Abstract:

This research investigated the use of social capital by Nigerian Yoruba immigrant parents and its relevance to the educational performance of their children. The research question was: What is the role of social capital in the educational performance of Nigerian immigrant children? In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen Yoruba migrant and immigrant families with children, 12-18 years of age. A particular gap in the literature is the lack of research on social capital and educational performance among African and especially Nigeria/Yoruba immigrants. Additionally, the majority of existing research has consisted of quantitative surveys or the analysis of existing national survey data on immigrants. Rumbaut (2006) asserted that compared with many immigrant groups, Nigerians are highly educated and economically successful.

Families were selected using the snowball sampling technique. Five Yoruba families, who had migrated to Lagos or Ibadan, and ten Yoruba families who had immigrated to the United States to reside in Milwaukee, WI, were interviewed. The interview explored parents' educational and migration/immigration experiences, views/attitudes toward education, network usage of contacts within Yoruba ethnic communities, and cultural lifestyles and social norms that impacted children's educational performance. Interviews were also held with fifteen children from these families. The children's interviews focused on perceptions of their educational success, relationships and networks with their families and communities, and their goals for their future. Although the theoretical framework for this project was based on several theorists (Hofstede,1980; Brofenbrenner; 1989; and Coleman, 1988). the forms of social capital--information channeling within and between networks, trust, and social norms provided the conceptual framework for the study.

The findings showed that within Nigeria migrant parents substantially used information channeling through group networks to provide their children with resources to succeed in school. Immigrant parents to Milwaukee, WI used information channeling through group networks, primarily the immediate family. Although both groups channeled social norms and cultural styles as a means to use social capital, the immigrants to Milwaukee used these forms of social capital to create a sense of obedience and respect, providing their children with resources to foster meaning for education. With those resources the children were able to build knowledge and interest in pursuing an education, within school systems that first thought of them as African-Americans. Once they were known to be from Nigeria, teacher perceptions of their abilities to succeed in the classroom positively changed. However, teachers and other educators should realize that African-American students in their classroom are also descendants from Yorubaland. Both African-American and immigrant Yoruba children should be perceived as equals.

Yoruba parents use multiple strategies to enhance their children's educational performance. Future research is needed to determine what patterns of Yoruba immigration will change? Will children's involvement in their homeland increase or decrease? And will immigrant children's children enforce the cultural styles and social norms of the Yoruba Way? What will be changed, assimilated, or accommodated to ensure that one's culture is transferred as social capital to help give the recipients their sense of belonging and identity and ability to succeed?