Mental health is a person’s emotional and physiological well-being; some immigrants come to the country hoping for an easier and happier life, however, this is not always the case. As stated previously in lecture, assimilating to a new language, new food, and different cultural norms can be mentally draining. Experiences like exposure to war, death of loved ones, violence, oppression, and torture will likely make one mentally unstable and further complicates the resettlement process. The process of assimilating into a new cultural is mentally taxing to the soul, you are having to throw away all that you know and create a facade in order to be accepted. In my opinion, refugees and immigrants display poor mental health on arrival due to a combination …show more content…
Children tend to have an easier time assimilating than their older counterparts; children are quickly “Americanized,” which can clash with expectations from their own culture. For example, an “Americanized” child may become embarrassed of wearing ethnic clothing once adapting to the designer clothing environment of American youth. Children also learn English at a faster pace than their parents, which taints the parent-child dynamic. Children with disrupted or minimal school education are suddenly thrown in a new educational environment. Various immigrant children struggle to keep up in class, due to different academic standards across different countries. A kid with a poor education may be overwhelmed with an American education, which has a reputation of being top-notched. Those who are unable to speak English, find it impossible to keep up with their peers, parents also may not have the education or language skills to assist their children. When my sister Mavis came to America from Ghana, she was in the 4th grade, she ended up having to repeat 4th grade because she knew almost no English and could only speak …show more content…
It is natural to believe that a language barrier will alter job prospects because in America, not being able to correct speak English creates the impression of being inferior to others. There are also other refugees who were not able to obtain the teachings necessary to speak with correct grammar and lack the qualifications required to land a professional position. Employers prefer work experience within the United States, and degrees/certifications outside of the US are sometimes not held in the same regard (“Employment”
First, they have high physical health need as a result of conditions such as poverty and abuse that may existed in their origin country or the difficulties they face during their journey from their home country. They are at risk of ill-health and need special health care when they reach their destination country and through resettlement. On the other hand, as they may be carry contagious disease they should be screened and quarantined to guarantee the health of host population (Lawrence & Kearns, 2005; Grove & Zwi, 2006). Moreover, it has proved by many studies that mental health problems are their main health concern. Most of them experienced violence, war, and torture in their home country before migration. Before reaching to the host country they were struggling to survive and they experience high level of stress and anxiety during resettlement. (Lawrence & Kearns,
Immigrants relocate to North America for a variety of reasons, however many parents relocate for a better lifestyle and to provide their children with a better education. On the other hand, parents face many challenges after relocating to North America. Language barriers and the lack of education sometimes require families to live in poverty after moving to North America. According to Arens, Clevengers & Haynes (2004), immigrants face many obstacles such as living in poverty and difficulty finding work. Some immigrants may not speak English which hinders them from finding employment or finding housing to support their families. Parents may lack education which can be difficult for them to find a sufficient salary to provide the families with their basic needs.
→ Undocumented immigrants faced much kind of challenges among them; one of main difficulties arises from languages. For example difference between American slang and formal English. Likewise Jose Antonio describes in the video difference between “ what’s up? Where he replied “the sky”, if I were in his place I would have replied it as same way like he did. Also another challenged would be bullying by classmate they will make fun of your accent, if you have notice most immigrant kids won’t talk in front of the whole class because if they answer question asked by teacher they have to repeat several times so that teacher can understand fear of rejection, embarrassment and later bullying from you classmate outside of class. This why most immigrant
Due to socioeconomic, cultural, and, after the past few election cycles in the United States, political adversity that immigrants have to endure, it is not surprising that some immigrant populations, namely the working poor, manifest various mental health issues at higher rates than the rest of the population. According to much research, "evidence is overwhelming that certain immigrant groups. . . suffer a greater incidence of schizophrenia" also noting that the "risk increases with length of residence in the host country and the risk is even more severe in the second generation" (Whitley 1073). There are a number of pre-migratory, post-migratory factors that also include factors associated with the process of migration that most likely increase the incidence of mental health issues in immigrants, namely persecution, poverty, violence, famine, drought and other traumatic events that in addition to potentially arduous journeys to reach their destination and post-migratory factors included in the term "marginalization" that make it easy to see why immigrants would have a higher incidence of psychopathology like schizophrenia, developmental disorders in children, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety (Whitley 1073). Many of these issues compound after migration has taken place to manifest what has been called "social defeat." According to Whitley, "social defeat is an umbrella term that refers to various sociocultural (and economic) acute events and
The schools, acting as an important agent of socialization, expose students to diversity. When immigrant children, legal or illegal, begin attending the schools, the diversity only grows. In addition to bringing diversity, the children also bring needs that the schools sometimes have trouble providing for. For example, some children are not able to speak English fluently and need special attention from ESL teachers in order to succeed in school. Also, some children come to the United States with a poor education due to the lack of adequate schooling in their home country. Therefore, these children come to the United States needing to catch up. With the growth of immigration rates, the education system is feeling more and more pressure to provide for the needs of a growing number of immigrant
When a first generation immigrant begins school at the elementary level, all the other kids and students are more accepting towards them. The reason they are accepting is because they do not understand or are unaware of the social differences that exist between them. First generation immigrants entering into this situation have very little issues with their status, and they will have more time to adapt to their new environment. Although these issues could arise later on in their lives.
I was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and live in the U.S. I went to Lowell High School and took all ESL because I didn’t know much about English. In order to succeed, I started to read and speak more English than my first language, yet I speak Khmer at home because my parent doesn 't want me to lose my native language. In America, there are a lot of immigrants that are trying to come and to get a better opportunity. According to Joel Swerdlow, in “Changing America,” “before 1965 more than three-quarters of all immigrants to the U.S. came from Europe, owing largely to quotas that favored northern Europeans.” (313). In 1965 Congress removed those quotas, and since then more than 60 percent of immigrants have come from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Latin America. However, do children of immigrants often feel they must lose their cultural identity in order to be American? Children of immigrants often feel they must lose their cultural identity because they are changing their own culture identity regarding three topics: Language, Dress, and Behavior.
Immigrant children are faced with myriad problems stemming from cultural, social, and economic reasons, as well acculturation and adaption. Irrespective of many programs that are currently offered to assist in language development of immigrant children, overall, the majority of immigrant children struggles financially and experience social trauma associated with geographic relocation and cultural sock.
When immigrant families move into the U.S. the culture shock is significant. Families can easily become overwhelmed by their need to fit in. This is especially true for young children. It is easy for the kids to get caught up in the American way of life, and because of this, the culture can be forgotten. That is why the adults in these families need to enforce their cultural norms on their children, so they can make sure that their culture is not forgotten.
In the article “Mental Health and the Refugee Family” The author Steven M. Weine discusses mental health treatment for refugees and their families. Weine makes his case in favor of family based mental health treatment. He goes on to state that due to a lack of studies in family therapy with refugees, as well as mental health workers’ bias not much has been done to develop this benefit of counseling.
abroad where the work is available and the cost of living isn't rising.Hence, they can improve their social situation. Dummet,P.(2013)admitted that immigrants went in to building a new life and how their descendants now feel a duty to honour their efforts by working hard too .He also give two Queens residents’ stories about that ;Richard&Tanja.Some families leave their countries to access to good education. In the last few years there have been a number of studies examining the adaptation of immigrant children in schools. Suárez-Orozco characterizes their findings by saying that immigrant children today fit pattern of school adaptation.Someimmigrant children do quite well in school, surpassing U.S.-born children in grades,standardized test scores, and attitudes toward education.Other immigrant children tend to overlap with U.S.-born children, and yet others tend to achieve below their U.S.-born peers.
Some of these issues include education, communication, and assimilation. The public school systems of the U.S. today are inadequate enough, without the hassle of trying to cope with immigrants. Assuming that the immigrant children are bilingual(most of which are not), they will still have much trouble adjusting to the curriculum, and most likely will need to be taught in separate classes; this requires more teachers, space, and desperately needed money. It can not be expected of teachers, the backbone of society today, to coach all immigrants through their troubles, and set aside extra class time to the soul purpose of further explaining matters to the ignorant immigrants. A large percentage of these immigrants will drop out of high school, about 33.1% of recent immigrants.
For immigrant families, their children might feel pulled in several directions. When families struggle with civic-political assimilation, it affects their children in the classroom. As a teacher, it is important that I educate my students while respecting their family values. However, in this family’s particular situation, the daughters might have struggled to learn the English language since they were only practicing it at school. I have experienced conferences with parents who do not speak any English, and this creates difficulties for the children because they are unable to give or get support from their parents regarding academics. As a teacher, I need to do my best to teach my students what I can without stepping on their parents’ toes. It is not my job to interfere with family values and beliefs, but it is my job to help my students
This cultural psychology course paper aims to discuss and analyze a topic of particular importance. Specifically, the focus of the paper will be on the effect of stress on the mental health of immigrants, which is a particularly relevant and important topic on which to gain more insight within the context of Canada’s increasingly diverse society. Accordingly, it is integral that psychology be able to better understand and accommodate the needs of various people from different cultural background that have a different set of needs based on these different environmental factors.
According to George et al (2015) many migrants experience prolonged period of low income and social exclusion. World Health Organisation (WHO) states that a person’s mental health and many common mental health disorder are shaped by social, economic and physical environments and social inequalities. Research points to the effect poverty, unemployment, financial insecurity and economic hardship on psychological health of migrants. Fassil and Burnett (2015) suggest that racial discrimination and immigration process may impact on mental wellbeing of migrant. High risk of homelessness and destitution creates circumstances that further exacerbates the fragile mental health of most