Socializing Children Into Immigrant Communities

There are lots of different types of families in America because of its diversified culture. Children grew up in different families may be influenced by different elements including family, education, community and so on. U.S.-born children with immigrant parents are facing much more challenges from the very beginning of their life than children with American parents. The society which as a whole system includes several layers impactng each other and influenceing children living in it. However, when these children who have immigrant parents grow up, they will become the subject of this society. Their subject value

Growing up with parents who are immigrants can present many obstacles for the children of those immigrants. There are many problems people face that we do not even realize. Things happen behind closed doors that we might not even be aware of. Writers Sandra Cisneros and Amy Tan help us become aware of these problems. Both of these authors express those hardships in their stories about growing up with foreign parents. Although their most apparent hardships are about different struggles, both of their stories have a similar underlying theme.

Immigrant children endue a great deal of stress. This stress is created as a result of leaving familiar people and places and entering a new place with a different culture and language. During this process, many immigrant children struggle to re-establish themselves as they enter the United States. These children need to feel connected and accepted because these are important factors of child development. For children who do not feel connected with their peers, family, or school may have an increased risk of suicide, school failure and drop-out, and criminal activity.

In Hector Tobar’s book The Barbarian Nurseries, the labeling that occurs is that of undocumented immigrant as criminal. The book, while fiction, illustrates how the concept of the “good immigrant” and the “bad immigrant” come into play in societal structures. Because of white privilege and

In the essay “Our Fear of Immigrants,” Jeremy Adam Smith writes about why it is we fear immigrants. Smith divides his essay with numerous examples and comparisons, through biological, sociological and psychological explanations. As unorthodox as it sounds, our hesitation towards outsiders can be explained in various ways we never believed imaginable; in Smith’s investigation, he unveils the bewildering reality about the contrasts between ourselves, as adults, and children when it comes to immigration. He begins with a distressful story of a classroom of 4th graders from Berkeley, California, who missed their classmate named Rodrigo when he didn’t return from Christmas break, due to his parents’ expired visa. Rodrigo’s classmates thought that it was so unfair, that they complained to their congressmen. Smith then contrasts this response of empathetic children to unsympathetic adults from Berkeley, California, who protested against immigrants who seek shelter in the U.S for the families. Smith pondered the questions: “Why do immigrants provoke such strong feelings of both empathy and revulsion, a polarization that pits fourth graders in Berkeley against the citizens of Murrieta?” and “What characteristics and qualities do Rodrigo’s classmates possess

From their study, they concluded that there were significant differences in the types of alleged maltreatment that brought children of immigrants to the attention of the child welfare system compared to children of U.S.-born parents (Dettlaff & Earner, 2012). It was also concluded that children in immigrant families are more likely to experience emotional abuse, however, they are nearly eight times less likely to experience physical neglect compared to their U.S.-born parents counterparts (Dettlaff & Earner, 2007, p.

The economic stress is also experienced by the children, where they began to pick up more responsibility in the household which can interfere with their school activities. Family relationships also become strained with the deportation of a parent. Derby (2012) also found that “the threat of deportability affected them profoundly”, causing the children stress and worry. This was applicable to U.S citizens as well as undocumented children. This caused children to worry about what to share about their private lives with the fear of people finding out about their parents undocumented status. This also caused conflicts with the child’s self of identity given that some stated to be “proud that either they or their parents were from Mexico, [but] few felt proud that they or their parents were immigrants”(Derby, 2012). It was interesting that parents believed their children didn’t understand legality, which the interviews with children “suggested that young children are aware that there are social differences based on legal status at very young ages even if this was difficult for them to articulate” (Derby,

I think that if you are an immigrant child the pressures that are put on you are different than the pressures if you are a child from a middle-class family in America.

This article looks at the impact enforcement policies have had on Mexican families more broadly and children specifically. Drawing on interviews with 91 parents and 110 children in 80 households, the author suggests that, similar to the injury pyramid used by public health professionals, a deportation pyramid best depicts the burden of deportation on children (Dreby, 2012, Pg. 829). At the top of the pyramid are instances that have had the most severe consequences on children's daily lives: families in which a deportation has led to permanent family dissolution (Dreby, 2012, Pg. 829). But enforcement policies have had the greatest impact on children at the bottom of the pyramid. Regardless of legal status or their family members' involvement with immigration authorities, children in Mexican immigrant households describe fear about their family stability and confusion over the impact legality has on their lives (Dreby, 2012, Pg. 829). These children are moved from placement to placement, or from various family members, or various shelters. They do not feel safe a lot of the time or have any sense of stability. On top of all of this they do not feel a sense of belonging or even welcomed due to their alien status, this status can hender their chances of overall life

As depicted in the story, “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario, immigrants from Central America and Mexico migrate due to one of the following reasons; poverty, abuse, or seeking their parents. As mentioned in the book, “...largest number of the unaccompanied children it catches. Of those, the counselors say, 75 percent are looking for their mothers.”(17-18); ultimately, this comes to show that these children which enter the U.S. illegally follow their impulse to seek acceptance from their mother which they feel had abandoned them. Similarly, it reveals that they were unable to get rid of their trauma of getting “left behind” revealing their lack of a parental figure. In all,what differentiates Mexican and Central American immigrants is

I will never forget the day when my childhood nightmares of being kidnapped when i was five years old from my home became true. When I was five years old living in an apartment in Everett one day on a cold night while I was awake I went to go get a drink of water, suddenly as I was in the hallway I saw a large figure with a mask. I just froze,I did not know what to do or how to react, I was so scared I could not say a word and I couldnt do anything or run away, I just froze, I didnt know what was going on.

According to the migrationpolicy.org in 2010 the reports show low-income immigrant children were significantly less likely to make a doctors appointment weather having private or public health care insurance. Of the low-income immigrant children only forty-seven percent, forty-four percent with private coverage and sixty-two percent of public overage over their native-born children that sixty-nine percent, sixty-nine percent with private coverage, and seventy-one and a half percent with public coverage (Ku and Jewers). With the raise in obesity it is very important that they are able to go to the doctors the check their health. Having programs and doctors appointments set up can help them to learn where they need help weather its in their diets or in their exercise. I think having a program at schools can provide a better opportunity for both the children and the parents to have check ups especially when families are raises the rates of obesity.

One of the most impactful questions that was asked “Do you think that the east, west culture gap plays a significant role in the clash of globalism vs culture diversity.” She gives the example of parenting in America is a lot different than the parenting in China. In China parents are allowed to criticize their children when they are doing something wrong. For example if a child was getting fat the parents would tell them they are getting fat. In America parents are not allowed to do this without their children getting offended by the comment and shun their parents. It is essential that parent criticize their children so that they can

Using Wittgenstein’s language games theory, language is acquired by children mimicking the behaviors and responses they see in adults to their own social situation and, by trial and error, determine the successfulness of these reactions and tailor them to better fit each situation they encounter. Monica Moore’s research suggests that coquetting behaviors follows these same parameters. This further emphasizes the influence of social and cultural forces on coquetting behavior, mirroring the profound influence social and cultural factors have on language. Furthermore, the additional factor that coquetting behaviors and emotional expression vary cross-culturally confirms the premise that these behaviors are socially conditioned, and though being biologically inherited, are shaped and expressed by the constraints of the culture(s) the user has experienced and developed in.

In the book Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global Age, Jacqueline Bhabha writes about the implications deporting immigrants has on the idea of nuclear families. She references conclusions made by Jean Piaget, a famous developmental psychologist, about the negative impact children feel caused by separation from their parent or parents. Piaget states that the presence of parents is “essential for a child’s development of morality” (Bhabha 20). Research about the impact of separation with regards to immigrant children who are eventually reunited with their parents, reports the complex emotional turmoil experienced by the child or children. Therefore, thrusting a child into the migration process only proves to be more harmful than helpful. Clinical reports reveal considerable negative impacts on children and on family relationships both during and after the “separation phase”. Parents forced to part with their “children may feel guilt, but expect gratitude for the sacrifices that they made for their child, but in reality, the child ends up feeling more anger, and resentment towards the parent for leaving them” (Bhabha