The Transformation of Immigrant Parents and Children

1789 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Positive and negative impacts of migrations

Immigrants are defined as people who permanently move to a forgiven country from their origin country. Immigrants can move for the purposes of seeking better living, better education, or in order to avoid any sort of issues in their origin country. Despite the reasoning behind the decision of the movement, an immigrant will be affected by the change of culture, way of life, social system and community. The process of the movement effects each individual differently depending on their, age, gender and their level of connection to their past culture. Having that said, the younger the age of the individual, the more venerable and easily they become to changing their way of life in order to feel a part of a community. Gender however is also related to the race of the person. To elaborate, females and black males are more open to the idea of changing any of their factors to adjust to their ‘new society’. An individual’s connection with their past culture, has a great impact on their personality and their standing and belief in their values, morals and culture. Therefore, the stronger and deeper the connection with their original culture and way of life, the more satisfied the individual becomes. Therefore, they don’t feel the urge to compete with another culture. Therefore, their current standing with their own culture has a strong impact on their future judgment on other culture. The weaker the connection the more prone they are to changing their current culture. Thus, an individual’s stability level towards their culture depends on other factors that are concerned with them. [Different age groups are faced with different situation that leads them to deal with different issues and therefore they are exposed to different kinds of expe...

... middle of paper ...

... culture and they become a combination of both. Therefore it’s a culture within a culture. Immigrant youth are more satisfied changing their ‘old’ culture to adjust to the new one, however parents are more hesitant to do so. This transformation causes a lot of tension within the family.

Works cited

Akhtar, S. (2011). Immigration and acculturation: mourning, adaptation, and the next generation. Lanham, Md.: Jason Aronson.

Family and gender among American Muslims: issues facing Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendants. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

James, D. C. (1997). Coping With A New Society: The Unique Psychosocial Problems Of Immigrant Youth. Journal of School Health, 67(3), 98-102.

Zhou, M. (1997). Growing Up American: The Challenge Confronting Immigrant Children And Children Of Immigrants. Annual Review of Sociology, 23(1), 63-95.

Show More
Related

  • Of Gogol's Assimilation, Misidentification, And Cultural Restoration

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    I am not a child of immigrants, but maintaining one’s culture is a universal struggle in a land far from one’s ethnic origins. Lahiri suggests that without cultural connections such as family and friends, one’s culture can simply vanish if they are not in the land of ethnic origin. I have found this to be true within my own

    Read More

  • Ronald Kaki's A Different Mirror By Ronald Takaki

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Enrique's Journey

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    For immigrants, reuniting with parents who left them is a huge problem in the U.S. Children who reunite with their parents after many years have a lot of problems with the parents. The parents and children tend to argue, the children have buried anger, and both have an idealized concept of each other. According to Los Angeles’s Newcomer School, a school for newly arrived immigrants which is referenced in Enrique’s Journey, a bit more than half of want to talk to the counselor about their problems. The main problem Murillo, the school’s counselor, says is mostly family problems. Murillo says that many parent-child meetings are all very similar and identical to each other. Some of the similarities are that idealized notions of each other disappear, children felt bitter before going to the U.S., and that many children have buried rage. Mothers say that the separations between them and child was worth it because of the money earned and the advantages in America. However, many children said that they would rather have less money and food if it meant their mothers would stay with them.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Outcasts United

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most people want to feel like they fit in, but for refugees and immigrants, that feeling was even more important. “Young refugees and immigrants... were caught between the world of their parents and the new world of their friends and schoolmates” (105) and had to choose whether they would vie for the approval of their peers or their family. One young boy on the Fugees soccer team refused to cut his hair because his peers thought it was cool, and ended up being kicked off the team (111). Other young refugees in Clarkston gave in to the allure of gangs, and ended up in a cycle of violence and crime, just for a sense of belonging and safety. “Gangs… promised both belonging and status”(105) and provided a way to become American, despite all the trouble and anguish they put their members in. As adolescents between worlds, young immigrants experience a heightened sense of liminality, when a person “becomes neither here nor there” (221), and struggle with finding out who they are and where they

    Read More

  • Immigrant Parent Families

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    Family dynamics present interesting revelations, especially regarding the relationship between parents and children. While most families undoubtedly encounter dysfunction at some point throughout life, immigrant families seemingly experience such stress continually. A handful of short stories, including “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, “Who’s irish” by Gish Jen, and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” by Yiyun Li, demonstrate how strained relations erupt in immigrant families. Familial tension noticeably arises because of the immigrant parents’ inability to fully adjust to the American way of life. Further, immigrant parents adhere to strict expectations in an attempt to uphold the family’s conservative heritage. Finally, immigrant parents typically

    Read More

  • The First Generation Of The Children Of Immigrants

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    I have to introduce you to three individuals, not random individuals, but siblings - two brothers and a sister. They may seem just like any other people, but they have a secret that isn’t easily realized unless you know them. They belong here in the sense that they were born here, but their hearts belong to another land. They are the children of immigrants; the first generation to be born in America. It is a unique experience that to others may seem odd or exotic, but for these three is just as normal as learning to ride a bike.

    Read More

  • Sexism In The Hull House

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...experiences with new immigrants influenced the theories developed by academic in the fields of education, sociology, and social psychology.” (Lissak 7)

    Read More

  • Immigrant Parents Essay

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    We don’t realize how hard it is for immigrant parents to get their children education, and we judge and hate on something we have never been through. I guess it’s true you never know someone’s pain unless you go through it. Not everyone has the same privileges as others, some have to work twice as hard to try to give their children an opportunity towards an education on the contrary some American families have it simpler. I not blaming people who have families who were born here or say it’s wrong, but many people tend to affront children of immigrant parents and feel like they have the equitableness to say they aren’t suitable to receive public education.

    Read More

  • Four Stages of Culture Shock Faced By Immigrants

    1688 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 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.

    Read More

  • Immigration Identity: Acculturation and Complex Mental Status

    1711 Words  | 4 Pages

    Immigration is a complex process that results in a transformation of identity. Depending on contextual, individual, and societal differences this transformation can have either positive or detrimental results. Initially, the immigrant will be faced with an intense culture shock while settling into a new country. During this time, cognitive functioning becomes increasingly jumbled amidst the new context, resulting in immense identity confusion. This process of acculturation involves two specific issues regarding identity for each individual. These two issues include the delicate balance between remaining ethnically distinct by retaining their cultural identity and the desire to maintain positive relations with the new society. A variety of risk factors can contribute to the success or failure at effectively acculturating. Thus, those that directly experience more risk factors experience an even more delicate and complex transition often resulting in high levels of stress, confusion, social anxiety, and declined mental health.

    Read More

  • Immigrants Into America

    3181 Words  | 7 Pages

    Since the creation of the United States of America, immigrants from all backgrounds have sought refuge, a home and a life in this country of prosperity and opportunity. The opportunity of freedom to exercise natural rights is a large pull factor that causes many people to come to America. Others come because it is a country where one can prosper. Prosperity of people in a country, however, is a more challenging phenomenon to explain than opportunity. Immigrants seek economic, social and educational as well as cultural prosperity. The question of how to gain such prosperity is a difficult one to answer. Some immigrants come to America, cast off their past identity and attempt to find a new, less foreign one. By assimilating to American culture with this new identity, they start a long and treacherous journey to seek prosperity in a land vastly different from the one they once called home. Many will gain educational, economic and social prosperity, but never gain cultural prosperity. Assimilating to American culture so hastily, some immigrants are never able to explore and keep up with their cultural backgrounds. Their families grow up and became Americans, never cognizant of their given up ethnic identities. Those immigrants, however, who are able to gain cultural prosperity through the help of other immigrants of their respective background, become integrated into American society while keeping their ethnic identity. This is the sort of opportunity that the United States of America has provided new arrivals since its founding. Although many immigrants become overwhelmed with American culture and assimilate into it, those who contribute to a working ethnic society are able to dela...

    Read More

  • Integrative Essay

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    Orellana, M. F. (2009). Translating childhoods: Immigrant youth, language, and culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Read More

  • The Misconceptions About Women in Islam

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.

    Read More

  • Becoming An Immigrant As A Father: A Comparative Analysis

    400 Words  | 1 Pages

    Growing up I never perceived myself as different. I knew my father spoke with a thick Middle Eastern accent and was a darker complexion than most, but to me this was normal. However, I knew my dad was unlike any of my other friend’s dads. I also knew that my family structure was vaguely different from most. Being a young child I never anticipated the challenges of having an immigrant as a father might bring. For my dad, coming to the United States from Palestine when he was eighteen years old had to be a life-changing experience. Gaining his citizenship, progressing in life, and starting a family were his top priorities. Speaking now, as a soon to be high school graduate, I can say that my father has fulfilled his goals and continued to prosper

    Read More

  • Immigration In Australia Essay

    1583 Words  | 4 Pages

    Australia is a multicultural country where immigrants from all over the world immigrate to Australia. This research is focused on Australian’s immigrants who play a big role in this society. Immigration carries significant factors that affect the process of adaptation on an immigrant. The significant factors discussed further on are social factors, economic factors and cultural factors. To understand immigration and immigrant it would be explained the meaning of it and the types of immigrants. Answering the Research question, it would also be explained what an immigrant aims to reach by explaining the factors that help to feel settled in a new country. As I’m an immigrant in Australia I personally know how factors affect directly the process of adaptation. During this research I aim to prove how these factors affect the process of adaption. It is intended to make useful recommendations to the host country and to the immigrants in order to adapt to a new country easily. It must be said that not everyone experience the same process of adaptation because everyone is exposed to different factors. Moreover, immigrants may experience more than one factor as one factor can lead to the development of other factor.

    Read More

More about The Transformation of Immigrant Parents and Children

Open Document