Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper
Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper
Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED AND ORIGINAL ESSAY PAPERS ON Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper I need an explanation for this Literature question to help me study. Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper Read PDF file: 1. Discuss 2 of the many challenges an immigrant faces when trying to adjust to their new environment. 2. What impact did this insight make on your understanding of acculturation/assimilation? Write up to around 250 words, No plagiarism nufs_144_acculturation_development_and_adaptation.pdf Acculturation, Development, and Adaptation Eugenio M. Rothe, MDa,*, Dan Tzuang, Andres J. Pumariega, MDc,d MD b , KEYWORDS Culture Acculturation Childhood Development Acculturation refers to the process that occurs when groups of individuals of different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, which changes the original culture patterns of either or both groups. The encounter causes cultural diffusion of varying degrees and may have one of 3 possible outcomes: (1) acceptance, when there is assimilation of one group into the other; (2) adaptation, when there is a merger of the 2 cultures; and (3) reaction, which results in antagonistic contra-acculturative movements.1 Acculturation is a concept that applies to individuals living in communities other than where they were born, such as immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. It does not apply to groups whose ancestors were subjected to involuntary subjugation in their own land, such as Native Americans, or to individuals whose ancestors were brought to the United States by force and subjugation, such as African Americans. Today more than ever before acculturation has become a relevant concept as a result of the phenomenon of globalization, which defines the sociocultural climate of the twenty-first century. Globalization occurs when there is an acceleration of movement of people, products, and ideas between nations.2 It is characterized by an increase in fluidity between the financial and political borders between countries, which in turn increases the complexity of the everyday problems that are faced by the inhabitants of the countries. Another important aspect of globalization has been the increase in large migrations in the last decades, predominantly from poor countries to more developed ones, like the United States.3 Historically, federal legislation has played a significant role in this process. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Hart-Celler Act, also known as the Immigration and Nationality Act, which abolished racial discrimination in a Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Building, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA 94305, USA c Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA d Department of Psychiatry, The Reading Hospital and Medical Center, Sixth Avenue & Spruce Street, West Reading, PA 19611, USA * Corresponding author. 2199 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Suite 304, Coral Gables, FL 33134. E-mail address: [email protected] b Child Adolesc Psychiatric Clin N Am 19 (2010) 681696 doi:10.1016/j.chc.2010.07.002 childpsych.theclinics.com 1056-4993/10/$ see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 682 Rothe et al immigration law. As a result, each independent nation had a yearly quota of 20,000, whose children, parents, and spouses could enter as legal immigrants. This legislation had a significant effect in certain immigrant populations. For instance, the ethnic Chinese population in the United States almost doubled each decade after the act was passed, although Chinese people accounted for only one-tenth of 1% of the population in the 1960 census.4 As a result of their arrival and resettlement in the United States, immigrants usually undergo varying degrees of acculturation stress, which leads to alterations in the persons mental health status.5 These alterations may improve or worsen with the persons later acculturation and adaptation to the United States. Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper THE NEW DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE UNITED STATES Until the mid-twentieth century, the United States received predominantly European immigrants, whose racial and cultural characteristics allowed them to assimilate rapidly into the American social fabric. In the past 40 years, immigration from Europe and Canada has declined dramatically, and non-European immigration has increased faster. The foreign-born population in the United States increased by 57% in the last decade, compared with only a 9.3% growth of the US native population. By the year 2050, European-origin Americans will no longer be the numerical majority; this will happen before 2030 among children younger than 18 years and is already true among 6-year-olds.6 Most of the new immigrants to the United States describe themselves as nonwhite, and immigrants from the Caribbean and Central and South America are the most racially mixed, with less than 45% self-reporting as white. The United States faces a rapidly changing demographic landscape with an increasing multiracial and multicultural population. These changes largely result from 3 major factors: (1) progressive aging and low birth rate of its European-origin population; (2) lower mean ages and increasing birth rates in non-European minority groups; and (3) a significant increase in immigration from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. These growing populations of children are diverse in their racial, ethnic, national origin, immigration, and socioeconomic makeup. However, as a group, they are different from the older, European-origin, white, and higher socioeconomic mainstream population. CULTURE AND IDENTITY Hughes7 defines culture as a socially transmitted system of ideas that: (1) shapes behavior, (2) categorizes perceptions, (3) gives names to selected aspects of experience, (4) is widely shared by members of a particular society or social group, (5) functions as an orientational framework to coordinate and sanction behavior, and (6 conveys values across the generations. Cultural process refers to the fluid and ever-changing characteristics of a culture that responds to changes in the historical and cultural contexts in which cultures are imbedded. Hughes7 considers that it is more accurate to refer to a particular groups cultural process, rather than a groups culture, which implies that it is stationary. However, in this article the term culture is used, although what is implied is cultural context. In childhood, from the age of 3 to 4 years old, children are already capable of detecting differences in language use, and between 4 and 8 years of age children develop a sense of ethnic identity. They identify as members of a particular ethnic group, they consolidate a sense of group identity, and they develop curiosity about other groups that are different from their own.8 Acculturation, Development, and Adaptation Identity formation has been historically viewed as one of the principal tasks of the passage into adulthood. The concept of identity is composed of individual and social components and is closely related to the culture. Erikson9 conceptualized identity as resulting from the dynamic interplay between the individual and his group and cultural context, and added that identity development is the central task of adolescence that (1) optimally results in a coherent and self-constructed dynamic organization of drives, abilities, beliefs, and personal history and that (2) functionally guides the life course.Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper 10 However, this concept of the universality of development, representative of the modernist European tradition, has been vigorously challenged. It has been considered to be based on male oriented and Western values that are more descriptive of the white mainstream majority in the United States. The critics of this model postulate that it may not adequately represent the experiences of members of minority groups, such as adolescents born to immigrant families. The postmodernist tradition suggests the opposite. It argues that identity formation is idiosyncratic and that it is different each time, and particular to every individual. In a review of the literature, Schwartz and Montgomery11 were unable to find any empiric studies supporting the postmodernist tradition; instead, their research supports a third alternative hypothesis, which argues that the fundamental structure of identity is consistent, but it is also influenced by variables that are particular to the individual and take into account the different styles of acculturation. Taking this third model into account, Schwartz and colleagues12 regard identity as the organization of self-understandings that define ones place in the world(p5). They conclude that identity is a synthesis of personal, social, and cultural self-conceptions. Identity has been divided into (1) personal identity, which refers to the goals, values, and beliefs that the individual adopts and holds, (2) social identity, which refers to the interaction between the personal identity and the group with which one identifies, and (3) cultural identity, which refers to the sense of solidarity with the ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the members of a particular cultural group. There is often confusion between the terms cultural identity and ethnic identity. Ethnicity refers to the cultural, racial, religious, and linguistic characteristics of a people,13 and ethnic identity refers to the subjective meaning of ones ethnicity. Ethnic identity is contained within the broader concept of cultural identity, which refers to specific values, ideals, and beliefs belonging to the particular cultural group. Ethnic identity has always been a socially constructed product, which is affected by several variables. It can recede into the background, or it can become an engulfing concern. Case 1 Ives, a 17-year-old Haitian adolescent, was sent away by his family to a prestigious boarding school in the midwest United States, to protect him from violence and the possibility of being kidnapped in Haiti. His father occupied an important government position on the island and the family belonged to the mulatto aristocratic class. Ives was unable to adapt or fit in at the school. He complained that his peers were not used to dealing with an educated black person and didnt know what to do with me, and that they talked down to him and treated him with fear and contempt. He added that he could not find anything in common with the American blacks who attended the school, most of whom came from poor families, had come from the adjacent urban ghettos, and were studying on scholarship. Ives became depressed and suicidal at the school and eventually moved to Miami, where he began residing with extended family and attending day school. At this time, Ives was also seen in weekly psychotherapy. Immediately, he began to question his Hispanic male therapist about the perceptions his therapist had of him, given that both were of a different culture and 683 684 Rothe et al race, and together they were able to explore his emotional pain, his sense of alienation, and his fears of rejection. Ives slowly became aware that sometimes he presented with a hostile attitude toward others, which was a defense against the anticipation of being rejected, and realized that this attitude kept people away from him. Slowly, Ives became less defensive and together with his therapist began discussing Haitian culture and history. Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper Ives also developed an interest in the short stories of Haitian folk author Edwidge Danticat, which he described and discussed during the therapy sessions. One day, after several months in psychotherapy, he told his therapist I had never given much thought to the fact that Im black until I came to the United States. I have now discovered that I am Black and Haitian. I feel proud of my heritage, because Haiti was the first free Black Republic in the world. Now I feel more Haitian than ever, and in Miami I have found enough people that are like me. Yet, I am also beginning to feel like an American. I consider that the United States is my home and I have no interest in ever going back to live in Haiti. In the therapy, and with the help of the supportive community of compatriots in Miami, Ives was able to discover new aspects of his ethnicity and culture of origin; these identity fragments became integrated into a new, richer, and more cohesive sense of self. In turn, this allowed him to successfully integrate to his new peer group, which included adolescents of various ethnic origins and nationalities. The concept of identity functions as a regulatory social-psychological structure and is particularly pertinent to immigrant people, who are trying to locate themselves between the culture of origin and the host culture, and who are trying to maintain a sense of self-consistency and consider new possibilities.12 The Stresses of Immigration DeVos14 and Ogbu15 describe 3 themes that have a determining effect on the adaptation and identity formation of the immigrant child and his or her family. 1. Under what circumstances does the immigrant enter the host culture (voluntary migration vs forced migration, conqueror vs slave)? 2. Is there a structural ceiling (social hierarchy) above which the immigrant cannot rise, regardless of effort, talent, or achievement? 3. Is there a cultural ethos or stereotype that fits the immigrant, from which he or she cannot separate? At times, a person who is regarded by the majority culture as a member of a particular ethnic group or who regards himself or herself as of a particular ethnicity may find his or her identity changed by the immigration process. Most immigrants that come to the United States are financial immigrants who have fled poverty in their country of origin in search for a better life. However, because of the changing immigration landscape influenced by federal law, there is tremendous diversity among immigrants and their levels of education. Amongst Asian Americans, firstgeneration experiences vary tremendously, ranging from initial penniless Chinese immigrants who came to work on Americas railroads and gold mines in the 1800s, to more recent patterns of college-educated professionals from Taiwan, China, Korea, and India who came to pursue graduate degrees and stayed, versus the experiences of those in the Hmong, Laotian, and Cambodian populations who may have entered the United States to seek political asylum from their war-torn home countries. However, overall it can be said that the immigrant experience is one of the most stressful experiences a family can undergo. It removes the family from their relationships, friends, neighbors, and members of the extended family. It also removes the Acculturation, Development, and Adaptation family from their community, jobs, customs, and sometimes language, placing them in a strange and unpredictable environment.16 Garza-Guerrero17 constructed a theoretic model to understand culture shock, a phenomenon that immigrants experience when they first encounter the new culture. He describes 2 elements that are the hallmark of culture shock: (1) mourning, related to the loss of the culture, country, language, friends, and predictable environment; and (2) the vicissitudes of identity, in the face of the threat of a new culture. He divides culture shock into 3 phases: (1) the cultural encounter, (2) reorganization, and (3) a new identity. Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper If completed successfully, this process leads to personal growth and an enrichment of the self. This process of culture shock closely resembles the process of adolescence itself, and presents a double developmental challenge to the immigrant adolescent. Case 2 Juan, a 13-year-old adolescent arrived in Boston abruptly with his mother and 3 brothers following a marital dispute caused by his fathers infidelity. The family began residing in the small one-bedroom apartment of his aunt and cousin, which soon led to tensions. Juan and his brothers struggled to fit into a multiethnic, inner-city school, where his difficulties were aggravated by his poor command of English. Juan became aggressive and joined a school gang. He was referred to therapy by his pediatrician, who believed that Juan was depressed and experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations. Juan presented as an angry and despondent adolescent, who missed his father and his home life in Puerto Rico. One day he told his psychiatrist about a dream he had had the night before: I dreamt that my brothers and I were riding on a train, that we fell off and found ourselves trudging through a marsh that never seemed to end. Suddenly, we were attacked by three men that were wearing masks. We fought with them and their masks fell off. One man was blond, the other man was black, and the third one was Chinese. Juans dream is an example of the first phase of culture shock, the cultural encounter, which is characterized by a sense of confusion that results when aspects of the old culture are compared with aspects of the new, host culture. The discrepancy that results from the comparison may lead to feelings of disorientation, loss, mourning, and helplessness. Often in these situations, aggression becomes a defense against helplessness, which may explain Juans acting-out behaviors. If these feelings of aggression are projected outwards, some aspects of the new, host culture may be perceived as persecutory. Juans persecutory feelings and his feelings of helplessness and social alienation may serve to explain why he joined a gang. The gang provided him with a peer group that offered protection and also validated his feelings and his defensive acting-out behaviors. ACCULTURATION ACROSS HISTORY: CHANGING VIEWS The history of the United States is a history of immigration. The massive migrations that have shaped the identity of the United States throughout its history as a nation have often given rise to nativist movements, whose goal has been to stop or decrease immigration. Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper They are led by the previously settled inhabitants, who perceive a threat to their established customs, or fear competition in their job markets. These fears are often enhanced by the high fertility rates found among immigrant minority groups and lower fertility rates found among the more established groups.18 These historical events contributed to the notion that the best way to enter into the American culture was to assimilate, totally renouncing the culture of origin and immediately becoming 685 686 Rothe et al American. This model applied well to immigrants arriving from Europe in the 1800s and into the twentieth century. Most of these immigrants had similar ethnic characteristics and often Americanized their names, forming the American melting pot. The term acculturation was first used in 1936 by a group of anthropologists of the Social Sciences Research Council, and became an issue of wide discussion after the burgeoning refugee and immigrant resettlement crisis generated after World War II.19 The acculturation process causes change not only in the immigrant but also in the receiving culture, leading to a process of interculturation. Immigrants often choose one of several acculturation strategies: (1) cultural maintenance (choosing to what extent cultural characteristics are important to maintain), (2) cultural participation (determining how they participate with members of the host culture, or remain among themselves), (3) integration (equivalent to assimilation), and (4) marginalization (choosing to segregate themselves from the host culture).5 The United States is an ethnically complex society, so rather than understanding acculturation as a uniform and linear phenomenon, Portes and Rumbaut20 have proposed the concept of segmented acculturation. Their research has mapped segments of immigrants with different patterns of acculturation in the United States, whose differences are determined by factors that are intrinsic to the immigrant, as well as factors that are intrinsic to the particular area of the host country to which the immigrant has arrived. For example, an immigrant from a rural area in Cambodia arriving in Oregon has a different acculturation experience to that of an Eastern European professional arriving in a northeastern American city to further his profess Get a 10 % discount on an order above $ 100 Use the following coupon code : NURSING10
Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper
Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED AND ORIGINAL ESSAY PAPERS ON Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper I need an explanation for this Literature question to help me study. Discussion: Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper Read PDF file: 1. Discuss 2 of the many challenges an immigrant faces when trying to adjust to their new environment. 2. What impact did this insight make on your understanding of acculturation/assimilation? Write up to around 250 words, No plagiarism nufs_144_acculturation_development_and_adaptation.pdf Acculturation, Development, and Adaptation Eugenio M. Rothe, MDa,*, Dan Tzuang, Andres J. Pumariega, MDc,d MD b , KEYWORDS Culture Acculturation Childhood Development Acculturation refers to the process that occurs when groups of individuals of different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, which changes the original culture patterns of either or both groups. The encounter causes cultural diffusion of varying degrees and may have one of 3 possible outcomes: (1) acceptance, when there is assimilation of one group into the other; (2) adaptation, when there is a merger of the 2 cultures; and (3) reaction, which results in antagonistic contra-acculturative movements.1 Acculturation is a concept that applies to individuals living in communities other than where they were born, such as immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. It does not apply to groups whose ancestors were subjected to involuntary subjugation in their own land, such as Native Americans, or to individuals whose ancestors were brought to the United States by force and subjugation, such as African Americans. Today more than ever before acculturation has become a relevant concept as a result of the phenomenon of globalization, which defines the sociocultural climate of the twenty-first century. Globalization occurs when there is an acceleration of movement of people, products, and ideas between nations.2 It is characterized by an increase in fluidity between the financial and political borders between countries, which in turn increases the complexity of the everyday problems that are faced by the inhabitants of the countries. Another important aspect of globalization has been the increase in large migrations in the last decades, predominantly from poor countries to more developed ones, like the United States.3 Historically, federal legislation has played a significant role in this process. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Hart-Celler Act, also known as the Immigration and Nationality Act, which abolished racial discrimination in a Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Building, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA 94305, USA c Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA d Department of Psychiatry, The Reading Hospital and Medical Center, Sixth Avenue & Spruce Street, West Reading, PA 19611, USA * Corresponding author. 2199 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Suite 304, Coral Gables, FL 33134. E-mail address: [email protected] b Child Adolesc Psychiatric Clin N Am 19 (2010) 681696 doi:10.1016/j.chc.2010.07.002 childpsych.theclinics.com 1056-4993/10/$ see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 682 Rothe et al immigration law. As a result, each independent nation had a yearly quota of 20,000, whose children, parents, and spouses could enter as legal immigrants. This legislation had a significant effect in certain immigrant populations. For instance, the ethnic Chinese population in the United States almost doubled each decade after the act was passed, although Chinese people accounted for only one-tenth of 1% of the population in the 1960 census.4 As a result of their arrival and resettlement in the United States, immigrants usually undergo varying degrees of acculturation stress, which leads to alterations in the persons mental health status.5 These alterations may improve or worsen with the persons later acculturation and adaptation to the United States. Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper THE NEW DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE UNITED STATES Until the mid-twentieth century, the United States received predominantly European immigrants, whose racial and cultural characteristics allowed them to assimilate rapidly into the American social fabric. In the past 40 years, immigration from Europe and Canada has declined dramatically, and non-European immigration has increased faster. The foreign-born population in the United States increased by 57% in the last decade, compared with only a 9.3% growth of the US native population. By the year 2050, European-origin Americans will no longer be the numerical majority; this will happen before 2030 among children younger than 18 years and is already true among 6-year-olds.6 Most of the new immigrants to the United States describe themselves as nonwhite, and immigrants from the Caribbean and Central and South America are the most racially mixed, with less than 45% self-reporting as white. The United States faces a rapidly changing demographic landscape with an increasing multiracial and multicultural population. These changes largely result from 3 major factors: (1) progressive aging and low birth rate of its European-origin population; (2) lower mean ages and increasing birth rates in non-European minority groups; and (3) a significant increase in immigration from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. These growing populations of children are diverse in their racial, ethnic, national origin, immigration, and socioeconomic makeup. However, as a group, they are different from the older, European-origin, white, and higher socioeconomic mainstream population. CULTURE AND IDENTITY Hughes7 defines culture as a socially transmitted system of ideas that: (1) shapes behavior, (2) categorizes perceptions, (3) gives names to selected aspects of experience, (4) is widely shared by members of a particular society or social group, (5) functions as an orientational framework to coordinate and sanction behavior, and (6 conveys values across the generations. Cultural process refers to the fluid and ever-changing characteristics of a culture that responds to changes in the historical and cultural contexts in which cultures are imbedded. Hughes7 considers that it is more accurate to refer to a particular groups cultural process, rather than a groups culture, which implies that it is stationary. However, in this article the term culture is used, although what is implied is cultural context. In childhood, from the age of 3 to 4 years old, children are already capable of detecting differences in language use, and between 4 and 8 years of age children develop a sense of ethnic identity. They identify as members of a particular ethnic group, they consolidate a sense of group identity, and they develop curiosity about other groups that are different from their own.8 Acculturation, Development, and Adaptation Identity formation has been historically viewed as one of the principal tasks of the passage into adulthood. The concept of identity is composed of individual and social components and is closely related to the culture. Erikson9 conceptualized identity as resulting from the dynamic interplay between the individual and his group and cultural context, and added that identity development is the central task of adolescence that (1) optimally results in a coherent and self-constructed dynamic organization of drives, abilities, beliefs, and personal history and that (2) functionally guides the life course.Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper 10 However, this concept of the universality of development, representative of the modernist European tradition, has been vigorously challenged. It has been considered to be based on male oriented and Western values that are more descriptive of the white mainstream majority in the United States. The critics of this model postulate that it may not adequately represent the experiences of members of minority groups, such as adolescents born to immigrant families. The postmodernist tradition suggests the opposite. It argues that identity formation is idiosyncratic and that it is different each time, and particular to every individual. In a review of the literature, Schwartz and Montgomery11 were unable to find any empiric studies supporting the postmodernist tradition; instead, their research supports a third alternative hypothesis, which argues that the fundamental structure of identity is consistent, but it is also influenced by variables that are particular to the individual and take into account the different styles of acculturation. Taking this third model into account, Schwartz and colleagues12 regard identity as the organization of self-understandings that define ones place in the world(p5). They conclude that identity is a synthesis of personal, social, and cultural self-conceptions. Identity has been divided into (1) personal identity, which refers to the goals, values, and beliefs that the individual adopts and holds, (2) social identity, which refers to the interaction between the personal identity and the group with which one identifies, and (3) cultural identity, which refers to the sense of solidarity with the ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the members of a particular cultural group. There is often confusion between the terms cultural identity and ethnic identity. Ethnicity refers to the cultural, racial, religious, and linguistic characteristics of a people,13 and ethnic identity refers to the subjective meaning of ones ethnicity. Ethnic identity is contained within the broader concept of cultural identity, which refers to specific values, ideals, and beliefs belonging to the particular cultural group. Ethnic identity has always been a socially constructed product, which is affected by several variables. It can recede into the background, or it can become an engulfing concern. Case 1 Ives, a 17-year-old Haitian adolescent, was sent away by his family to a prestigious boarding school in the midwest United States, to protect him from violence and the possibility of being kidnapped in Haiti. His father occupied an important government position on the island and the family belonged to the mulatto aristocratic class. Ives was unable to adapt or fit in at the school. He complained that his peers were not used to dealing with an educated black person and didnt know what to do with me, and that they talked down to him and treated him with fear and contempt. He added that he could not find anything in common with the American blacks who attended the school, most of whom came from poor families, had come from the adjacent urban ghettos, and were studying on scholarship. Ives became depressed and suicidal at the school and eventually moved to Miami, where he began residing with extended family and attending day school. At this time, Ives was also seen in weekly psychotherapy. Immediately, he began to question his Hispanic male therapist about the perceptions his therapist had of him, given that both were of a different culture and 683 684 Rothe et al race, and together they were able to explore his emotional pain, his sense of alienation, and his fears of rejection. Ives slowly became aware that sometimes he presented with a hostile attitude toward others, which was a defense against the anticipation of being rejected, and realized that this attitude kept people away from him. Slowly, Ives became less defensive and together with his therapist began discussing Haitian culture and history. Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper Ives also developed an interest in the short stories of Haitian folk author Edwidge Danticat, which he described and discussed during the therapy sessions. One day, after several months in psychotherapy, he told his therapist I had never given much thought to the fact that Im black until I came to the United States. I have now discovered that I am Black and Haitian. I feel proud of my heritage, because Haiti was the first free Black Republic in the world. Now I feel more Haitian than ever, and in Miami I have found enough people that are like me. Yet, I am also beginning to feel like an American. I consider that the United States is my home and I have no interest in ever going back to live in Haiti. In the therapy, and with the help of the supportive community of compatriots in Miami, Ives was able to discover new aspects of his ethnicity and culture of origin; these identity fragments became integrated into a new, richer, and more cohesive sense of self. In turn, this allowed him to successfully integrate to his new peer group, which included adolescents of various ethnic origins and nationalities. The concept of identity functions as a regulatory social-psychological structure and is particularly pertinent to immigrant people, who are trying to locate themselves between the culture of origin and the host culture, and who are trying to maintain a sense of self-consistency and consider new possibilities.12 The Stresses of Immigration DeVos14 and Ogbu15 describe 3 themes that have a determining effect on the adaptation and identity formation of the immigrant child and his or her family. 1. Under what circumstances does the immigrant enter the host culture (voluntary migration vs forced migration, conqueror vs slave)? 2. Is there a structural ceiling (social hierarchy) above which the immigrant cannot rise, regardless of effort, talent, or achievement? 3. Is there a cultural ethos or stereotype that fits the immigrant, from which he or she cannot separate? At times, a person who is regarded by the majority culture as a member of a particular ethnic group or who regards himself or herself as of a particular ethnicity may find his or her identity changed by the immigration process. Most immigrants that come to the United States are financial immigrants who have fled poverty in their country of origin in search for a better life. However, because of the changing immigration landscape influenced by federal law, there is tremendous diversity among immigrants and their levels of education. Amongst Asian Americans, firstgeneration experiences vary tremendously, ranging from initial penniless Chinese immigrants who came to work on Americas railroads and gold mines in the 1800s, to more recent patterns of college-educated professionals from Taiwan, China, Korea, and India who came to pursue graduate degrees and stayed, versus the experiences of those in the Hmong, Laotian, and Cambodian populations who may have entered the United States to seek political asylum from their war-torn home countries. However, overall it can be said that the immigrant experience is one of the most stressful experiences a family can undergo. It removes the family from their relationships, friends, neighbors, and members of the extended family. It also removes the Acculturation, Development, and Adaptation family from their community, jobs, customs, and sometimes language, placing them in a strange and unpredictable environment.16 Garza-Guerrero17 constructed a theoretic model to understand culture shock, a phenomenon that immigrants experience when they first encounter the new culture. He describes 2 elements that are the hallmark of culture shock: (1) mourning, related to the loss of the culture, country, language, friends, and predictable environment; and (2) the vicissitudes of identity, in the face of the threat of a new culture. He divides culture shock into 3 phases: (1) the cultural encounter, (2) reorganization, and (3) a new identity. Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper If completed successfully, this process leads to personal growth and an enrichment of the self. This process of culture shock closely resembles the process of adolescence itself, and presents a double developmental challenge to the immigrant adolescent. Case 2 Juan, a 13-year-old adolescent arrived in Boston abruptly with his mother and 3 brothers following a marital dispute caused by his fathers infidelity. The family began residing in the small one-bedroom apartment of his aunt and cousin, which soon led to tensions. Juan and his brothers struggled to fit into a multiethnic, inner-city school, where his difficulties were aggravated by his poor command of English. Juan became aggressive and joined a school gang. He was referred to therapy by his pediatrician, who believed that Juan was depressed and experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations. Juan presented as an angry and despondent adolescent, who missed his father and his home life in Puerto Rico. One day he told his psychiatrist about a dream he had had the night before: I dreamt that my brothers and I were riding on a train, that we fell off and found ourselves trudging through a marsh that never seemed to end. Suddenly, we were attacked by three men that were wearing masks. We fought with them and their masks fell off. One man was blond, the other man was black, and the third one was Chinese. Juans dream is an example of the first phase of culture shock, the cultural encounter, which is characterized by a sense of confusion that results when aspects of the old culture are compared with aspects of the new, host culture. The discrepancy that results from the comparison may lead to feelings of disorientation, loss, mourning, and helplessness. Often in these situations, aggression becomes a defense against helplessness, which may explain Juans acting-out behaviors. If these feelings of aggression are projected outwards, some aspects of the new, host culture may be perceived as persecutory. Juans persecutory feelings and his feelings of helplessness and social alienation may serve to explain why he joined a gang. The gang provided him with a peer group that offered protection and also validated his feelings and his defensive acting-out behaviors. ACCULTURATION ACROSS HISTORY: CHANGING VIEWS The history of the United States is a history of immigration. The massive migrations that have shaped the identity of the United States throughout its history as a nation have often given rise to nativist movements, whose goal has been to stop or decrease immigration. Los Angeles Mission College NUFS 144 Challenges an Immigrant Faces Discussion Paper They are led by the previously settled inhabitants, who perceive a threat to their established customs, or fear competition in their job markets. These fears are often enhanced by the high fertility rates found among immigrant minority groups and lower fertility rates found among the more established groups.18 These historical events contributed to the notion that the best way to enter into the American culture was to assimilate, totally renouncing the culture of origin and immediately becoming 685 686 Rothe et al American. This model applied well to immigrants arriving from Europe in the 1800s and into the twentieth century. Most of these immigrants had similar ethnic characteristics and often Americanized their names, forming the American melting pot. The term acculturation was first used in 1936 by a group of anthropologists of the Social Sciences Research Council, and became an issue of wide discussion after the burgeoning refugee and immigrant resettlement crisis generated after World War II.19 The acculturation process causes change not only in the immigrant but also in the receiving culture, leading to a process of interculturation. Immigrants often choose one of several acculturation strategies: (1) cultural maintenance (choosing to what extent cultural characteristics are important to maintain), (2) cultural participation (determining how they participate with members of the host culture, or remain among themselves), (3) integration (equivalent to assimilation), and (4) marginalization (choosing to segregate themselves from the host culture).5 The United States is an ethnically complex society, so rather than understanding acculturation as a uniform and linear phenomenon, Portes and Rumbaut20 have proposed the concept of segmented acculturation. Their research has mapped segments of immigrants with different patterns of acculturation in the United States, whose differences are determined by factors that are intrinsic to the immigrant, as well as factors that are intrinsic to the particular area of the host country to which the immigrant has arrived. For example, an immigrant from a rural area in Cambodia arriving in Oregon has a different acculturation experience to that of an Eastern European professional arriving in a northeastern American city to further his profess Get a 10 % discount on an order above $ 100 Use the following coupon code : NURSING10
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