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1 The practice
2 Hints for an evaluation
2.1 Strenghts
Living mostly in the fairly closed world of their ethnic community, most Vietnamese have difficulties communicating in Czech. Considering this fact and the typical problems of other immigrant communities in European societies, it is surprising that the Czech-born children from Vietnamese families are highly successful in school (see background report). One factor that contributes strongly to this is the familiarity with the Czech language and culture gained through the education by Czech nannies.
The Vietnamese children do not only have no particular difficulties at school, they perform on average better than Czech children. Teachers at the school explained this with the very high appreciation of education in the Asian cultures. It seems that the Vietnamese parents were hence able to pass this cultural heritage to their children, even though they spend very limited time with them.
What is possibly most interesting and convincing about this practice is the lack of any intervention by the state bureaucracy. Even though there is very limited contact between biological parents and their children, and the daily interchange between Czech and Vietnamese culture seems to be accompanied by some psychological distress, the highly individual solution practiced in Cheb might be better able to handle this than collective solutions, such as day nurseries or boarding schools.
The education of Vietnamese children through Czech mothers has to be seen as a highly interesting social experiment, which occurred in reaction to a specific social situation. A child born in the early 1990s is today (2006) 15 or 16 years. The success of these children became known in the entire Czech Republic, when a very large percentage of successful applicants to the city gymnasium (elite high school) were from the ranks of the Vietnamese minority. Despite of this successes, it is too early to really assess how the “nanny”-practice will affect the long-term development of the concerned children.
2.2 Critical Points
As noted already, in many cases the Vietnamese parents spend a very limited time with their children. One resulting problem is the insufficient knowledge of the Vietnamese language among the second generation. This problem seems particularly urgent because of the uncertain future of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. In many cases it is not clear whether the families will gain residence status or whether they will have to return to Vietnam at some point. Due to the very low Czech proficiency of many adult Vietnamese and the insufficient language skills of the younger Vietnamese a significant barrier has been created between first and the second generation. The Vietnamese community reacted to the problem with the installation of Vietnamese language classes, which take place in one of the city’s Vietnamese markets during the afternoons.
The language problem however, might be the most visible sign of deeper psychological problems, which might develop due to the cultural, linguistic, and occupational alienation between parents and children. The emergence of such potential problems might become visible only when the parent generation will be too old to continue its highly industrious way of life. It should be noted, however, that such potential psychological problems (which could be observed in the case of other “too fast” assimilating groups, such as the Jewish emigrants in the US or the Asian-American communities) would not be result of the “nanny practice” per se, but rather of the extreme workload of the Vietnamese migrants and the lack of the extensive family structures found in the home country.
Another critical remark concerns the legal framework in the Czech Republic, which makes it very unattractive to work legally as a nanny. In consequence, almost all women offer their work in an informal way. Everybody interviewed expressed great dissatisfaction with this situation. Considering the benefits to the entire community, the Czech Republic would be well advised to create a legal option to pursue this work without large financial losses.
2.3 Lessons Learnt
The education of Vietnamese children through Czech nannies seems to be a fairly unique response to a very specific situation. Obviously, it is not possible to simply transfer this inter-cultural practice into a different cultural and economic environment: It seems for example doubtful, whether all minority groups are to the same extent capable of organising such a solution without external support. In more affluent countries, migrant groups would typically not have the resources to finance the extremely time-consuming work of a nanny.
Despite of these limitations, the practice is characterised by a number of interesting principles, which might be considered when searching for inter-cultural solutions in other social and cultural environments:
Educational failure of migrant youths is one of the most urgent problems that trouble many migrant communities. Usually, the discussion of potential solutions for this problem focuses on collective programmes, such as the creation of special school programmes, pre-school education, boarding schools, etc. One reason why such approaches are often not successful is the often-observed concentration of migrants in such facilities, which are often avoided by parents that belong to the majority population. The concentration of minority students complicates the majority language acquisition. The practice developed by the Cheb Vietnamese community completely circumvents this problem. This seems even more remarkable, when considering that the Vietnamese minority live relatively isolated from the rest of society.
Depending on the situation found in a concrete locality, it would be possible to use some elements in different ways. In a situation, where unemployment is high among the majority population, the care for children from minority families could be organised in the form of public works. One should, however, realise, that the motivation to temporarily transfer the responsibility for one’s child will be much lower in the case of migrant families, where the mother stays anywhere at home (as it is very often the case in Turkish or Arab families living in Western European countries). In such a situation, the solution might not be to provide financial incentives to convince migrants to give their children away (and locals to take them), but to inspire projects that would bring women from both cultures together.
The day care by “partner families” might however be an option in cases, where the biological parents are believed to be not capable of taking fully care of the children. The “nanny practice” could be a convincing alternative to children’s homes and similar institutions. Partner families living in spatial proximity to the parents might also be an alternative to the often-discussed idea of boarding schools in the case of informal Roma settlements in Eastern Europe. The example of Cheb, also shows that the practice could be a powerful source of income for economically weak members of the majority population.
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