**6. Conclusion**

The objective of this article was to show that, behind the general portrait of the exceptional academic paths of Canadian students of immigrant origin, some of these young people, belonging to racialized ethnic minorities, are less likely to access and graduate from postsecondary education. The studies reviewed show that these students often face structural barriers at the institutional level. In elementary and high school, they report having been victims of prejudice and stereotypes, which would partially explain their lower levels of success and perseverance in comparison with others. Their cognitive potential is often underestimated by teachers, which causes them to develop a low feeling of competence and motivation to perform. In terms of institutional services, they are more likely to be relegated by guidance services to low-level streams offering little or no opportunity to access postsecondary studies. They also have less access to information on admission requirements for postsecondary studies and receive little help in terms of preparation strategies for various national assessment tests. These different types of segregation form part of a larger world of hidden, indirect systemic discrimination [23]. In another words, there is a kind of ethnic hierarchy as elsewhere like in U.S. [53].

At the root of this type of discrimination, are economic and symbolic power struggles. In the contemporary period that characterized by the expansion of the knowledge economy more than ever, education and academic qualifications have increasingly become tools for maintaining or acquiring strategic social positions. Education, therefore, becomes a field of competition and power struggle between different social groups, ethnic groups included. The winners are those who have the economic, social, cultural and political resources. Despite equal opportunity policies, we find ourselves, to varying degrees between societies, in a situation of effectively maintaining inequalities [54].

In order to eradicate this discrimination, public policies must put in place meaningful institutional measures based on the principle of equity and on fighting exclusion, whatever its form. From a moral and political standpoint, such measures are aligned with principles of equality and social justice. In contemporary societies, equality of access and of success at all levels of teaching, including postsecondary studies, is recognized as a common good [55] and an instrument for promoting individual and collective welfare and social inclusion [56]. From an economic standpoint, these measures are an opportunity to identify, develop, and value the potential of all citizens whose talents in human capital terms are randomly distributed throughout society, including in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities [57]. A range of Canadian research has demonstrated the capacity for resilience of some of these students who belong to racialized groups [35, 50]. Despite the negative influence of the precarious socioeconomic conditions of their parents and of multiple school and social integration challenges, some of these students demonstrate perseverance and performance in postsecondary studies. Often associated with the quality of the different forms of capital (academic, cultural, and social) that their parents—themselves resilient and faced with socio-professional segregation [21, 58]—seek to mobilize, this resilience is also attributed to these students' cognitive potential and commitment to succeed, despite the aforementioned obstacles.

Therefore, public authorities are called upon to put more emphasis on improving conditions for learning and on supporting success. In the present context, such measures would cover not only educational resources (time, the quality of school and extracurricular activities, and material resources) to address the gaps inherent in social origin, but would overcome the effects of the socio-academic segregation to which these of all students are exposed [59]. Among other things, they involve

diversifying the school's teaching and administrative staff, providing access to information and support and assistance services, and giving the staff professional training in interculturality. Such measures build on the strengths of resilience to promote excellence, as Motti-Stefanidi and Masten [59] emphasize: "focusing on strengths and resilience, instead of on weaknesses and psychological symptoms, among immigrant youth has significant implications for policy and practice" (p. 19) That said, in the long term, the solution should rather be to eradicate the racism underlying society and establish true social and academic justice where recourse to resilience and survival mechanisms is no longer required.

It is important to pursue research through different disciplines (particularly sociology, political science, psychology, and anthropology). With the goal of better informing public and institutional policies, this research must take an intersectional approach to appreciate the complexity of the modes of multiple-identity interaction in different contexts [60]. This approach has the advantage of taking into account not only the interaction between an individual's multiple identity markers, but also the way inequalities are constructed and renewed via social power relationships, contributing in this way to forging social identities [61]. By focusing the research on systemic and structural factors, future studies would shine a light on the macro-sociological dynamic of immigrants' academic paths and of inequalities in education.

It would also be possible to call into question the status quo models in higher education, which value certain forms of knowledge over others, and to counteract the processes that can lead to justifying systemic discrimination and resorting to deficit thinking toward groups that are "othered" [61]. Finally, such studies would support and inform the promotion of political and structural changes in higher education for the benefit of all young Canadians, regardless of their origin.

## **Author details**

Pierre Canisius Kamanzi\* and Tya Collins University of Montreal, Canada

\*Address all correspondence to: pierre.canisius.kamanzi@umontreal.ca

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Perspective Chapter: Behind the Exceptional Educational Pathways of Canadian Youth… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99963*
