Latino and Arab Americans Struggle to Obtain Education Due to Cultural Barriers

Cultural and traditional values of Arab and Latino communities play a big role in parents' decisions when it comes to their children's academic success. 

By Alyamamh Rahimee 

Taiseer Ali is a first-generation Arab American student and recent graduate from Western International High School. Like many children of immigrants, she is the first person in her family to attend college and is currently pursuing a business degree at Henry Ford College. Ali's path has not always been simple, as she navigates the barriers of cultural and financial factors while striving toward higher education.

“To be honest with you, my last year in high school, my mom was against the idea of me attending college face to face,” says Ali, “ but my dad was OK with it.”

Ali is attending college online due to her mother’s wishes. Neither of her parents obtained an education. As a result, Ali says they struggle to understand the significance of attending college in person.

“I can’t go to college (in person),” Ali says. “So I have to wait until the time comes, and I don’t know when the time will come.“ 

Ali is the oldest daughter in her family. When her older brothers graduated from high school, they decided to take the traditional path that many Yemeni men follow by working instead of pursuing a higher education.

Even though Ali is pursuing a degree online, she shared concerns about being restricted from completing her degree in a timely manner, as some of the required classes for her degree are not available online. Ali says she doesn't know how she will be able to graduate.

Cultural and Traditional Values 

Latino and Arab communities can be compared when it comes to ethnic communities and higher education.  Both communities hold traditional and cultural values that create significant barriers — especially for women — to complete or obtain an education. 

A large number of students with ethnic households experience this in Detroit, where four-year graduation rates post-pandemic have fallen from 72.5% for the 2019-20 school year to 64.5% for the 2020-21 school year, according to a February 2022 Chalkbeat Detroit article. 

Three graduates from Western International High School in downtown Detroit on Aug. 18, 2020. Photo by Alyamamh Rahimee

Meanwhile, according to Wayne State University’s graduation rate, Latino graduation rates grew from only 17% in 2011 to  38% in 2021. While we do see an improvement in the graduation rates over the years of the Latino community, the graduation rates remain low compared to other non-Latino students. 

In comparison, according to a 2003 Detroit Arab American study (DAAS) by the University of Michigan and Princeton University, only 19% of U.S.-born Arab Americans have obtained a college degree, and 20% completed a high school education.  

Traditional and cultural values that both ethnic groups share include a lack of intergenerational education, stereotypical roles of women and even a high value on marriages to people within the communities. Women and young girls of both ethnic groups seem to be most affected by these factors that potentially inhibit them from completing their secondary and higher education. 

Parents' expectations from their children are extremely high when it comes to both the Latino and Arab communities. At the same time, parents limit their children’s success by placing traditional barriers.

Expectations to Remain at Home

Tara Baker has been teaching English Literature for 23 years at Western International High School. She says she has come across many students who had great academic potential, but struggle with cultural barriers such as not being allowed to leave their home, or the students are usually not encouraged nor supported to attend college by their families.

“Traditionally the barriers that they run into is the family is unwilling to let the child go away to school, especially if they are females,” Baker says. “But even sometimes they rely on males and the females to live at home until they're married, which is kind of an expectation so (for) the child, that kind of limits the availability of schools that they can go to full time to what’s nearby. They are also expected to work full time and be contributing members of the family income.” 

A Latina student shared similar struggles she faced as she challenged cultural norms to pursue schooling after high school. To respect the privacy of the student and family, her identity will remain anonymous. 

The recent graduate was accepted to the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with a full ride scholarship. However, her conservative family took issue with her leaving home as a young, single woman. Her parents also couldn’t let her go away for college because they relied on her to fulfill responsibilities such as going with them to appointments and taking care of her siblings. 

“(They) refused to let me dorm, you know?” she says. “My dreams were crushed in my eyes because now I had to pay out of my own pocket, and I don't have that kind of money. Neither do my parents.” 

The student took a different route and dropped out of college after her parents did not allow her to live in the dorms. Instead, she began working and was eventually promoted to manager at her workplace. 

Can’t Relate 

First-generation students usually struggle with obtaining an education because their parents can’t help guide them academically. 

Tara Baker, English teacher at Western International High School

“Sometimes the cultural differences are such that the families aren’t familiar with the whole world of college,” Baker says. “And therefore (the parents) are getting all the information from their child, like ‘the school says this, my counselor said this,’ and there is a level of disbelief, mistrust, confusion, just because it's not something they themselves  are familiar with, and so they are hesitant to give their parental power and just say OK.” 

The lack of familiarity with attaining an education trickles down to limiting their child’s success. In most cases, the women deal with the brunt of this because of strict gender roles. In many Arab cultures, women are encouraged to get married at a young age and become housewives, while men are encouraged to work during and after high school. According to UNICEF, 1 in 3 teenage girls 18 and younger in Sudan and Yemen are married off. 

In 2019, Detroit student Laila Nasher wrote an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press on the pattern of the dozens of Yemeni teenage girls she’s observed get married while still in high school. Nasher also discussed the many Yemeni boys who took the traditional path of working instead of pursuing a higher education after high school.

Nasher wrote that in her tight-knit Yemeni community, many of her friends at Universal Academy Detroit included, “two engaged sophomores, two married seniors and three classmates who dropped out last summer to get married.”

Nasher identified that financial struggles were a key factor in early marriages of Yemeni girls, as they sought for a higher education but were unable to pursue that path with their parents' income. 

An Arab American high school graduate outside of Western International High School on Aug. 18, 2020. Photo by Alyamamh Rahimee

As for Latino communities, cultural and traditional values are similar, including the stereotypical roles of women being homemakers and not allowing children to go away for college. With these high expectations from both ethnic communities and poverty impacting many families living in Detroit, it's hard to see improvement. 

Bread or Books?

Erin O'Mara is the director of the girls' program at Mercy Education Project, an initiative dedicated to academically assisting women and girls by offering GED preparation, SAT math and English tutoring, and college readiness. According to the 2020-2021 Mercy Education Project annual report, 23% of women who attended programs were Latina, 17% were Middle Eastern and 88% of women had “extremely low iIncome” ranging from $0-$26,200.

O’Mara says a decent number of students seeking academic assistance at Mercy Education project face financial struggles.

“You have families that are struggling with housing, food issues. The basic needs of life, sometimes they have to take care of,” says O’Mara, referring to families who need to prioritize basic needs before education. 

As more immigrant communities experience opportunities for higher education, traditional and cultural values are seeming to detangle and open more doors for the first-generation students.  

“I hope to see these traditional values change the way my mom thinks,” says Ali, as she works to nevertheless complete her degree.