








< cation and deprived them of opportunities due to all Ameri change was slow, and Mex mained largely excluded from for decades.
An upturn in the educatic aptly describes the progress lowed the Supreme Court schi regation ruling of 1954. mid-1960s federal governmeii and programs were in place t sented the first good-faith at
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provide equitable education for ethnic minorities. For instance, programs began to address inequity and the special needs of children with social, cultural, and linguistic  disadvantages.  Furthermore, the education profession generally jumped on the ethnic-minority education bandwagon and developed more inclusive philosophies, curricula, and instructional strategies. In the 1970s and 1980s  cultural difference,   learning styles,  and  bilingual and multicultural education  became standard jargon in the educational lexicon.
Ironically, California was until recently in the vanguard of most initiatives to improve the schooling of ethnic minority students. For instance, port-of-en-try programs specifically targeted students newly arrived in the United States. A typical example was the Newcomers Program, which I observed in the large Central Valley city of Vintageland.1 Beginning in the late 1970s, Vintageland School District experienced a great influx of Mexican immigrants, as well as refugees from several Asian nations among its student population. These students came with distinct cultural backgrounds, limited English skills, and diverse educational backgrounds (Macias 1990, 1993).
Officially, the Vintageland program provided these newcomers with an English as a Second Language (ESL) program and a basic curriculum to prepare them for regular classrooms. But Mrs. Weiss, the program s director, added that we provide a warm, comfortable, secure environment... [and] give confi-cnce.... Students learn what school is 3  dUt   an^  et one semester credit. Moreover, the program main-ained working ties with other key agen-c>es, regularly referring students and en families for appropriate medical, ental, or social services. The program managed in these ways to mainstream i lesP nd to the needs of its migrant, 'grant, and refugee student body.
Another example of California edu-a 10na* leadership was in Orchardtown, south^ immunity I studied on the ci emmost margins of the San Fran-
0 Bay Area. Although rapid growth of m ^erni2ati0n has come in the form sh PPing centers and increased hieh Uter tra c along the nearby state PresWa^ 	viahle  old downtown
feei^8 Orchardtown s small-town the ? a8ricuhure still the base of eonomy, much of the local popula
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tion and labor pool is comprised of Mexicans, the only group in the area willing to fill this economic niche. A part of this population is settled, but a large cohort follows the seasonal migrant workstream that brings them here from April through October for work in the tomato, spinach, and other field harvests. Families represent more than one migration pattern: some former migrants have settled in the community, and others traverse Texas, Arizona, and other states; some migrate between Mexico and the United States, and others are new arrivals from Mexico. These migrant families bring about 300 schoolage children with them, a number that increases by another hundred in summer.
Educators in Orchardtown School District generally knew much about the migrant experience, particularly the low-income and family stresses that detract from students  schooling. The district addressed the educational needs of students in various ways, including a duallanguage emphasis, curricular rigor, and special attention to the socioeconomic and cultural situation of the students. Mary Paz, principal of Morningside Elementary, said the district philosophy holds that  kids can learn  and considers language difference a strength. The  real factor,  she added, is good teachers and how they implement these ideas.
Ms. Rogelio is one of these teachers whose classroom at one school is made up of mostly  kids from Mexico  who receive  some bilingual content instruction everyday.  For example, Rogelio teaches social studies in Spanish and math in English on one day and then switches languages on the next. Every school in the district had at least two classrooms that implemented a bilingual or ESL program. Another third-grade teacher, Tina Pulido, says that students with Mexican schooling tend to bring high levels of Spanish language competence:  When we write stories, the Mexican kid has a sense of what a story is:... organized sentences.  Pulido asserts that students  advanced grounding in Spanish is generalizable to other academic subjects, although her observation does not apply to students who ve had little schooling, or a poor experience in Mexico or in the United States. But positive assessments of students  skills such as these heighten teachers  expectations.
High expectations, in turn, appear to drive a general emphasis on a strong
Resurgence of Ethnic Nationalism
curriculum. Angela Rogelio related that her own  success hypothesis  requires that students have a quality schooling that includes a good curriculum, appropriate instruction, and appreciation of students  cultural heritage. Martin Sosa is a 7th-and-8th-grade math teacher at Rancho San Jose Junior High School who supports rigor in the curriculum. Sosa also claims that students who come with schooling from Mexico are well prepared in mathematics, with  good comprehension and problem solving skills.  The point is that Sosa also tends to  push  his math curriculum to all students, since he says that even the average students are ready to handle it.
Roberto Gomez is director of the district s migrant education program, which attends to the particular needs of migrant students. Eligibility for the program requires evidence that the student s parents must move during the school year because of employment in an agriculturally related job. There has been no requirement for proof of citizenship or legal residence status; it has not been the responsibility of school personnel to verify if students or families are  legal  or  illegal. 
The migrant program supports schooling in a variety of ways. Migrant students, for example, are monitored through a national system, as they move across state lines, between school districts, and through local migrant programs. For students and parents, participation in the migrant program provides information and helps facilitate entry into each new school situation. Those who periodically leave for Mexico remain eligible for the program upon their return. Meanwhile, an  individual service contract  may be drawn up between program personnel and the student, who agrees to a plan of study while away. Students are able to receive credit and keep up this way.
Parents benefit in various ways through their involvement in the program. Director Gomez says that the Mexican parents have little knowledge of U.S. schools. Through program meetings, classroom visits, and other involvement, parents receive information, suggestions, and encouragement to help their children succeed in school. Gomez believes this kind of support is especially important because the parents, as former migrant students themselves, may have little schooling in either country. Families typically hear about the migrant program and other school services through
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8. ETHNIC FACTOR: INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGES
relatives and other personal sources. But one evening, I attended a multifaceted informational program that had been organized at Rancho San Jose Junior High. The well-publicized program drew about 150 parents, their children, and school personnel.  Noche Ranchera  was opened by a faculty music ensemble playing traditional Mexican music. The principal gave a brief welcome, after which the curriculum coordinator gave an overview of the school curriculum and special programs. Then another faculty member explained the district s testing program and alerted the audience to some approaching schoolwide testing dates. Then a series of activities related to the topic of parental support followed: a teacher s brief speech, a parent small-group activity, and an emotional testimonial by Martin Sosa, who shared his personal journey from migrant student to teacher and spoke of the support given him by his parents and teachers. The evening was interspersed with music throughout and appeared to succeed as an educational, social, and cultural program.
The foregoing examples illustrate some of the ways that California schools and educators have recently served students of Mexican and other immigrant origins. School-level personnel, in particular, supported these improvements not only because they work closely with students and families but also because they understand the pedagogical bases of the policies and programs that they are putting into practice. Ostensibly, a growing interest in diversity and effective schooling for ethnic-minority students would seem to characterize the education camp, if not California society as a whole. But suddenly, the direct impact of Proposition 187 would simply rid the schools of  illegal  immigrant students, making irrelevant the question of what kind of schooling they should receive. Local districts are free to make their own improvement efforts, but this is less feasible with shrinking budgets and a growing hostility from outside.
What, then, accounts for the sudden flip-flop in which California voters singled out immigrants for their illegal status and moved to deny them education? Politics is a key element in the turn of events. Public educational policies are always determined within a wider public discourse that is ultimately a political one. In California, the discourse around a number of socioeconomic
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problems found a political target in  illegal immigrants,  their children, and state programs that provided them with benefits. While the problems have been around since the mid-1980s, the discourse escalated and finally took on a life of its own as a political, electionyear movement, with education a  logical,  easy target.
Recent trends within education also figured here: Since the early 1980s widespread criticism of the entire education system has dominated the public discourse, and since that time, we have been in a  back-to-basics  cycle that stresses mathematics, science, and literacy. Although nobody can disagree with the necessity of these subjects, this push deemphasizes, by default, improvement efforts in history, geography, languages, arts, and music. These are subjects in which teachers might find it relatively more straightforward to develop multicultural curricula and, concurrently, to use it as a means of including Mexican students in the instructional process. Thus, both California s serious economic downturn, in an epoch when simple politics played well and when education needed reforming anyway, and the rise of interethnic hostilities, including immigrant bashing, are elements that all came together in the form of Proposition 187.
German National Development and Racial Ideology
Germany presents another case of contemporary ethnic conflict that has received wide media coverage. Reports of harassment and violence directed toward guestworkers, refugees, and other resident foreigners, the rise of neo-Nazi groups, and a shift to nationalist, anti-foreigner politics are instantly interpreted as a resurgence of Nazi Germany, and easy comparisons to other situations are tempting. But prior to any comparisons, the German case must be seen within its own historical development.
Through World War II, Germany harbored an image of itself as an ethnically homogeneous nation, even if contrary to historical evidence (Sauer 1992). But the postwar period left a critical need for labor and led to the undeniable ethnic diversification seen in Germany today. In the 1950s Germany entered into agreements with a s
