within the context of this research. An interview-based methodology has been used to consider the experiences of five Honduran immigrant adults between the ages of 25 and 30. These individuals engage individually and confidentially in a discourse on their acculturation process within the context of both the socio-cultural and the educational realms in which they find themselves. Therefore, their new lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada act as the basis for this thesis project. Indeed, by engaging in a comprehensive analysis of the responses provided by the interviewees, Quebec’s unique iii
and complex socio-linguistic structure becomes rich grounds for understanding the doubled process of acculturation within an alien cultural milieu for these Honduran immigrants. As such, this project delves into establishing the difficulties Honduran immigrant youths face in adapting to the educational realm within the limitations of the class d’accueil and the acculturative stress that accompanies it.

For each of the limitations of the classe d’accueil, the five participants from this research project experienced instances of acculturative stress that were no doubt directly correlated to their immigration and acculturation process. This study also reveals that these Honduran individuals were unprepared for their immigration and their immersion into a new cultural environment at large. As acculturative stress so commonly occurs throughout the acculturation process it is important that schools address this issue and find ways to alleviate the stressors that are often accompanied with immigration. Therefore, the data from this small study may imply that schools – that is, teachers, counselors, administrators, and even policy makers – should consider the benefits of studying theories of acculturation and acculturative stress. Understanding these theories will allow schools to reinvent the classe d’accueil in such a way that it will prioritize the needs of immigrant students, alleviate academic-related acculturative stress, and correct some of its major limitations.