What would you do if you loved a place so much that you wanted to live there, but it would be difficult to establish a peaceful life? The United States has several pull factors that can attract visitors, some being that it is a beautiful country with a wide range of environmental diversity, and it is also often seen as the "land of opportunities" because of the potential for people to build a life here with their families. However, immigrants who move to the U.S. often face challenges that affect their moving experience. This of course cannot be said about every immigrant's experience, but it is known that building a life here is not easy by any means, especially if one were to move illegally. The negative effects of a difficult move are often …show more content…
Moving to a new country and having to face difficult challenges without others to rely on can take a toll on a person’s mentality and well-being. Although there is a constant reminder about immigrant struggles, others argue that the “struggles” are exaggerated, that immigrants take opportunities from U.S. citizens, or they were taught by their families to perceive immigrants a certain way. How one is taught or chooses to perceive immigrants is up to them, but it shouldn’t have to affect immigrants, especially in a hurtful way. With the numerous hardships immigrants encounter while moving into the U.S., it is crucial for us to acknowledge the negative effects most immigrants go through. Literature Review The decision to move to a new country can be a significant leap that often requires significant adjustment time. Applying for citizenship is typically considered the most acceptable and safest option for gaining entry …show more content…
The sacrifices made by immigrants to embark on a new journey can have a significant impact on their mental health, causing feelings of loneliness, isolation, and depression. According to the American Psychological Association (2012), when an immigrant moves to a new country, they go through acculturation. Acculturation is the wide number of changes in one’s cultural identity, language, lives, and overall connection with their home country. These changes would then affect how an immigrant child will depend on their parents for any demonstration or explanation of their culture. In areas of the U.S. where one’s culture may not be as involved as others, this results in the discontinuance of tradition, which then often leads to loss of cultural identity. The loss of cultural identity that immigrants experience when they are forced to abandon significant aspects of their culture to fit in with the dominant culture can have serious implications on their mental health. This is because cultural identity is a crucial part of an individual's self-concept, and losing it can lead to feelings of confusion or isolation. Attempting to fit into the dominant culture can also be overwhelming, resulting in a sense of disconnection from one’s roots. Cultural identity is only one of the many sacrifices some immigrants have chosen to give up. To provide a testament to the impact of the
In Marcelo M. Suarez- Orozco and Carola Suarez- Orozco’s article “How Immigrants became “other” Marcelo and Carola reference the hardships and struggles of undocumented immigrants while at the same time argue that no human being should be discriminated as an immigrant. There are millions of undocumented people that risk their lives by coming to the United States all to try and make a better life for themselves. These immigrants are categorized and thought upon as terrorist, rapists, and overall a threat to Americans. When in reality they are just as hard working as American citizens. This article presents different cases in which immigrants have struggled to try and improve their life in America. It overall reflects on the things that immigrants go through. Immigrants come to the United States with a purpose and that is to escape poverty. It’s not simply crossing the border and suddenly having a great life. These people lose their families and go years without seeing them all to try and provide for them. They risk getting caught and not surviving trying to make it to the other side. Those that make it often don’t know where to go as they are unfamiliar. They all struggle and every story is different, but to them it’s worth the risk. To work the miserable jobs that Americans won’t. “I did not come to steal from anyone. I put my all in the jobs I take. And I don’t see any of the Americans wanting to do this work” (668). These
America is a land filled with immigrants coming from different corners of the worlds, all in hopes of finding a better life in the country. However, No one had an easy transition from his or her home country to this foreign land. Not every race thrived the same way—some were luckier than others, while some have faced enormous obstacles in settling down and being part of the American society. Many people have suffered
Migration has been found to have negative effects on mental health because of circumstances surrounding the move, circumstances of the actual passage, trouble adapting to the new culture, breaks in the migrant’s support system of friends and family, and disappointed expectations of social and economic acquisition.
The process of acculturation “a social and psychological process of change when one culture comes in contact with another” does not directly affect mental health but the process can be stressful, even if positive over negative, or a mix of the two. If the process is positive such as “improving one’s life” while challenging may not have a negative effect or be as stressful in the next case where … if the process of acculturation is negative, the process may be stressful making for acculturative stress (Tafoya, 2011). And in the case of a latino/a coming into the United States there are several potential factors leading to stress. Those may include discrimination, whether perceived and/or direct and may come in the form of unfair treatment (Among others) and language barriers. Again, many potentially stressful issues that come with one culture coming in contact with another, and the process of becoming accustomed to a new culture (Torres, Driscoll, & Voell, 2012).
Immigration has changed majorly over the years. The system that the immigrants go through has evolved into a simpler system over the decades. Also the family life of the immigrants has become much more supported, as opposed to back when it brutal and children were sent to work right beside the adults. The living conditions and job opportunities of the immigrants have transformed into a healthier environment, and the challenges they faced have become easier to handle. Immigration has been the key to success in some cases, but in others their stories are harsh and hard to hear. The transformation that immigration has gone through over the past century is tremendous and should be recognized by all.
My mother, who manage to speak broken English, and I, immigrated from Mongolia at the age of seven to meet my mother after being separated, live together now. We do not receive any help from relatives or the government. Last year, 2016, as I lived with my single mother, we truly defined the struggles of a first-generation immigrant family. She lost her job three times and each time, it made the financial burden grew to be bigger and bigger till it peered over us. The rent payments accumulated. This brought upon our family of two great difficulty to meet our daily needs such as food and even rent payments. As we were stumbling out of the debts due to unemployment, my mother got into a car accident and which helped us plummet further into poverty.
Pawliciuk, Nicole, M.A., Natalie Grizenko, M.D., FRCP(C), Alice Chan-Yip, M.D., FRCP(C), FAAP, Peter Gantous, M.A., Jane Mathew, and Diem Nguyen. "Acculturation Style and Psychological Functioning In Children of Immigrants." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 66 (Jan. 1996): 111-121.
A sudden change in one’s surroundings can result in culture shock. Culture shock refers to the anxiety and surprise a person feels when he or she is discontented with an unfamiliar setting. The majority of practices or customs are different from what a person is used to. One may experience withdrawal, homesickness, or a desire for old friends. For example, when a person goes to live in a different place with unfamiliar surroundings, they may experience culture shock. Sometimes it is the result of losing their identity. In the article “The Phases of Culture Shock”, Pamela J. Brink and Judith Saunders describe four phases of culture shock. They are: Honeymoon Phase, Disenchantment Phase, Beginning Resolution Phase, and Effective Function Phase. These phases denote some of the stages that exemplify culture shock. The four phases are illustrated in the articles “New Immigrants: Portraits in Passage” by Thomas Bentz, “Immigrant America: A Portrait” by Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut, “When I Was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago, “Today’s Immigrants, Their Stories” by Thomas Kessner and Betty Boyd Caroli, and lastly, “The New Americans: Immigrant Life in Southern California” by Ulli Steltzer, and are about the experiences of some immigrants. This essay will examine the four phases of culture shock and classify the experiences of these immigrants by the different phases of culture shock identified.
In prior researches (Kataoka et al., 2003; Beehler et al, 2011), there are significant problems among immigrant children, especially mental health problems. Immigrant children could have pre-migration trauma, being undocumented, and most importantly language problems. So, developing strategies to help immigrant children acculturate effectively would be necessary. There is also a study which suggests that unstable immigrant status increases a child’s risk for psychological and behavioral problems, such as anxiety disorders, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and eating disorders (Pumariega et al. 2005). Moreover, most of literature mentioned that lots of immigrant children experience various problems as learning a new
Social Issues In the book “Illegal, Life and Death in Arizona’s Immigration War Zone” by Terri Greene Sterling, one of the major social issues presented is immigration. Immigration is a prominent national issue, and the undocumented population is growing rapidly in our nation for many reasons, one being that Mexicans can’t afford to live in Mexico because of lack of employment and good pay. They want to escape poverty and oppression. The minute immigrants come to America, they start contributing to the economy. Indeed, a recent study showed that in all their different roles in the U.S, immigrants make vital contributions to the economy.
When it comes to immigration many things comes to a person mind. There are many things that an immigrant faces when he/she decides to migrate to another country. For instance, for an immigrant moving is not an easy thing to do they will have to leave everything behind and start over again in a whole different country than their own native country. At first is going to be hard because they do not know anyone, they do not speak the language. The parents will have to look for a house and also look for a job to support their family and learn how to survive in what seems like a different world. These are some of the problems that immigrants face when coming to the United States.
Generally, when one moves to a new place that is so unfamiliar to them, there is a potential risk that he/she undergoes culture shock – the feeling of disorientation due to being subjected to an alternative way of life. What forms an immigrant’s conclusion as to whether or not it was the right option to move is his/her overall exposure to all aspects that the new country has to offer. Social, political, and structural norms in the United States are very different from those of another country. In this paper, I will address my close friend Lucie Lebeau’s immigration story and her experiences with a wide variety of
In the September/October 2012 issue of the journal Child Development, section “Immigration and Academics” by Dr. Lingxin Hao, who looks over first, second, and third generation of kids with immigrant descent and their outcomes on their education, social and behavioral outcomes. Dr. Hao found out that “there are distinct pathways involving children’s academic achievement, school engagement and depression that lead to how youths fare as young adults.” (1465). Additionally Dr. Hao also found that children of immigrants have “an advantage in the transition to adulthood compared to children of native-born Americans” (1465). They tend to follow what is better for themselves and their family, reaching for the best trajectory in academic achievement and the best trajectory in school engagement.
Challenges Faced by Immigrants The changing environments throughout the ages have caused the movement of thousands of families out of their homelands. Whether forced to make such decisions or doing so by their own desires, all immigrants have had to survive the physical and psychological challenges encountered along the way. To speak about the experiences of all these different people using the same ideas and examples would be quite inaccurate. They all, however, had to live through similar situations and deal with similar problems.
Acculturation Migration influences the life cycle of individuals as well as families in multiple ways. Most immigrants endure several expected or unexpected transitions in the midst of a changed physical, social, and cultural landscape (Carter & McGoldrick, 2011); and immigrants often experience disadvantages when they try to become involved in mainstream cultures. A disadvantaged position can negatively influence all stages of the life cycle, such as overall behavior, health behaviors, health outcomes, social performance, and family stability (Carter & McGoldrick, 2011). Furthermore, ethnic minority populations such as immigrants usually have great pressure caused by social, economic, and political contexts while they are adjusting to the transitions and norms in mainstream culture (Zane & Mak, 2003).