Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This article discusses a practice that generates surprise and even rejection among educational, health and social services professionals working with immigrant populations. This is the custom among some Senegalese and Gambian communities, specifically Soninkés, of sending their children back to their original countries to be educated there in accordance with the traditions of their ancestors, after a few years of schooling in the countries where the parents reside. The custom still exists, though its frequency is decreasing. The author seeks to provide un explanation of this behaviour and discussed educational ideas and experiences inside the framework of Soninké culture.

The author emphasizes that immigrationfrom outside the European Union is a historic challenge which will test the capacity of European institutions and citizens to achieve social cohesion and at the same time to respect ethnic and cultural differences. He calls forthe formulation of a new social contract, in which the social inclusion of citizens of EU member states and foreign nationals creates a shared form of citizenship and political participation, rather than a type of integration which is no more than assimilation. In this process, essential in any democracy conceived as a plural society, a key element is the language we use and the need to avoid dichotomous approaches along the lines of "us and them", inspired by discrimination, prejudice, and social conflict.

This paper aims to analyse the processes of social integration ofadolescent girls and young women of Moroccan origin. These processes are at the same time difficult and full of potential for both the individual and the community. The issue of integration is not analysed merely in socio-educational and occupational terms, but also in terms of family and socio-symbolic inclusion.

The cultural differences between the local population and immigrant groups often lead to mutual misunderstandings and dzfficulties in communication. There may also be conflicts between the immigrants and the representatives of the institutions whose task it is to respond to their needs, such as schools, social services and administrative offices. This is the reason for the existence of mediators to act as a bridge between the two groups.

This article deals with a series of questions related to the schooling of immigrants who joined school relatively late and therefore have greater dificulty in integrating into our educational system. These immigrants have little or no experience of schooling, and little or no knowledge ofSpanish and Catalan. The needs of students who begin their education relatively late are analysed from the perspective of the need to pay due attention to diversity. With this in mind several proposals are put forward to approach and satisfy these needs: assessment and proposals which take account of the attitude of the host society, the teaching staff, other members of the class, and the educational community in general towards these students; the need to balance the distribution of immigrants in particular,schools; the organization and development of plans for integration in theeducational centers and in their social and urban environment; their relations with local students; working with the families; the acquisition of the local languagels, the preservation and acquisition of the mother tongue and culture, the influence of society and the potentially educational role of extracurricular and leisure activities. The article focuses on education,but also highlights the social, economic, political and cultliral dimensions of immigration and the need to guarantee the economic, educational and human resources that the complexity of the phenomenon requires.

Some of the social demand for anthropological support for the solution of problems of multicultural coexistence is based on the assumption that cultural diversity in schools has significantly increased, and is supported by a functionalistic conception of culture. At the same time, anthropology has failed to develop suficient interest in this topic, given that ithas not systematically trained its students in it, and that it has not taken the trouble to stay up to date with the theoretical and practical suggestions that emanate from the educational sector. Fora for dialogue with educators have thus failed to emerge to the extent that we might regard as desirable. The same can be said of joint discussions of the work of these two sources.

This research examines the relation between depressive syrnptomatology and cognitive distortions, on the basis of a range of variables. The sample comprised 1,288 young people (683 males and 605 females aged between 12 and 17. The results revealed a solid positive relation between depressive symptomatology and cognitive biases, with lower self-esteemand somatic syrnptoms. The depressive symptomatology rises gradually with age, as do cognitive biases, which are particularly significant at age thirteen. The increase in the cognitive capacities of the young is related to the appearance of cognitive distortions. The cognitive biases predicted depression syrnptomatology. The most,frequent cognitive biases are emotional reasoning, absolutism and  catastrophizing. At the beginning of adolescence, absolutism and maximization are prominent, whereas in later years two types of inferences and ernotional reasoning appear. Womenshow more depressive syrnptomatology and cognitive biases, and tend to be more ernotional and to dramatize; however, men are characterized by the presence of ccmustu. Finally, all kinds of distortion characterize the subjects with significant scores in depressions and those considered at the risk of mood disorder.

Internet-based resources were applied in a psychopathologycourse. The results were positive: students that used the resources obtained better scores than those that did not. Flexibility and the potential for interaction were the principal advantages noted by students.